Sunday, August 23, 2020

Upper Deck 2019-20 SP: Three-Pack Break

I was waiting in line at Walmart yesterday and a three-pack cello of Upper Deck's 2019-20 SP collection kept staring at me, so after five or ten minutes I decided to try my luck at some of the exciting rookies or possible inserts. SP used to be a "real premium" set, where the cardboard was at least double the thickness of the flagship Series 1 and Series 2 sets, but that is no longer the case. The cards are even semi-matte, but they still have that trademark cropped action picture on a white background, as can be seen here for Jack Eichel, wearing the Buffalo Sabres' 50th Anniversary white uniform:
The card backs feature a small blurb on the player as well as the basic classic stats of the past five seasons, as can be seen on this Sidney Crosby card:
Each retail pack contains five cards: four regular-issue base cards and one insert, sometimes another one, such as this beautiful "Blue" Parallel of Cam Atkinson:
The scan really doesn't do the blue foil justice, though - it's dark an rich, almost purple from certain angles.

There are also Rookie Authentics, numbered to 1199, like this one of Trevor Moore:
But the Blue Rookie Authentics Parallels are even better:
That's Elvis Merzlikins, Karson Kuhlman and Jack Hughes.

In terms of the base set, I landed Crosby, Eichel, Mikael Granlund, Teuvo Teravainen, Ben Bishop, Kyle Turris, Vladimir Tarasenko, Dougie Hamilton, Connor Hellebuyck and Leon Draisaitl.

It's a nice-looking set that is great for autograph hounds like myself if you're going to use the rookie cards as trade bait. I personally feel it's too expensive to collect the entire set.

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