Retail Review - 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1 Tin

2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1 Retail Tin

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Notable Commons:
11 Michal Neuvirth $1.00
15 Roberto Luongo $1.00
26 Steven Stamkos $1.25
80 John Tavares $1.25
99 Carey Price $1.00
126 Taylor Hall $1.25
160 Jonathan Toews $1.00






























Young Guns: 3, 1:6 Packs
203 Greg Nemisz $6.00
207 Brandon Saad $6.00
243 Matt Frattin $12.00












EA Sports Ultimate Team: 2, 1:8 Packs
EA5 Jonathan Toews $5.00
EA12 Dion Phaneuf $3.00














All-World Team: 1, 1:12 Packs
AW23 Patrick Kane $5.00















UD Canvas: 2, 1:6 Packs
C45 Tomas Pickanec $2.50
C80 Roberto Luongo $4.00















Hockey Heroes: 1, 1:12 Packs
HH3 Andy Bathgate $2.50
















Winter Classic Oversized: 1 Per Tin
WC8 Semyon Carlamov $4.00

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Design: 4/5

Pros: Nice clean design with a different face shot on the back and full stats.
Cons: Some of the photos are pretty boring and the silver foil names over white background, while hockey themed, is hard to read.

Set Building: 4/5
Pros: 200 base cards, 50 rookies! Young Guns tend to hold alot of value with collectors.
Cons: The rookies are short printed as they usually are with UD. Thankfully there are no -super shortprints- like with Pinnacle. That value the cards hold will mean lots of $$$ spent finishing your set.

Rookies: 5/5
Pros: 3 Young Guns per tin is pretty decent and they hold alot of value.
Cons: With 50 of them to collect, you'll be spending alot on the secondary market.

Inserts: 4/5

Pros: They have a pretty good variation this year. I really like the Hockey Heroes and the Canvas cards. Whatever they're using for an art filter looks great! The over-sized card looks amazing also.
Cons: EA Sports ads on my cards.

Autos/Relics: 1/5

Pros: None.

Cons: 1:24 Packs for a Jersey, no autos at all inserted. Pretty ugly.

Value: 18/25
I was really impressed when I opened the tin. The first thing you see is the oversized card in plastic. When you take the card out, the packs are inserted into a plastic tray. It really made me feel like I was opening a 'box' and gave alot of value to the pack ripping experience.

I'm a big fan of Young Guns and they where smart enough to put 3 per tin. Just the right number. However I would me much more happy if you got a jersey per tin, especially since there is no chance for an autograph! I might pick up another tin, but I'd really want to hit a jersey or one of the canvas Young Guns next time!

Retail Review - Retro - 2009 Topps Chrome Baseball Blaster Box

2009 Topps Chrome Baseball Blaster Box

8 Packs - $11.98











(click images for larger)










Base Card Design Front and Back



Rookies: 7
180 Phil Coke
181 Jordan Schafer
182 Joe Martinez
183 Trevor Crowe
184 Shairon Martis
200 Rick Porcello
204 Jason Jaramillo

World Baseball Classic Stars: 2
1:4 Packs

W14 Luis Durango
W88 Tai-Chi Kuo







Refractors: 1
1:3 Packs

182 Joe Martinez RC








X-Fractors: 3
1:3 Packs

80 Carlos Zambrano
94 Joe Mauer
191 Ryan Perry RC






Gold Refractors: 1
1:98 Packs

141 Kenji Johjima /50

Design: 5/5

I'm a fan of the 2009 Topps design. It's a clean design with lots of diagonal lines but doesn't get too crazy like recent Panini designs. Lots of information is included on the backs too.

Set Building: 5/5

Topps Chrome is always a decent set to put together. No short prints to search after in the set, and it's a pretty low numbered (although you'd only get 2-4 base cards per pack.)

Rookies: 4/5

I pulled lots of rookies, at least one per pack counting parallels.

Inserts: 3/5

I don't care much for the WBC inserts, and there seems to be alot of them in the set. You can't go wrong with refractors though, and the XFractors are retail exclusive I believe. I got lucky and pulled a gold refractor, too bad it wasn't a Yankee!

Autos/Relics: 1/5

No relics, and autographs are inserted at an insane rate. Such is the fate of retail pack busters! The easiest autograph to pull is 1:308 packs. I can only give the score a 1 because of this.

Value: 18/25

It was a fun break, and I'm glad I got it 40% off. It's nice to get a 'hit' in every pack with a refractor or insert but I kind of miss the days when those where rare (and actually valuable).