Box Break - 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

When I decided to collect the 2009-10 Upper Deck hockey set, I pre-ordered a Series 2 hobby box from Dave & Adam's Card World. The box actually arrived over a month ago, but I only recently got around to scanning in all the cards. To be brutally honest, I'm getting a bit tired of this set, so I'm going to give you the quick and dirty box break, much like Captain Canuck's. You've already seen plenty of Series 1 base here, and series 2 is no different:

One nice thing about Series 2 was pulling some of my first base cards of stars with their new teams, like Marian Hossa. Aside from that though, I think the photography was pretty flat, at least on most of the base cards I pulled. I didn't get any base doubles, but the reason for that is not good. I'll explain below...

I did get my requisite 6 Young Guns rookie short prints. Nobody special here. Logan Couture was taken 9th overall by San Jose just a couple of years ago, but has seen action in only 12 games for the Sharks this year. Unfortunately most of the big name rookies were in Series 1, which is one complaint I have with the set. Not as big an issue as this though:

Once again this year, as has been the case every year since I got back into collecting, Upper Deck was kind enough to include a high series Victory card in every pack of 09-10 Series 2 hockey. I did get some cards I was happy with, like these two. Marchand played a handful of games at the beginning of the season for Boston and is seeing some action again with Savard's recent injury. I was happy to pull the Kane card too, as I missed out on his Young Guns rookie in Series 1. That being said, please stop doing this Upper Deck.

While annoying, I did pull my first John Tavares card as well. That positive was quickly outweighed by this negative though:

This is not a standard Victory high number card, but a gold parallel. Not only do I get cards from a set I have no interest in collecting, but I get parallel cards from a set I have no interest in collecting. Once again, STOP DOING THIS! Okay, now onto the inserts...

Rookie Debut

Verdict: Crap. The idea is alright, but the design is horrible. I only pulled one luckily, and it was Matt Duchene, so I guess I could've done worse.

Playoff Performers

Verdict: Snooze. Could these first two inserts be any more bland?

Hockey Heroes

Verdict: Better. Martin Brodeur was the subject in Series 1, Mark Messier is featured in Series 2. I pulled two of these, this one is my favorite.

Captain's Calling

Verdict: Right back to the crap. Seriously, who would want to collect this insert set?

Draft Day Gems

Verdict: Great. I can't explain why, but for some reason this is the one insert set I actually like. I was glad that this one continued from Series 1. The Gilmour is one of my favorite cards from the box. Finally, the hits:

Samuel Pahlsson High Gloss - These High Gloss inserts are, well...high gloss. They're numbered to 10. I lost an auction for a Krejci on eBay by $.50, and not surprisingly the only seller who has another wants about twice what the first one sold for. Anyway, if a Blue Jackets collector exists out there, which I highly doubt, I'll gladly trade Sammy here.

Ivan Vishnevskiy Rookie Materials - I can count on one hand the number of Dallas Stars games I've watched the last few years, so I have to admit I've never heard of Ivan. Looks like he played just a handful of games for Dallas and was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers before the trade deadline earlier this month. Wouldn't mind parting with this one either...

Tomas Holmstrom Game Jersey - I'm not big on relic cards at all, but I thought this one was actually pretty cool. The Red Wings were huge when I was an impressionable young hockey fan in the 90's, and they're still one of my favorite teams for that reason. Holmstrom is a career Red Wing and has won 4 cups with the team. In closing, the worst two cards in the box:

Seriously? No, really, is this a joke? With all due respect to the sport of ice dancing, this seems ridiculous. Is Ice Dancing a popular sport with hockey fans?

Well, I'm just going to come right out and say it. That box sucked. My opinion of Upper Deck's hockey releases has taken a serious hit after ripping this box. I don't even think I would bother trying to finish this set if I wasn't already so far into it. It's insulting that they cram one unwanted Victory card into every damn pack. Because of this I'm still missing a significant chunk of the base set and have no base doubles to trade either. On top of that, if I'm going to spend $60 on a hobby box, it would be nice if they put just a little effort into the inserts.

I've hand collated the base Upper Deck hockey set each year since getting back into collecting, but this was discouraging enough that I may have to rethink my strategy. Maybe next year I'll just buy a base set on eBay and save my time and money.