Caved and Bought a Blaster - O-Pee-Chee Platinum!

Recently I've been in the mood to rip some wax for a change.  One product I've been interested to check out in particular is the 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee Platinum hockey set.  I've seen a few scans, and even listened to some commentary on the set, and as someone who enjoys a good shiny card I was looking forward to seeing them in hand.  So, when I found myself in Target running some errands the other night I was pleasantly surprised to find two lonely blasters left.  I grabbed the one without the giant dent in one corner...

This is more of a mid-range product, not necessarily all about the hits but certainly a higher price point than your average, run-of-the-mill hockey set.  For $19.99 a blaster nets you 6 packs, with just 4 cards per pack.  Breaks down to over $.80 per card if you do the math.  With so few cards in the blaster I've scanned in all 24 so you can get a good idea of what to expect if you're considering picking one up.

First card in this blaster is Aleksander Barkov of the much-improved Florida Panthers.  The cards, and even the foil wrapper they come in, have a higher end feel to them for sure.  A little bit of curling, like you often see with Topps Chrome baseball, but nothing too drastic.  They're thick, sturdy, and look much nicer in person than the default settings on my scanner would have you believe.

I believe there are 200 total cards in the set, with cards 151-200 being rookies, which you seem to get one of in every pack.  I could have done a lot worse than Adam Lowry for my first rookie of the blaster.  At just 22 years old he appeared in every game but two for Winnipeg last season.

The base cards I like.  These "retro" inserts...not so much.  To me, retro and crazy shiny thick cards don't really go together.  I pulled two of these in my blaster and I'll be looking to trade both of them away.

Last card from the first pack.  Typically, you're getting two regular cards #s 1-150, one rookie #s 151-200, and one insert/parallel per 4-card pack.

Pack 2!

Leading off with a nice Geno Malkin base card.

My second rookie, also 22 years old.  After appearing in 50 games with Montreal to begin the season, he was dealt to Anaheim and finished out the year with the Ducks.

Penguins hot pack.  This is a rainbow parallel.  While it scans much, much better than the base cards do, it doesn't look drastically different in person unless the light hits it just right.  I bet savvy collectors will be finding these in dime bins after they get passed over by greedy case breakers.

Closing out pack 2 is one of my favorite young players, Ryan Johansen.  To compare, Ryan is also just 22 years old.  He's not a rookie though, in fact he's already appeared in 271 career NHL games, registered 2 25-goal seasons and 1 30-goal season, and just set a new career high with 71 points in 2014-15.  He hasn't missed a single game in over two seasons, if he can stay even close to that durable for a few more years he's going to rack up some serious numbers.  He has a legit shot to score his 100th NHL goal this coming season, at 23 years old.

Pack 3...

Third rookie of the blaster, the "lesser Rask".  Kidding, of course.  Victor is also just 22 years old, and managed 30 points for an extremely poor performing Hurricanes team last season.

Normally, the third card in the pack would be your insert or parallel, but it in this case I got a boring old Cody Hodgson base card.

Landing a Crosby to finish off the pack eased that pain for sure.  I don't know if I'd ever try building this set, but I haven't ruled it out either.  If I do go for it, it'll be nice not to have to buy this one as a single.

Pack 4...

One of the weaker rookies in the box, Derrick did get into 34 games with the Pens this year.  I have a feeling injury has a lot to do with that though.  It's interesting that I got the perfect number of Penguins in this blaster to make a "Penguins pack".  Crosby and Malkin base, the Pouliot rookie, and the Fleury parallel.  Destiny maybe.  After all, look who's on the wrapper...

Sweet!!!  These Traxx parallels look fantastic, and more than anything else I was hoping I'd get someone decent when I picked up this blaster.  These aren't serial-numbered, but I think they look nicer than some of the other parallels that are.  To land the best all-around player from my favorite team was just awesome.  This one card really changed how I felt about the blaster on the whole.

Even a Canadien couldn't ruin that pack after pulling that Bergeron.

Pack 5...

Lazar is just 20, but still appeared in 67 games for Ottawa this year.  Pretty impressive.

Here's my other retro insert.  Snooze...

More star power to close out the penultimate pack.

Last pack!

This is actually my second Ty Rattie card believe it or not.  I don't get to see many Blues games, only highlights.  Since Rattie's only suited up 13 total times over the last two years I can honestly say I don't know a thing about him.

Final parallel of the box is this Jason Spezza white ice.  These are serial numbered to 199.  I certainly could have done worse, as I'm a big fan of cards that depict players on teams you don't associate them with.

So, what's the verdict?  Well, I pretty much agree with what I've heard others say.  The cards are nice, I wouldn't mind collecting the base set and the parallels are really cool.  It's just that I don't think they're worth it for the price point.  Not that any modern hockey card is, but I feel like within a couple months you're going to be finding these base cards in dime bins or for the minimum 18 cents listing on SportLots.

Were it not for the Bergeron parallel, I probably would have felt much more discouraged by this purchase.  Overall though, it was fun to rip through.  I don't regret picking it up, but I won't be searching out any more either.

Luckily, I did much better with the lone baseball pack that I picked up along with these.  I'll have that up later this week...