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2018-2019 Upper Deck SPx Review |
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Once a product containing 12 packs of 4 cards, Upper Deck SPx has taken a turn in 2016-2017 by becoming a 4 card product. In the third season of this new iteration, Upper Deck delivers a slick product with thick card stock and beautiful design. Much like last year, fan favourite's UD Black is also inserted in this product.
What's in the box?
As previously stated, you will find 4 cards in each box of this product:
-1 SPx Hockey base/tech;
-1 autographed card;
-1 memorabilia card; and
-1 additional autographed, relic or tech card
The base set this year only includes 50 cards which is enough considering the price point of this product (you can fin boxes online for about 115$), you don't want to have to ruin yourself to complete the base set. And before you say that no one is interested in collecting sets anymore, there are still people out there who enjoy the chase. There are also shadow boxes base parallels which bring a higher resale value.
There's a wide array of potential autograph sets the autograph you find in your box could come from, with each design being more interesting than the last one. It may be from SPx or from Black, it could be a rookie autographed card or an autographed memorabilia card or even just a plain autographed card. There's something for everyone here whether you're a rookie collector, addicted to former stars or just hoarding the cards of which the memorabilia pieces are beautiful. One thing that has always rubbed collectors the wrong way however is the fact that the autographs are sticker autographs and not actual on card autographs.
As for the memorabilia cards, they can be from the base material set, like it was in our box, which includes 25 cards (20 current stars and 5 legends). The odds of pulling a certain star varies depending on which group the star is in. Stars comes in 1 of 20 packs and legends 1 in 240 packs but odds of the biggest stars are as follows: group A 1:203, B are 1:98, C are 1:70 and d are 1:49. As for legends, A are 1:1200, C are 1:400. Upper Deck also decided to insert some SPx retro rookie design in the product which will bring long term collectors back to 2008-2009. There are also various sets of materials including the popular Double XL Materials set and its patch version, the Extravagant Material set and its patch version and of course, the Rookie Material Jersey set.
Without further delay, here's the result of our break.
First up, a Marc-Andre Fleury base card numbered 161/299. It's hard to complain at the design of this set but the fact remains that at 4 cards for 115$, it's hard to be excited about a base card.
Secondly, we received an Auston Matthews base material and since he's in group A, the odds of pulling this little number were 1:203 packs.
Third, we stumbled onto a Lustrous Black Rookies of Ilya Samsonov numbered 60/299. As per usual, the Black design looks more serious and smarter so to speak than the SPx one. As the name of the set indicates, the color black takes centre stage making the coloured picture of the player really stand out.
Finally, we found a Spencer Foo autographed Black Lustrous Rookies which is in group D with odds of 1:29 (there are also groups A, B and C with respective odds of 1:406, 1:283 and 1:46).
Grades
Design: 4.5/5
Value: 3/5
Resale value: 2/5
Variety: 5/5
Break enjoyment:3.5/5
Final grade: 72%
While the product can boast to have a big variety of hits, 4 cards for 115$ is a bit steep, especially for sticker autographs. The other downside of a 4 card break is that it's just over way too quickly but you at least get the thrill of wondering which of the amazing card featured in the product will be yours when the break is over. As always with such a small number of cards, buying a single box is a very big gamble and many have been left disappointed. Of course, it's the luck of the draw but this is one of the products in which you can lend lady luck a chance by entering a group case break which helps spread the risk so to speak. Thanks to Upper Deck for providing me with a box of this product to review. I shall be back later this week with an OPC Platinum product review! Since this was a sponsored break, I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping the hits so if you collect any of these guys, let me know and I'll pick the lucky winners!
For us Habs fans though, there are quite a few very nice Jesperi Kotkaniemi rookie cards to chase in this product and I know I won't rest until I find a few!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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