Pack Rip - 2009-10 Upper Deck Champs Hockey (Retail)

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week. Work has been extremely busy, but I guess I am grateful to have a job ultimately. Anyway, it's time I finally posted in April here. I have no plans to buy any hobby boxes of this year's Champs hockey release. After seeing a few box breaks on Puck Junk and Is this a Wasteland...No it's Tampa Bay Sports I just didn't think the hits and parallels were really worth the price of a hobby box. On top of that, I like the look of the base cards but I'm not a big fan of mini cards, which are a huge part of this set. When I saw retail packs in Target recently for $1.99 though, I couldn't resist picking one up so that I could at least see the cards in person. Each retail pack contains 4 cards. Here we go:

#60 - Jason Arnott - Like I said above, I think the base cards actually look great, better than last year's Champs release even. I think the faded blue borders are nice, and the crossed hockey sticks at the bottom of the cards give them a classy look.

#567 - Herbert Hoover - Historical Figures Mini - Herbert was faced with the unfortunate task of serving as President of the United States during the Great Depression. As I stated before, I'm not big on minis nor am I collecting this set, so if anyone needs this let me know and I'll set it to the side.

#41 - Alex Delvecchio - Here's where the pack starts getting a little better. This card is great. I love that the photos are overlayed on an outdoor background, it really adds to the old time hockey feel of the set. Good stuff.

#43 - Jari Kurri - The last card in the pack is actually my favorite. His 1981-82 Topps rookie was one of my favorite cards as a kid. I do wish that they didn't use the exact same wooded background on all of these cards though. Yes, I am aware of how sad it is that I even noticed that.

I gotta say, I would normally cringe at the prospect of paying $2 for just 4 cards, but this pack was actually pretty interesting. I just might have to pick up some more of these. I think retail might be the way to go considering it's the 100 card base set I'm interested in. Coming up later this week will be cards 300 - 399 of the 1990 Topps baseball set (sorry), another hockey pack break, and my card of the month for April, which is a good one!