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2018-2019 Upper Deck OPC Platinum Review

May 6, 2019, 5:49 PM ET [521 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Should you decide to get yourself a box of Upper Deck OPC Platinum, it should set you back about 95$ CAD and you'll receive 20 packs of 4 cards each and on average, the following hits should be included:

-1 Autograph
-6 OPC Retro cards
-1 Net Magnets insert
-5 Rainbow and 2 Violet parallels
-2 numbered parallels

If you're a fan of Artifacts, you can think of this product as an equivalent parallel wise minus the memorabilia hits and less expensive. As mentioned, this product gives you 20 packs while Artifacts, which is typically about 20$ CAD more, only gives you 8 and both have 4 cards per pack. With its shiny and colourful look, this product is an ideal introduction to the hobby for youngsters, that's not to say that adults won't get any enjoyment out of it however.

While you rip your packs, you'll uncover the following base parallels:

Rainbow - 1:5
Violet Pixels - 1:11
Red Prism #/199
Arctic Freeze #/79
Seismic Gold #/50
Orange Checkers #/25 (Hobby)
Emerald Surge #/10
Golden Treasures 1/1




Like every product, OPC Platinum includes its own set of inserts, namely Net Magnets (1:15 packs), The Future is Now (1:22 packs) and returning from '17-18 is the image-focused In Action (1:27 packs). Our break offered a couple of Net Magnets and 1 In Action while The Future is Now was MIA but it's hard to complain about that since the odds were beaten in any case.




While this product does look quite modern with its sleek design and shiny finish, it still includes a bit of a old school touch with Retro (1:4 packs), the new Black & White Houndstooth (#/25) parallel to go along with Rainbow (1:22 packs), Blue (#/149), and Golden Treasures (1/1) versions. Our box yielded 3 standard Retro cards alongside 4 Retro rookies including Rasmus Dahlin and Miro Heiskanen.




Speaking of rookies, we also got our share of both Marquee Rookies and Parallel versions of Marquee Rookies:







And finally, the bigger hit of the box, the Rookie Auto card. It should also be noted that these also come in the following parallel versions:
Rainbow - 1:165
Violet Pixels - 1:440
Red Prism #/50
Seismic Gold #/25
Orange Checkers #/15 (Hobby)
Emerald Surge #/10
Golden Treasures 1/1




Grades
Design: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Resale value: 3/5
Variety: 5/5
Break enjoyment:4.5/5
Final grade: 86%

The design of this product works rather well, uniting the old with the new to give a refractor like product which is very pleasing to the eye. The price point is quite reasonable, not only for the number of hits included but also since the autograph hit is hard signed. Considering how many collectors positively hate sticker autos, this is a big deal. The resale value is nothing to write home about but that's normal considering that this is not one of the flagship products and it's not that expensive to buy new, making it an obvious choice to scratch the "need to break itch". As for the variety, it provides a little something for everyone, be it the colour, the type of hit or the balance rookie vs veterans. While there are no memorabilia hits, I do not think that the product suffers from this. Why? Well, simply since nowadays, jersey and patch cards are everywhere and have become the norm. Finally, this was a thoroughly enjoyable break both for myself and my assistant, my 9 year old nephew, who spent a good chunk of time marvelling at the mirror like aspect of the cards, the different colours and just about everything really. In my view, this is an excellent choice to introduce the kids in your life to the hobby, especially since the finish of the cards make them a little bit more sturdy than say your traditional OPC cards.

Would have loved to land this retro auto Kotkaniemi but it just wasn't too be... There really are quite a few nice Kotkaniemi hits to chase in this product.


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