13-Pack Break: 2015-16 Upper Deck Tim Hortons

Let me get this out of the way: yes, at $2 a pack for three cards (two base, one insert), Upper Deck's 2015-16 Tim Hortons Collector's Series cards are way too expensive. But they're also very beautiful.

I recently got my hands on 13 packs, for 39 total cards; each pack also comes with a ''redemption code'' good for a random pack of online-only cards, where my collection currently stands at 32 cards; I'm not a fan of these because they do nothing but remain hosted on the Tim Hortons website until they deem fit to stop, and I'll never get my hands on them. If anything, they stand as a visual checklist of the many cards I still need to complete my collection, should I ever want to.

Out of 13 packs, I only got 3 doubles: Kris Letang, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Michael Cammalleri. The base cards are very pretty, all foil and molded textures; here is what the front and back look like:

As far as the inserts go, my favourite one is this thick 3D Franchise Force card of Alex Ovechkin:

I also fell on a James Van Riemsdyk Season Highlights checklist card:

Another insert I got just one of is this Shining Futures card of sophomore Filip Forsberg:

I got three silver-gold-and-black semi-foil Platinum Profile cards of Steven Stamkos, Guy Lafleur and Darryl Sittler:

While on I'm on the subject of Stamkos, he was also featured in the Above The Ice inserts which are made of plastic that is see-through (like some of the best Ice cards), as was Erik Karlsson:

And I got five beautiful die-cut cards of Andrew Ladd, Jonathan Toews, Jonathan Bernier, Henrik Lundqvist and Vladimir Tarasenko:

I might try to get the Ladd one signed, but the rest are up for trade and/or Ebay. I think the last two look really great, though, the colour scheme works really well.

If you buy a drink at a Timmy's, the first pack comes at $1; if all packs were that price, it'd be a more palatable set; as it stands, it's got some of the best UD designs in a long time, but the thinness of the cardboard combined with the cards costing roughly 67 cents each is not something that I think will end up being valuable.

I'm happy I get these new base cards, which are reminiscent of Black Diamond sets but with clearer pictures and brighter colours. This is the type of set that, at a lower price, would have gotten a near perfect grade from me.

As it stands, though, it ranks a 7/10.