This past week when Pinnacle
stopped by our chat room to discuss
their cards, I got a chance to ask about their EPIX insert set.
Ever since I bought a pack of Score Hockey from a table on Wall Street
last month and found a Kariya EPIX, I've been somewhat fascinated by the
set. During the chat I clarified that every player should have one
unique variety of card (in three colors) in each new set of Pinnacle cards.
I had found an exception to this rule, which appears to have been just
an error. The real truth is that there is still a lot we don't know
about EPIX, but one thing is for sure, this is not a small set.
EPIX is crossing sports and products as we've seen them in baseball, football, hockey, and NASCAR. Baseball and Hockey are broken into four varieties (Play, Game, Season, and Moment) while Football has just three (no Play). All three sets have 24 players and three color variations making the master set 288 cards in baseball and hockey, and 216 in football. Single player collectors are looking at 12 cards of their favorite player (9 in football) with a couple of those being real tough pulls. So far EPIX has only touched racing with 10 drivers in 97 Certified Racing, but I'd expect we'll see more of it in 98.
Although official production numbers haven't been announced (and might never be), it hasn't taken case breakers long to figure out what's tough and what's easy. The order of type goes Play, Game, Season, and Moment. Orange is the easiest color with Purple and then Green being tougher. Beckett has started pricing the cards and have come up with multipliers for the colors (purples are 1.5x orange and greens are 3x orange) although from what I've seen I believe that greens will be going up. While I've seen many purples (and a ton of orange) EPIX offered for sale, I've noticed a distinct lack of greens.
I've spoken out against massive parallel sets in the past, but EPIX
is different. Each type of card is unique, not just because it has
a different name on the front, but because the back of the card describes
a different event in that player's career. The colors don't appear
to make a difference, but they do add a reason for the chase to be more
exciting.
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97-98 Pinnacle Hockey was released this week and in addition to 24 new EPIX cards you've got the chance to find some old standard Pinnacle inserts in a whole new look. Masks are back in regular and die-cut versions, as well as Team Pinnacles matching two great players on a dual front card. Rink Collection and Artist's Proof parallels return and the elusive Press Plates make their hockey debut. The set is 200 cards including 25 rookies and a subset of Signature Moves from the EA Sports video game. |
This was a good week here at Sportscard Report. If you missed our first "Meet the Manufacturer" chat with Pinnacle the good news is you can read the whole chat log to see what you missed. Look for another chance to catch Pinnacle in February as well as some other special chats coming up soon. I've also been trying to spend some time in the chat room each night and especially Sundays from 8-10pm EST. If you want to stop in and talk cards I'll be there. Until next week, good luck with your collection!
CHAT