Anywhere I could, this Christmas, I asked for 2018-19 hockey cards or help paying for my upcoming driving classes; the first Christmas Miracle came in at a gift exchange party where the person who had picked me went with the list I provided and got me a tin box of
Upper Deck's flagship
2018-19 Series 1 cards, which consists of 12 eight-card packs for a total of 96 cards. These usually go for roughly $40-45.
Here is what this year's set looks like:
The design borrows heavily on past
Artifacts sets, but with the traditional
Series 1 super gloss. The photography is mostly excellent, and each team has as many different uniforms as possible, but I could do without the oddball pre/post-game shenanigans as well as the pretend-military-style warmup garbs:
One sub-set that was new to me was
Rookie Commence, of which I pulled
Dylan Sikura:
Although the one everybody is curious about is the
Young Guns, of which I pulled my favourite rookie,
Elias Pettersson (as well as
Nick Seeler and
Mikhail Vorobyev):
I also pulled a rookie out of the two
UD Portraits cards I nabbed:
And there was a
Canvas card of
Steven Stamkos:
My experience from years past makes me think I should unload the Pettersson card even though I really like him - he's by far my favourite rookie this year - because I fear losing it in yet another move or worse, damaging it. I've seen it go for $80-125 online and my guess is that someone paying that much for it would make sure it remains in pristine condition. Then again, I'd love to get it signed and use it as the centerpiece of a player collection of his...
All told, Upper Deck's flagship series once again hits the mark. This box is a solid 8/10.
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