Preview: 2013 ITG The First Six

Next up from the brain of Dr. Price is In The Game’s Superlative- The First Six, a high end hockey set designed around the first six NHL teams (Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Detroit Redwings, New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadians) that will be released November 8th.

 

Each book, the product is being released in what appears to be a leather-bound book, will run $400-425 and will contain seven cards, all hits. There will only be 1,500 books produced. All of the autographs are hard signed except for the cut signatures

 

The breakdown of the seven hits that you will pull from a book:

One Autograph card

 

One Autographed Game-Used Jersey card

 

One Auto Plus card

 

One Game-Used Jersey card

 

One Game-Used Memorabilia card or a PaperCut (cut signature autograph) card or LumberGraph card

 

One Quad Game-Used Memorabilia card

 

One Trophy Case Game-Used Memorabilia card

Preview: 2011-12 Panini Titanium Hockey

Schedule Release Date: June 13, 2012

Box Configuration:  4 cards per pack/5 pack per box

SRP: $100/box


Box Break:

5 Memorabilia or Autograph cards (1 per pack)


Case Break: (16 boxes per case)

One Rookie card numbered to player’s number

One Home Sweaters auto

Three Hat Tricks memorabilia cards


My Thoughts:

I was enamored with the Titanium Hockey sets in the early 2000s. While they would not win any awards for design, the sets were fun and they were one of the first products that contained a hit per pack. After 10-12 years I still have a handful of those old Pacific Titanium cards.

Fast forward a decade and now Panini holds the Titanium brand and is trying to put their best foot forward to continue the love that collectors held for those old Pacific products. I feel that they did some justice but on some aspects they lost sight of the prize.

The rookie cards bring you back, even using the red “Rookie” diamond. It is quite a bit larger than before but it still works. The Draft Day autographs are ok, but I do not like the studio shots it just seems like the players are disconnected from the sport. Panini worked in some nice parallels, I like the black backgrounds (#/25) as well as the base cards with the team colors and logos behind the players (not sure what they are titles) and finally the Private Signings are pretty cool too.

Now on to the other side of the coin, the baby-poop brown used for the Game-Worn-Gear is just horrendous. The design itself on the card is decent but the color used and tossing a sticker autograph and I have to add this to my “Dislike” column. The New Wave autograph has a 90s feel but when half of the card is misty for the auto sticker I can pass on this too. Finally, the Home/Away/Third Sweater auto/relic cards… normally creating a card with no obvious identifying cues to which the player is not a great decision. Panini made it work with the 2010 Panini Threads Jersey set but a basketball jersey is more recognizable when compared to a hockey sweater. Add in a sticker autograph and two relics and it seems like the designers had bigger plans then they could accomplish. Maybe if they had included the player’s name across the front it would have been better.

Pros:

A throwback to the older Titanium Hockey sets

Decent base card designs

Some interesting parallels

Lots of multi-relic inserts


Cons:

Horrid designs on some subsets/inserts

Ugly ass colors

Not a big fan of the Home/Away Sweaters Auto insert


Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

I think that this is a solid start on the reboot but instead of taking the expected/safe route they went out and tossed in a couple of changes and twists that I do not care for in the end. I would like to see this product continue in the future and evolve in to a solid release each year.

Preview 2010-11 Panini Dominion Hockey

Schedule Release Date: July 2011

Box Configuration: 8 cards/box

SRP: $350/box

Box Break:

6 Autograph or Memorabilia cards (3 Guaranteed Auto cards)

2 Base Cards or Base Inserts

My Thoughts:

This is a high-end product that delivers some insane cards, we are talking amazing patches, and limited numbers plus every autograph (except the cut signatures) are on card autographs. This set is apparently the “National Treasure” NHL version so you can expect something special out of each box.

Honestly Tracy Hackler did a wonderful write up of what to expect so I am posting some of his excerpts from The Knights Lance:

Highlighting Dominion’s myriad collection-making cornerstones are . . .

• Kindest Cuts 1/1 cut signatures honoring the greatest hockey legends of all time
• The hockey debut of Pen Pals autographs featuring signatures of two, three or four hockey greats on one card, with Duals numbered to 50, Triples numbered to 25 and Quads numbered to 5
• Peerless Patches Dual and Quad booklet cards featuring the choicest pieces of memorabilia from hockey’s greatest stars of yesterday and today
• Engravatures cards embedded with pieces of real silver that are engraved with the names of former Stanley Cup winner – just like on the real thing — limited to just 10 copies
• The return of Nifty 50, one of the hobby’s most famous insert names, complete with hard autographs of hockey’s fabled single-season 50-goal scorers
• Brass Bonanza on-card autographs that pay tribute to the legends of the Hartford Whalers, all numbered to 50 or less
• The unique Tape to Tape insert featuring autographs from stars on actual tape sliced from their game-used hockey sticks

Pros:

All autographs are on-card

Huge swatches

Nice autograph checklist

Hartford Whalers insert set (Brass Bonanza)

Cons:

Expensive

Some inserts (Franchise Legends, Honoured Rivals) have dime-sized relics

Rating:

I give this set 4 out of 5, there are plenty of great things to like about this set and really the only downside would be the price. Interestingly it seems like most of the card companies can get hockey cards right.

