drearick
Upstanding Member,
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2004
- Messages
- 2,089
- Reaction score
- 5
As always, O-Pee-Chee is a fun break at a realistic price. This year was no different (and the price was much nicer than last year's gouging because of Bedard). I broke 11 boxes from 2 different sources (3 different cases) and ended up with some really nice pulls, but before I get to those I must admit the collation is annoying - once you opened the first couple packs you already have a pretty good idea which rookies you're going to get - and that must also translate to the base cards just based on memory knowing I got lots of some players and didn't see others nearly as often. In addition, I had some damage issues with over half of my boxes - it was odd but the third base card from the top in just about every pack had a vertical roller mark down the front - had to have been from the packing process.
As it relates to the rookies - with opening 11 boxes I figured I would get at least one copy of every rookie (there are about 10 rookies per box - so 110 total rookies in 11 boxes), but nope, there were 5 that I didn't get a single copy (including two big ones - Will Smith and Lane Hutson). Lots of other I only got a single copy. As a Penguins fan I obviously wanted to pull a Rutger McGroarty RC -- it took me until box #10 to get my one and only copy of that card. I only got 2 of both Celebrini and Michkov - and they were in the same box both times. Then there were others that I got tons of -- here are the ones that I got at least three copies of:
Five copies - Lucas Cormier, Cutter Gauthier, Brennan Othmann, Sam Colangelo, Declan Carlile
Four copies - Frank Nazar, Phil Kemp, Pierrick Dube, Logan Stankoven, Ivan Fedotov, Logan Morrison
Three copies - Shakhir Mukhamadullin, Jackson Blake, Brian Halonen
Obviously got tons of Retros and Blues (about 5 per box), the 1 red per box (no one special), the usual 3 per box on the OPC Premiers (although I felt like I got very few of the 25 rookies in the set) with a bunch of doubles, and a good selection of Playing Cards (again with some doubles and triples) - but I did get 3 of the 4 Aces (MacKinnon, Kucherov, Matthews x2) and 1 of the Jokers (Youppi!).
As for the Serial Numbered cards I got the expected three in every box - including a couple really nice ones. Here's a quick rundown of all the parallels:
Rainbow All-Stars (#/350): 507 Clayton Keller, 534 Elias Pettersson
Rainbow Marquee Rookies (#/350): 541 Jesper Wallstedt, 546 Cutter Gauthier, 561 Jackson Blake, 565 Seamus Casey, 568 Collin Graf, 574 Matt Rempe, 588 Landon Slaggert
Rainbow Black Marquee Rookies (#/100): 568 Collin Graf
Retro Black (#/100): 33 Brock Boeser, 74 Jesper Bratt (x2), 75 Michael Amadio, 102 Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 147 Trevor Moore, 181 Sean Couturier, 234 Nick Perbix, 243 Vince Dunn, 375 Evgeni Malkin (PC), 392 Robby Fabbri, 422 John Marino, 512 Cale Makar, 532 Nathan MacKinnon
Retro Black Rookies (#/100): 562 Mavrik Bourque, 569 Aku Raty
Orange Parallels (#/25): 40 David Savard, 103 Brock Faber, 147 Trevor Moore, 208 J.T. Compher, 480 Artemi Panarin
It's always tough in big sets like this knowing that chances are against you pulling stars, but it was really nice seeing those two Avs in the Retro Blacks and having two of the five orange parallels be bigger names.
That does leave two more Serial Numbered cards - interesting that they considered the plate one of the three serial numbered cards for the box, but I guess it is technically numbered 1 of 1.
Rainbow Green (#/33): 529 Sidney Crosby (definitely PC!!)
Yellow Printing Plate (1 of 1): 596 Marat Khusnutdinov RC -- no idea who this is but at least it was a rookie plate
With all of those out of the way, let's get to the "big" stuff - the one per box "pulls". I'm gonna try and have some fun with this and rank them from #11 to #1 -- in the comments tell me if you agree with my rankings or if there is something that you think I'm ranking too high or too low:
#10 (tie)
Top Rookie Puzzle Bounty #OPC-4
Top Rookie Puzzle Bounty #OPC-6
I really hate pulling stuff like this where there is zero chance that I'm going to get them all, and even now they're likely to be tough to sell or trade since I'm sure that the first 25 have already been redeemed and no one will be chasing them hard or willing to pay much for them. Would rather have cards of players than these "lottery tickets".
