2007-08 Victory Hockey
With the 2007-08 hockey season approaching, Upper Deck once again produced a great low-end product for kids, new collectors, autographers, and those who do not want to spend $50.00 or more on a box of cards. This product also allows the fan who loves to collect rookie cards to afford some of the top rookies every year at a lower price. Series 1 Victory Hockey contains 36 packs with 6 cards per pack. The base set contains 200 cards with 45 Victory Rookies.
Base Set 1-200
The base set has always been a hit with autograph collectors due to the price of the product and design of the cards. The autographs really stand out on these cards. Another neat feature about this product is the fact that the cards are kept in order by conference: Eastern Conference teams first, then Western Conference. The base set also keeps the cards together by team. For example, the first seven cards in this year's product are all N.J. Devils. In my own experience from this box break, there were very few doubles, thus making it fairly easy to complete the set with a little help from fellow collectors of this product.
Series 1 Victory features some nice inserts including:
Rookies 201-245
Rookies inserted 1 in every 2 packs, 45 total in all. A few of the better names include Jack Johnson (See Scan), Robbie Schremp, Jaroslav Halak and Yutaka Fukufuji. Rookies have always been a hit with collectors and with 1 in every 2 packs collectors will be happy opening these packs.
Stars on Ice
Victory Hockey Stars on Ice can be found one in every four packs. Everyone likes to open a pack of cards and find one of their favorite stars inside. Victory has chosen some great players for their Stars on Ice inserts, such as Sidney Crosby, Joe Sakic (pictured), Stanley Cup hero Scott Niedermayer.
Face off
EA Sports Face Off cards, 1 in every 10 packs. There are six players featured in this subset: Jerome Iginla, Henrik Lundqvist, Eric Staal, Kris Draper, Chris Pronger, and Dion Phaneuf. What I found neat about these cards is that Victory got away from the base set design and used an all grey border for the Face Off cards, which really stuck out when breaking this box.
Game Breakers
Victory Game Breakers are inserted into packs at a rate of one in four packs and include such superstars as Mats Sundin, Jerome Iginla (pictured), and Dany Heatley. The inserts from Game Breakers had a great mix of veterans like Daniel Alfredson, and break-out young guns like Paul Stastny (pictured).
Other notable inserts include:
Gold Parallel inserts (1-36 packs)
Victory Rookie Gold Parallel (1 in 240 packs)
Regular Black Parallel cards found 1 in every 240 pack
Rookie Black Parallel, one in every 2880 packs
My final thoughts on Upper Deck Victory 07-08 Hockey:
This product is a hit for the hockey fan that does not want to spend a great deal of money on a product. With the retail value of a box of cards around $36.00 to $50.00, kids can even afford a pack of cards. This product also has a very nice run of rookies in Series 1, giving fans a glimpse at some of the possible upcoming stars.
Value-5
Innovation-4
Fun and Experience-5
Rebuy Value-2
I give this product a rating of a B+. I really like the design of the cards and the price is right for kids and new collectors. With the chance of getting a rookie card one in every two packs, it allows all type of collectors a chance of landing one of the next big stars in hockey. The biggest drawback I see is the value of the cards down the road, as most serious collectors will be more interested in the high-end rookies.
NPN Information;
NPN Manager
Victory Hockey Trading Card Request
5909 Sea Otter Place
Carlsbad, CA 92010
A special thanks goes to Upper Deck for sending this great Victory product to TR. I would also like to thank the staff at TR for allowing me (Hockeytown) to review this product.
The inserts from this product will be used for hockey contest throughout this coming hockey season. I will also attempt to get a few signed and offer those to members through contest.
