Hard to imagine when the temperature never seems to get below 90 degrees in August here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area but Panini using the Score brand name has already released the 2013-14 Score Hockey product. And in actuality, we are just a couple of weeks away from training camps opening so getting collectors ready for the next season makes perfect sense. And, as we have discussed in previous articles, a very comprehensive set is a great way to commemorate the previous season and get collectors excited for the new year.
The 2013-14 Score Hockey set qualified in that regard as the set consists of 550 cards which is reminiscent of the sets of the hobby glory days of the 1987-1994 period. And with the lockout of 2012-13 there is a nice 60 card rookie subset to conclude the set. That means nearly 10 percent of the set honors rookies. This issue has the first RCs and autographs of Nail Yakupov, Alex Galchenyuk, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jonathan Huberdeau and others. It’s also packing memorabilia cards for the first time and each box will yield two autographed cards.
The base cards feature white borders surrounding the player’s photo with the player’s name at the bottom and the team logo in the lower right. The backs have biographical information, informational blurbs (on some of the cards) and seasonal and career statistics.
Pricing
Released a few weeks ago, box prices on Score Hockey are very affordable on a per-card basis. They come packed strictly as jumbos with 10 packs and 52 cards per pack in each box. My local card store had them at $106.90 per box. That comes down to a very affordable 20 cents per card. Meanwhile leading on-line retailers are in the $85-90 range.
Frankly, it was just great to be transported back in time and open a box with more than 500 cards.
Box Break
So how did we do?
Base Cards: 420 cards were pulled; there may have been a few duplicates but at least two of these boxes are needed to complete a set.
Gold Parallels: 80 total. I did not notice any duplicates in these listings. These pretty much did come 8 to a pack.
Black Parallel: Milan Hejduk. He’s always been a favorite of mine back to my Beckett days We used to have hockey playoff “pools” back in the day and in 1999 every one of my 10 selections made it to the second round. Somehow I ended up with Dallas Stars as my first three picks and went from there. About round six I muttered ‘I’ll take Milan Hayes Duke’. There was much laughter at my butchered pronunciation of his name. Then one of the hockey mavens muttered some salty language in a frustrated tone at which point I realized I had made a good pick! I’ve always rooted for Hejduk since then.
Check-It: Alex Ovechkin
First Goal: Leo Komanov
Franchise: Patrick Marleau, Daniel Sedin
Future Franchise: Alex Killorn
Future Team: Tyler Toffoli
Netcam: Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Semyon Yarkamov
Team 8: These eight-player relics come one per jumbo box: Ilya Kovalcuk/Patrik Elias/Stefan Matteau/Martin Brodeur/Brad Richards/J. T. Miller/Christian Thomas/Henrik Lundqvist
Score Signatures: Jimmy Hayes
Hot Rookie Signatures: Derek Grant
Summary
As mentioned, that is a lot of cards for the money and with 80 golds not counting the other hits both major and minor there is a lot to like about what one receives when opening the Score box. And being originally from the NY Metropolitan area, the eight card relic card featuring four Rangers and four Devils was right up my alley. These cards, even the base cards, will be fun to sort through. Hockey fans seem anxious to have a full year of hockey products this season. Over 7000 listings have popped up on eBay so far.
Rich Klein can be reached at [email protected]
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