2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey

Schedule Release Date: June, 2011
Box Configuration: 4 packs per box, 3 cards per pack
SRP: $200/box

Box Break:
8 Autographs or Memorabilia cards (at least 2 will be autographs)
4 Rookie Cards

My Thoughts:
First up, way to go Panini on an awesome set.

Panini did right with this release and it shows. This looks amazing and even at $200/box I am sure it will sell well. Hockey fans are devoted collectors and stick by their favorite players.

I honestly am amazed at how well Panini did with this release. The entire design is created to highlight the players, relics and autographs. One thing that you will notice about the design is that there are no floating jerseys or extreme negative spacing. Take a look at the Stamkos Prime Patch card and compare it to the Mats Zuccarello autograph/jersey card. The relic die-cut window on Stamkos’ card is centered while the relic die-cut window on Zuccarello’s card was shifted up to make room for his autograph.

I do have a question about the base set. The press release clearly says that every card in the set is either an autograph, memorabilia, autographed-memorabilia or rookie card yet the press release includes a preview shot of an Alexander Ovechkin card which appears to be a base card. So I am not sure if there is a base set or not.

I would have loved to see Jeremy Roenicks Retired Autograph with him in a Coyotes sweater but I understand his longest tenure was with the Blackhawks.


Oh yeah, every autograph is on-card.


Pros:
Nice design

Variety of relics including prime patches, jersey pieces, logos and sticks

On-card autographs


Cons:
Costly (but cheaper than many high end products)

Not sure of the checklist yet (Not really a con)

Rating:

I have to give this product 5 out of 5 because it is so complete. Panini has come a long way with this set and they put together something wonderful that hockey fans will appreciate. I hope this is something that will continue in to basketball and football. I would love to see a NFL Luxury Suite release.

ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 10th Edition

Normally when I write up a review for an upcoming release I try to remain as unbiased as possible. I find myself in a difficult position with this review because I am utterly amazed with ITG's Ultimate Memorabilia 10th Edition.

Schedule Release Date: November 11, 2010
Box Configuration: 3 cards per pack, 5 packs per box
SRP: $620/box

Box Break:
5 Base cards
5 Autograph cards
5 Memorabilia cards

My Thoughts:
This high-end set is made for serious hockey collectors as well as vintage collectors and ITG went big with this release. You will be pulling 15 cards total from each box, 5 base cards, 5 autographs and 5 game-used memorabilia cards. I am not to keen on the idea of slabbing every card, including the base cards, but the slabbing (done by ITG and not graded) can help when storing and cataloging your cards.

The base cards are a tribute to the 1910-11 C56 hockey card set and you can actually pull a redemption for an authentic/graded 1910 C56 hockey card.

The thrill of the set is the amazing pulls that ITG has loaded in to each box. Some of the players that you can see include on the relics checklist include NHL Hall of Famers Newsy Lalonde, the Rocket Maurice Richard and Jacques Plante. How about some relic/auto cards of Colorado Avalanche greats Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic?

My favorite card has to be the triple autographs of NY Islanders greats Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy. I grew up on Long Island and I still remember going to games at Nassau Coliseum in the late 70s as a kid and this specific card just calls to me. Another card that I love is the Sakic Ultimate Emblem patch, how cool would it be to pull a Sasquatch foot logo patch? The Ultimate Decades is another one of the neat inserts.

Some cards are overpowering with all the relics and autographs being shoved in to the card design like the “Complete Jersey Autograph” cards where multiple patches and autographs are all forced in to the design along with a shrinking player image. The Hall of Fame Auto and Memorabilia card is another set that could work better without forcing additional relics in to the cards design.

I do not know the specific insert ratios for the inserts.


Pros:
Awesome checklist through out the entire set

Nice designs with most of the inserts
Amazing relics going back to the infancy of hockey and the Original 6 teams.

Redemptions for original 1910-11 C56 hockey cards

Cons:
Expensive ($620 box)

It has been pointed out that the autos are actually stickers and not on-card, that really hurts a set like this.

Forced relics in to some of the inserts

Not sure about the Real Heroes cut signatures

Every single card is slabbed


Rating:
I rate the ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 10th Edition release as 4 out of 5 for a number of reasons. This set has tremendous historical value, which is of interest to me, and the set is all about the hits. The only thing I found negative about this release, outside of the $620 price tage, is in the forced relics in to some of the designs, sticker autographs and the slabbing of every single card.