Pack Rip - 2009-10 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Hockey

When I snagged the pack of Champs hockey at Target the other day, they also had this year's Collector's Choice offering from Upper Deck. I haven't seen much written about this set so I picked up 3 packs to satisfy my curiosity. Only 6 cards per pack, which kind of flies in the face of what Collector's Choice stands for, but at least a pack is only $1.29. Here are the highlights of the 18 cards I received:

#138 - Roberto Luongo - The base cards are about what you'd expect. Sure the design changes slightly from year to year, but overall you can expect it to be boring and largely white.

#150 - Jamie Langenbrunner - At least in my 3 packs, the photography is nothing to write home about. Pretty much all of the base cards are tightly cropped shots with relatively little going on, like you often see in the Fleer Ultra releases for example.

#239 - Chris Butler - Choice Rookie - As you can see, the design for the Choice Rookie cards doesn't differ from the base all that much. I also pulled a Davis Drewiske, who I confess I've never heard of, and who doesn't appear to have seen NHL action since the end of March.

#211 - Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Lidstrom - 3 Star Selections - Choice Reserve - Each 6 card pack contains 1 "Choice Reserve" parallel. These are exactly the same as the base cards but with a silver stamped Choice Reserve logo in one corner. I do like these 3 Star Selections subset cards though, they really remind me of the mid-90's Collector's Choice sets.

#164 - Zdeno Chara - Choice Reserve - One of my 3 Choice Reserve cards was Big Z. I'll probably hang onto this one.

#BH17 - Nashville Predators - Badge of Honor - Here's where I think the set scores some points. Collector's Choice is supposed to be a cheaper set that caters to kids, and the Badge of Honor temporary tattoos do just that.

#SU23 - Evgeni Malkin - Stick Ums - Continuing along those same lines are the Stick Ums stickers. I'm too lazy to look it up but I think these are found 1:4 packs.

Well, that's about it. I won't be collecting this set, but I don't regret spending just $4 for 18 cards either. Any of these are up for trade with the exception of the Chara...