#9
Helmet Off Variant #261 Nazem Kadri
I personally tend to like variant cards and chase them for my team/players, but no offense to Calgary or Kadri fans, but this one is a dud - it will be almost impossible to trade or sell.
#8
Black & White Variant #112 Nikita Kucherov
The player on this one actually isn't that bad, I just really don't care for the Black & White variants - goal celebrations are cool, helmet off or pre-game are fun, but the Black & White ones are just base cards without the color - boring and unoriginal.
#7
First Round Draft Patch #DP-25 Matt Boldy
Player is OK, but I just don't really care for these manufactured patches - some people like them but they're just not for me.
#6
Draft Photo Variant #564 Frank Nazar
That's the problem with rookies, right now this one isn't a card to get super excited about - give it 2 or 3 years and this might be a really good one... or it might be worse than the Kadri. Then again, what are the chances I hold onto it for a few years for it to matter.
#5
OPC Platinum Preview Violet Pixels #P-DP David Pastrnak (#65/99)
I like the fact that the Previews checklist really doesn't leave many options for a bad pull if you're going to get one. Of course getting one lower numbered would be nice, but not a bad one to get.
#4
OPC Platinum Preview Matte Pink #P-AM Auston Matthews (#35/75)
Speaking of a lower numbered variant... and a better player (sorry Mr. Pastrnak). Not a bad hit from a product at a price-point like O-Pee-Chee.
On to the Top Three!
#3
Glo Pee-Chee #GLO-7 Connor Bedard
OK, now we're talking. Nice looking, rare insert of one of the top young players in the game. He might not be as hot right now as he was last season, but I'll take this one and run.
#2
Glo Pee-Chee #GLO-9 Alex Ovechkin
What's better than a super rare insert of a top young player? A super rare insert of the guy who's about to break the record no one thought could be broken. I might be a Penguins fan, but you've got to give Mr. Ovechkin his just due and this is a super pull.
So, what beats a super rare insert of the greatest goal scorer of all-time?
#1
Goal Celebration Variant #24 Connor McDavid
A super shortprinted variant card of the player many consider the best in the game today and probably the one guy who we might be talking about in 10 years the same way we're talking about Ovechkin today.
Well, what do you think of my rankings? Of course everything except my Penguins are available for sale or trade. Let me know if there's anything that interests you. And as always, thanks for the read.
Dave
As it relates to the rookies - with opening 11 boxes I figured I would get at least one copy of every rookie (there are about 10 rookies per box - so 110 total rookies in 11 boxes), but nope, there were 5 that I didn't get a single copy (including two big ones - Will Smith and Lane Hutson). Lots of other I only got a single copy. As a Penguins fan I obviously wanted to pull a Rutger McGroarty RC -- it took me until box #10 to get my one and only copy of that card. I only got 2 of both Celebrini and Michkov - and they were in the same box both times. Then there were others that I got tons of -- here are the ones that I got at least three copies of:
Five copies - Lucas Cormier, Cutter Gauthier, Brennan Othmann, Sam Colangelo, Declan Carlile
Four copies - Frank Nazar, Phil Kemp, Pierrick Dube, Logan Stankoven, Ivan Fedotov, Logan Morrison
Three copies - Shakhir Mukhamadullin, Jackson Blake, Brian Halonen
Obviously got tons of Retros and Blues (about 5 per box), the 1 red per box (no one special), the usual 3 per box on the OPC Premiers (although I felt like I got very few of the 25 rookies in the set) with a bunch of doubles, and a good selection of Playing Cards (again with some doubles and triples) - but I did get 3 of the 4 Aces (MacKinnon, Kucherov, Matthews x2) and 1 of the Jokers (Youppi!).
