Have you noticed that sometimes you go weeks without any interesting new products for your favorite sport and then all of a sudden they throw a whole bunch of them at you at once? If you're a hockey card collector then you certainly know what I mean as the recent drought of new products ended abruptly with six new releases in the past three weeks. Pinnacle led the way with Beehive Portraits and Zenith. Upper Deck added SP Authentic and Black Diamond, while Donruss showed us Priority and Pacific finished up with Omega.
For a season that produced some relatively run of the mill hockey cards, it was nice to see some truly original sets finally arrive. If you haven't had a chance to find any Zenith or Priority then you should make a point of hunting down some packs the next time you go to a card shop or show. I'll do my best to give you my thoughts on them here, but this might be one time where seeing is believing.
Pacific Omega
The final of seven NHL releases for Pacific's first year of hockey is more of the same, but still not boring. Pacific Omega consists of a decent sized base set (250 cards) and five more creative insert sets consisting of 82 additional cards. As with their other releases, Omega is overrun with parallel sets, but the inserts are as creative as ever. Look for the Game Face d/c Cel Fusions as you get a great look at players with their headgear on including a clear plastic face guard that looks great. I look forward to next year with Pacific as I'm hoping that they will cut back on parallels and keep up the good work with the inserts.
Pinnacle Beehive Portraits
Pinnacle has taken the idea of Beehive Photos (popular large sized hockey photos available from the 30's to the 60's) and modernized it. Each pack of Beehive Portraits has four 5x7 cards of either a modern star, future star, hot rookie, or Hall of Famer. While the set is only 75 cards, the real draw is the autographed cards. With nearly two autographs per box you have a chance of getting a HOFer like Rocket Richard or Stan Mikita, or a future star like Roberto Luongo and Joe Thornton. An insert set (Beehive Team) and parallel set (Golden Portraits) can also be found, but the it's the autographs that will keep people opening packs.
Upper Deck SP Authentic
Continuing their move from the old SP brand to SP Authentic, Upper Deck has released SP Authentic Hockey and once again the word is autographs. Each box has at least one signed card of a NHL star. The Sign of the Times insert set is made up of a wide range of players from Mats Sundin to Wayne Gretzky, but each name is one a hockey fan will easily recognize. In the Mark of a Legend set, the odds get tougher, but the players get more exciting with Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers signing numbered cards. Traditions match two players signing one card (at even tougher odds). In addition to this you can find SP Authentics trade cards which are good for Upper Deck Authenticated signed hockey memorabilia from Wayne Gretzky.
Upper Deck Black Diamond
Every year Upper Deck seems to find a way to get one set out that's loaded with hot rookie cards. This year it looks like Black Diamond is the chosen one. By including the best players from the World Junior Championships we get a great preview of some players destined for this year's draft. The set is similar to last year with the use of a multi-paralleled system of diamonds. This year each of the 150 cards has a quadruple black diamond version limited to just 50 of each player. The Premium Cut insert set is 30 cards in five versions. The single, double, and triple black diamond PC's are joined by two types of quads, vertical and horizontal (known as mystery PC's). In all it's too many parallels, but the great checklist will make Black Diamond a winner.
Donruss Priority
The first of two really unique releases this past week was Donruss Priority. Packaged in a box that looks like a mailbox (complete with a Donruss flag in the up position) you get 15 packs. 10 packs contain a postcard and 5 base set cards, while the other 5 packs contain a stamp and 5 base set cards. Since the stamp packs contain only odd numbered base cards and the postcard packs contain evens, it creates a more difficult base set to put together since half the cards are short-printed.
What makes Priority so unique is the crossover between stamp collecting and hockey cards. The stamps are actually real stamps (produced in Guyana). The 36 postcards match the stamps and even have a place where you can insert the stamp card onto the postcard. Add to these unique collectibles a parallel set (numbered to 100 and die-cut like stamp perforations) and a few nice looking insert sets and you have something that's sure to grab some attention in our hobby.
Zenith
Nothing has collectors talking more this past week then Zenith Hockey. This set marks Pinnacle's introduction of the "Dare to Tear" concept and I'll admit that when I heard of it I thought it would never work. I was wrong. Each $5.99 pack contains three 5x7 cards. The cards are either base cards (80 in all), Impulse parallels, Gold Impulse parallels (numbered to 100), or Z Team inserts (nine different ones). Sounds simple, right? Not exactly. Each 5x7 card contains a regular sized card inside it. Of course if you want to see what's inside you've got to tear the 5x7 card in half. Will collectors really be willing to rip up a perfectly nice 5x7 card on a gamble that something better might be inside?
I stopped in my local card shop this week to see what people were doing. At first most people just checked out who they got in their pack and left it at that. Then a few people (myself included) decided to tear a few open and see who's inside. The first time one of us found a nice insert (I found a Gretzky Chasing the Cup insert) things changed. Now everyone was ripping their cards opened. It was incredible to watch people ripping up a perfectly good Patrick Roy card only to find a common inside. By the time I left I would guess that 80% of the 5x7 cards had been opened.
Pinnacle will soon be using this idea in baseball and football cards so if you don't collect hockey cards (and you think you can resist ripping open a card) then you'll get your chance to feel the urge to take a risk and ruin a card. As one collector said to me "This is like being on Let's Make a Deal and trying to decide whether to see what's behind door number two or keep your $100. Sometimes you find the new car and sometimes it's just a couple sheep". Personally I found more cars than sheep, but you'll have to buy some packs to see how you do.
That wraps up our look at late season hockey card releases. Be A Player is still a week or two away and I'll give you my report on that when it arrives, but look for some serious basketball card coverage in the next week or two as we wait for Skybox E-X2001, Topps Chrome, SP Authentic, and Flair Showcase to finish the NBA season in style.
CHAT