2 Score 2011-12 Box Breaks

Just like last year, I decided to purchase two boxes of this year's lower-end product, the 2011-12 Score set by Panini. I've liked Score since its late-80s baseball sets and became more of a fan when they made the move to hockey in 1990-91 with all the other manufacturers.

After their initial season, however, their designs weren't as fun, their featured rookies were awful, and my interest waned. History seems to be repeating itself.

This year's set contains 550 cards: 35 ''highlights'' cards, 465 regular cards and 50 rookies. Additionally, there are 20 ''short-print'' rookie cards, which happen to be the best ones - from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Gabriel Landeskog, with Alexei Yemelin and Sean Couturier thrown in for good measure - and a flurry of sub-sets. View the complete checklist here.

At a buck per pack, 36 packs per box and 7 cards per pack, these are the most affordable hockey cards on the market, even though very few cards will ever be worth the 15 cents average you're purchasing them at; what you want are the inserts, preferably the autographs. I managed to get a redemption card for one, which will be a rookie to boot (just like last year's Jordan Eberle, only this time, a player I have no clue about, Carson McMillan). Most of the rest will be used to gather autographs, although I'll probably try to sell the Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby cards along with a few rookies on Ebay for a buck apiece, trying to get at least a third of my money back.

Score's strengths, like Upper Deck's O-Pee-Chee line, resides in the number of cards in its set, where it's not just the NHL's top-100 scorers, but also a few role players who nowadays don't appear as frequently in card sets. Collectors and autograph-seekers such as myself appreciate that a lot.

But lower-end sets sell at less and probably make the company a whole let less cash, so cost-cutting measures such as having the autograph cards be the same as the regular ones albeit with a sticker on which the player's signature is affixed are now widely accepted. Others, however, such as these two cards of Jason Pominville from box #2 with the exact same picture are downright insulting, especially when you get them in the same pack:

And while we're at it, can we talk about the cheap design? The lines on the side are reminiscent of last year's Donruss set by the same company, but with an added white border comes off like its trashy cousin.

Add that to the fact that some pictures are too light as if the camera's flash was too intense (or, more likely, Panini went overboard on Photoshop):

(actually, the scan makes these look much better than they do in real life)

others are too dark, like they were taken in a minor-league arena in the 1980s:

and others yet just have the colours looking all kinds of wrong:

If I didn't intend on just getting most of these signed, as a collector being given this sub-par product, I'd be pissed off. In this day and age of people not having jobs let alone any money, Score is showing tremendous disrespect to its clientele.

And that's saying nothing of this Nik Antropov card, with a picture snagged at the awful press conference that passed for the Winnipeg Jets' jersey unveiling:

Anyhow, here is how the first box broke down:

36 packs, 7 cards per: 252 cards

Regular cards: 134

'Glossy' parallel: 35, including two 'Highlights' cards, and a few stars including Tim Thomas, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrice Bergeron.

'Gold' parallel: 1

Hot Rookies: 19, the biggest name being Blake Geoffrion, and one of the cards being a short-print, Ryan Johansen.

Playoff Heroes: 2

Sudden Death: 2: Ilya Kovalchuk and John Tavares.

The Franchise: 1, Jeff Skinner.

Net Cam: 3

First Goal: 1, Derek Stepan.

Score B: 1, Corey Perry.

Making An Entrance: 3, Carey Price, Nicklas Lidstrom and Miikka Kiprusoff.

Highlight Cards: 19 regular, two glossy.

Montréal Canadiens (my home team): 10, including 1 rookie (Aaron Palushaj), 1 Making An Entrance (Price), 1 Highlight (P.K. Subban) and 1 Glossy (Andrei Markov).

Plus the redemption card.

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Here is a breakdown of the second box:


36 packs, 7 cards per: 252 cards

Regular cards: 169

'Glossy' parallel: 35, including five 'Highlights' cards - chief of which a Mario Lemieux Winter Classic card - and a few young stars including Shea Weber, John Tavares, Brayden Schenn, and Tyler Seguin.

'Gold' parallel: 1, Ryan Getzlaf.

'Black' parallel: 1

Hot Rookies: 18, the biggest name again being Blake Geoffrion, and two of Chris Vande Velde - with a short-print, Matt Read.

Playoff Heroes: 1, ironically of Roberto Luongo...

Sudden Death: 2: Alexandre Burrows and Jason Chimera.

The Franchise: 1, Luongo again.

Net Cam: 3, Luongo, Carey Price and Cam Ward.

First Goal: 1, Erik Condra.

Making An Entrance: 3, Patrick Kane, Martin St-Louis and Jamie Benn.

Highlight Cards: 17 regular, five glossy.

Montréal Canadiens (my home team): 10, including 1 rookie (Aaron Palushaj again), 1 Net Cam (Price), and 1 Glossy (P.K. Subban).