As for the Serial Numbered cards I got the expected three in every box - including a couple really nice ones. Here's a quick rundown of all the parallels:
Rainbow All-Stars (#/350): 507 Clayton Keller, 534 Elias Pettersson
Rainbow Marquee Rookies (#/350): 541 Jesper Wallstedt, 546 Cutter Gauthier, 561 Jackson Blake, 565 Seamus Casey, 568 Collin Graf, 574 Matt Rempe, 588 Landon Slaggert
Rainbow Black Marquee Rookies (#/100): 568 Collin Graf
Retro Black (#/100): 33 Brock Boeser, 74 Jesper Bratt (x2), 75 Michael Amadio, 102 Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 147 Trevor Moore, 181 Sean Couturier, 234 Nick Perbix, 243 Vince Dunn, 375 Evgeni Malkin (PC), 392 Robby Fabbri, 422 John Marino, 512 Cale Makar, 532 Nathan MacKinnon
Retro Black Rookies (#/100): 562 Mavrik Bourque, 569 Aku Raty
Orange Parallels (#/25): 40 David Savard, 103 Brock Faber, 147 Trevor Moore, 208 J.T. Compher, 480 Artemi Panarin
It's always tough in big sets like this knowing that chances are against you pulling stars, but it was really nice seeing those two Avs in the Retro Blacks and having two of the five orange parallels be bigger names.
That does leave two more Serial Numbered cards - interesting that they considered the plate one of the three serial numbered cards for the box, but I guess it is technically numbered 1 of 1.
Rainbow Green (#/33): 529 Sidney Crosby (definitely PC!!)
Yellow Printing Plate (1 of 1): 596 Marat Khusnutdinov RC -- no idea who this is but at least it was a rookie plate
With all of those out of the way, let's get to the "big" stuff - the one per box "pulls". I'm gonna try and have some fun with this and rank them from #11 to #1 -- in the comments tell me if you agree with my rankings or if there is something that you think I'm ranking too high or too low:
#10 (tie)
Top Rookie Puzzle Bounty #OPC-4
Top Rookie Puzzle Bounty #OPC-6
I really hate pulling stuff like this where there is zero chance that I'm going to get them all, and even now they're likely to be tough to sell or trade since I'm sure that the first 25 have already been redeemed and no one will be chasing them hard or willing to pay much for them. Would rather have cards of players than these "lottery tickets".
#9
Helmet Off Variant #261 Nazem Kadri
I personally tend to like variant cards and chase them for my team/players, but no offense to Calgary or Kadri fans, but this one is a dud - it will be almost impossible to trade or sell.
#8
Black & White Variant #112 Nikita Kucherov
The player on this one actually isn't that bad, I just really don't care for the Black & White variants - goal celebrations are cool, helmet off or pre-game are fun, but the Black & White ones are just base cards without the color - boring and unoriginal.
#7
First Round Draft Patch #DP-25 Matt Boldy
Player is OK, but I just don't really care for these manufactured patches - some people like them but they're just not for me.
#6
Draft Photo Variant #564 Frank Nazar
That's the problem with rookies, right now this one isn't a card to get super excited about - give it 2 or 3 years and this might be a really good one... or it might be worse than the Kadri. Then again, what are the chances I hold onto it for a few years for it to matter.
#5
OPC Platinum Preview Violet Pixels #P-DP David Pastrnak (#65/99)
I like the fact that the Previews checklist really doesn't leave many options for a bad pull if you're going to get one. Of course getting one lower numbered would be nice, but not a bad one to get.
#4
OPC Platinum Preview Matte Pink #P-AM Auston Matthews (#35/75)
Speaking of a lower numbered variant... and a better player (sorry Mr. Pastrnak). Not a bad hit from a product at a price-point like O-Pee-Chee.
On to the Top Three!
#3
Glo Pee-Chee #GLO-7 Connor Bedard
OK, now we're talking. Nice looking, rare insert of one of the top young players in the game. He might not be as hot right now as he was last season, but I'll take this one and run.
#2
Glo Pee-Chee #GLO-9 Alex Ovechkin
What's better than a super rare insert of a top young player? A super rare insert of the guy who's about to break the record no one thought could be broken. I might be a Penguins fan, but you've got to give Mr. Ovechkin his just due and this is a super pull.
So, what beats a super rare insert of the greatest goal scorer of all-time?
#1
Goal Celebration Variant #24 Connor McDavid
A super shortprinted variant card of the player many consider the best in the game today and probably the one guy who we might be talking about in 10 years the same way we're talking about Ovechkin today.
Well, what do you think of my rankings? Of course everything except my Penguins are available for sale or trade. Let me know if there's anything that interests you. And as always, thanks for the read.
Dave
