In The Game Canada vs The World Hockey Box Review

by Rich Klein

One of the advantages of being a "small' company is being able to insure that you deliver what you promised. In the Game trading cards has, since we have been reviewing their products, created cards with interesting themes and generally ensured that collectors feel satisfied after opening their boxes. The recently released Canada Vs The World hockey product is no exception.

The information on the box and on their web site states that collectors will receive nine cards, of which four cards will be game-used memorabilia cards, two cards will be autographed, one card will honor 100 Years of Hockey Card Collecting and two cards are non-memorabilia inserts. With every card being considered some kind of hit (and granted some of the "hits" are bigger than others), these boxes usually maintain a strong price after release. As we write this leading online retailers are currently selling these at between $90-100 per box.

Canada vs The World features players who have participated in tournaments in which Canada faced other nations. One other aspect of sets such as these is players usually will have to be above-average to participate in such series. With few exceptions, usually only better players in any sport play in these tournaments.

With all that and the average cost of $10-11 per card out of the box, how did we fare? Note that all print run information is direct from the www.itgtradingcards.com web site. None of these cards are serial numbered.

Great Moments: Bill Ranford

Protecting Canada's Crease: Corey Price/Leland Irving

100 Years of Card Collecting: Peter Forsberg

International Materials Silver (Print run of 30): Oliver Ekman-Larsson

International Materials Patch Black (Print run of 6): Jacob Markstrom

Canadian Cloth Silver (Print run of 30): Martin St. Louis

My Country My Team Gold (Print run of 10): Alexander Ovechkin

Autographs: Tom Barasso and John LeClair

In conclusion, with four memorabilia cards with print runs of 30 or fewer and two autograph cards (as promised) any collector would be very happy indeed with these results. And, although I personally am a big fan of base cards, there is something to be said for a 9 for 9 day at the plate from an unopened box.

Rich Klein can be reached at [email protected]