Suckered In - The Final Three Packs

Time to finally finish this 10-pack discount box from Target off.  It took me two entire months to get through the thing, not too shabby for $10.

Today's post features the final three packs, starting off with 2012-13 Score...

I thought Panini's first Score release a couple years before this one was a decent effort, and I really like the 2013-14 Score offering.  This one I had little or no exposure to.  7 cards in the pack...

Pretty bland set, at least that's my first opinion.

I have to wonder at some of the photo selections.  They certainly improved on that in the next set.

See what I mean?

This might actually be my favorite card in the pack.  I guess.

My insert was this First Goal card of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.  I sort of like the first goal concept for an insert set, and this is just my second card of the young Oilers center.

Here's the one-per-pack obligatory Gold parallel.  I pulled this shortly after giving away a Jamie McGinn autograph here on the blog actually.

That pack was a dud, I'm not going to sugar-coat it.  Every single card comes from a team who at the time was in the Western Conference, so being on the East Coast and a fan of the Bruins I haven't seen a whole lot of guys like McGinn, Spaling and Comeau.  Oh well, onto the next pack!

This is more up my alley, I'm a sucker for most anything retro, and we've got #4 Bobby Orr on the wrapper.  The only disappointing thing is that 4 is also the number of cards you get per pack...

One of the game's superstars, and card #1 on the set's checklist, right out of the gate.  This pack is already better than the Score one.  I think these would have looked much nicer if all the photos were black and white (I think there might be a parallel like that?), but what I like best are the backs:

My one (small) gripe is that the team fact should be about the team the player is on rather than just a random team.  Other than that, these look awesome.  To me this is one of those rare cases where a card back is so good it actually outshines the front...

That's one Hall-of-Famer and one lock for the Hall in a four card pack!

In closing a guy who began his career with the Hartford Whalers!  That was certainly an enjoyable pack.

The very last pack of the box was another 32-card rack pack of 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee.  This is the same kind of pack that I began this box with.  I won't show you all 32 cards, but here are a handful of highlights...

I didn't have more than one or two of the 32 cards, so I guess the pack was a win in that sense, although it's not like I'm chasing this set or anything.

My retro parallel was halfway decent, as I pulled Alexander Semin of the Capitals.  He's with the Hurricanes now, and they must be pleased with his play because they inked him to a 5-year contract extension last year to the tune of $35 million.

I had nearly forgotten that Brian Rolston returned to the Bruins for the final 21 games of his career.  Despite the fact that age was clearly taking its toll, Rolston managed an impressive 15 points in those final 21 games, and even contributed a goal and a couple of assists in the playoffs.  Brian's NHL career ended when Joel Ward of the Capitals scored in overtime in game 7 of the first round series between the Bruins and the Capitals that season.

You'll enjoy this card if you're a fan of:
-Vincent Lecavalier
-The Tampa Bay Lightning
-Referees
-Reebok
-Grandmothers

I thought this was an interesting shot of Kiprusoff, and a unique card given that 2012-13 was his final season (although he is on the 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee checklist).

I like these pop-up inserts, though I don't plan to collect the set and I'm not partial to Corey Perry or the Ducks, so will likely trade this one away on Zistle at some point.

T.J. Oshie was a celebrity for about 5 minutes during the past Winter Olympics.

That wasn't so bad I guess.  I've certainly blown $10 on much worse, and spreading these packs out and exercising some patience made this last about two months.  At a buck a pack there's certainly no buyer's remorse anyway, especially when I pulled Crosby, Ovechkin, a new Krejci, trade bait and even a dual relic.  I could see myself picking up another one of these someday, but who knows...