What is your All-Time favorite card release?

I really enjoyed 08-09 UD masterpieces pulled some beauties, including the Messier brushstrokes and a Tony o artwork card. And the canvas feel of the cards was nice
 
2008-09 O-Pee-Chee.

Sadly my complete 1-800 of each the standard, insert, and retro parallel sets were stolen, but it was my favorite to open. I bought a case and had a blast opening it with my ex-wife and mom. My last good memory of either cards or a member of my family.
 
Some of my all-time favorites:

-1998-99 Bowman's Best (so many shiny goodies in there)
-2001-02 Between the Pipes
-2002-03 Between the Pipes (took everything great about the previous year and cranked that up to 11)
-2009-10 Between the Pipes (never have I ever seen a product so loaded with hits)
-2016-17 Leaf Masked Men
-2016-17 SP Authentic (I did so well with the product, the hits helped pay for about a quarter of my down payment on my house)
 
1988-89 OPC my first year of high school, first year of walking to school instead of taking the bus......walked by the corner store on the way home and used to grab 8 packs a day at 25 cents a pack....loved the design with the push pin in the top corner......gretzky in a kings uniform hull and shanny rookies great set

2015-16 Tim Hortons I still love this set so much and I didnt even collect it. This set brought so many new collectors into the fray. I had a trader night in my garage with about 8 guys and only one other then myself had been a collector prior to this set. But even better then bringing all my friends into my hobby was this was the first set my boys completed. They both finished the complete set with all inserts. They had the binder where they learned to put the cards in by numerical order. They came to the trade night and made trades with the adults. As a non coffee drinker I would give my co workers $20 a day and get them to grab me packs, then take them home to the boys. they were 8 and 4 at the time and this is not only my favorite set of all time but the highlight of my 37 ish years in the hobby, collecting with my boys and seeing their enjoyment. We did the set again in 2016......and in 2017 neither one had any interest......my now 11 year old has no interest at all in cards and my now 7 year old loves hockey but not so much the cards......the hobby may have passed them by but I will always remember the 6 weeks or so the three of us worked on that 2015 set
 
Hockey wise, I have a few that I can't really decide on what I like the most.

1969-70 OPC:Something about the hockey stick from top to bottom on the right side of the card has always been one of my faves.

2002-03 BAP Signature Series
: I can't tell you how many of these packs I busted at an auto per pack, it was one I still buy singles from, every so often. Lots of mail in redemptions, and limited autos was appealing to me as an autograph collector.

2006-07 Parkhurst: Still need 10 to finish the base auto set, and they are all big ones. This by far is probably my favorite with so many stars, and HOFers in it, just an amazing set to own.

2002-03 Topps Gold Hockey: By far the hardest set I ever put together as it was massive in size at 529 cards, and the golds were inserted at one per pack. Took me a few years to complete a set, and found out part way through that about 25% of the golds were SP'd. The cards on the D sheets were less plentiful, as an unknown quantity of them were destroyed during the printing, and cutting process. I believe that, too. It took me forever to find the last few to complete the set, and they were all off the D sheet. No internet for me, so had to gather these up at shows, or busting wax.


For golf, 2001 SP Authentic was hands down my favorite set. With all the big guns in the SOTT set, it was also the first signed cards for everyone. Pulling the Jack Nicklaus SOTT SP was a huge help.

Nascar I have 2 faves. The inaugural 1988 Maxx set with all the drivers being their rookies pretty much. Also, another favorite was the 2000 SP Authentic SOTT autographed set. Have a lot of the big ones, but will try to complete this some day. Most are affordable, as are the SOTT golf ones mentioned above.

Non-Sports I'd have to say most Inkworks products were a hit with me, with the Sopranos set being at the top of the list. CSI Miami actors are also a must for me.
 
Ud premier collection 2002/03...my first hockey card ever was a plane red jsy swatch of Steve yzerman...had not much money to spend on hockeycards while going to university so getting this set together was unreachably...I ever dreamed of putting that set together. Beautiful cards from my perspective and great player selection...

Greetings Helge
 
Ud premier collection 2002/03...my first hockey card ever was a plane red jsy swatch of Steve yzerman...had not much money to spend on hockeycards while going to university so getting this set together was unreachably...I ever dreamed of putting that set together. Beautiful cards from my perspective and great player selection...

Greetings Helge

Premier 02-03 was a beautiful set. One of the first high-end few cards per box product. Nice RPAs, hard-signed autographes, cool memorabilia.
 
For myself, being one of HIs senior members,lol. It was 61-62 Parkhurst, the Keon rookie from the set is probably my favorite card of all time. Just a very clean design and look that I still love to this day. I'm really happy to see all the love for those early Pro Set offerings. It was in those days that I got back into collecting with my two sons and we enjoyed the heck out of those sets.
These days we seem to get too caught up in the hobby;s downfalls. I think we all know we can still enjoy this hobby by breaking it back down to the reasons most of us fell in love with collecting in the first place.
Happy collecting to everyone.
Dan.

Keep it real bud! The big year for me was the 1968/69 O Pee Chee, which also brought out the awesome Shirriff set (only us vintage folks appreciate me calling it that). That combination really set the hook in me. Ironically I have next to nothing left of them, but every year I convince myself I need to rebuild them...
 
I have to say there were two that stood out for me. Number one for me has to be 04-05 Legendary Signatures. Amazing autograph set, all hard-signed autos. Liked the double autographs of defence pairings, and triple autograph cards of some of the best forward lines ever put together. The Hall of Fame Inks were amazing, and the AKA cards were really clever. Every auto was sharp, the card design was clean, and the list of retired and Hall of Fame players was really diverse. So much fun to put together! The second set I really liked was 03-04 SP Authentic. The Sign of the Times autos were easily the nicest autograph set from SPA. There's a nice mix of Hall of Famers and regular players in the set as well, which made for a fun set to put together.
 
Toss up for me between...

2000-01 Topps/OPC (loved the Lemieux reprint autograph set)
2003-04 Topps Pristine (shiny)
2003-04 Topps C55 (loved the minis)
 
I have to say there were two that stood out for me. Number one for me has to be 04-05 Legendary Signatures. Amazing autograph set, all hard-signed autos. Liked the double autographs of defence pairings, and triple autograph cards of some of the best forward lines ever put together. The Hall of Fame Inks were amazing, and the AKA cards were really clever. Every auto was sharp, the card design was clean, and the list of retired and Hall of Fame players was really diverse. So much fun to put together! The second set I really liked was 03-04 SP Authentic. The Sign of the Times autos were easily the nicest autograph set from SPA. There's a nice mix of Hall of Famers and regular players in the set as well, which made for a fun set to put together.

YES! another awesome set, was a horrible year for collecting for lock-out reasons, but UD did a great job releasing this set. Loved the Hard-signed Autos... I was lucky to only buy 2 packs and pull the Gretzky Base Auto in one. Sadly out of all the Boxes I have purchased... this was probably my best pull
 
OK, after much thinking and reading through this thread, I think I've narrowed it down (kind of)

1990-91 Pro Set, Topps, and Upper Deck - My first year collecting, and I had these awesome sets to help me (or hinder me for the future) through into collecting.

1998-99 and 1999-00 Topps Gold Label - The first years I was able to start buying boxes for myself (thanks, mom and dad!). The first box of 1998-99 I opened had a Mike Richter Class 1 Red Label /100 in it, and I was hooked. They are shiny, unique, and well-done sets.

2001-02 BAP Memorabilia - The first time I started opening mutliple boxes of a single product. The first box I opened had a Roy/Plante Goalie Traditions dual memorabilia card in it. The second box had a Mario Lemieux Emerald /10 in it. Yeah, I was hooked on this stuff.

2003-04 In The Game Used Signature Series - Shiny, beautiful autos, limited rookies. Definitely in the top 2 or 3 of my favorite sets of all time.

2003-04 Topps Pristine - Shiny doensn't really begin to describe this set. I loved the unique pack configurations (3 packs in 1!). I also had some REALLY good luck pulling printing plates from this product! :laugh:


Then, nothing really caught my eye, until..

2015-16 OPC Platinum - The shiniest of them all. The first product I bought multiple cases of. Probably my top 2 favorites of all time, as by evidence of my crazy attempt at completing most of the colors!


2017-18 In The Game Used - The newest product on my favorites list. I bought the first two packs on a whim, and pulled some amazing cards. 12 more packs later, and I almost want to get more. :laugh:
 
1988-1989 Esso All Stars, this started it all for me when I was a little kid. I couldn't tell you who the majority of the players were on the cards but was in to hockey and would get one of the little packs (I think 3 cards per?) each weekend when my Dad filled up with gas. Eventually the local Esso put out a basket where you could exchange your doubles with whatever was in the pot.

1990-1991 Upper Deck - Having collected the odd Topps/OPC cards prior these cards were so revolutionary with their great photography and quality.

I didn't collect after the 90s card boom and got back into it with the Mcdavid craze. After buying 2015-16 series 1 the local card store suggested I try some Artifacts which yielded my first serial numbered cards, jersey and patch cards and since then i've been hooked. I love the design of the 2015-16 Artifacts and all the different paralells/levels/gems.
 
06-07 Parkhurst a great set. Still need a handful base autos.

97-98 Donruss Preferred a great set.

15-16 UD Champs nice auto some nice insert and so.
 

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