What We Pulled:
Packs: 10
Cards Per Pack: 5
Cards Expected: 50
Cards Received: 51
Base Set Completion: 41% (41 out of 100 Base Cards)
Duplicates: 0
Inserts:
Masked Marvels: 1 - Cam Ward #/999
Base Set Blue Parallel: 1- Nicklas Lidstrom #/99
Immortals: 1 - Mario Lemieux #/999
Immortals Mirror Hot Box: 1 - Gordie Howe #/75
Path To The Cup Conference Semifinals: 1 - Shea Weber/Mike Smith #/299
Fabrics of the Game: 1 - Simon Gagne #/299
Fabrics of the Game Mirror Hot Box: 2 - Scott Clemmensen, Frans Nielsen #/75
Freshman Signature Rookies: 1 - Chay Genoway #/999
Certified Redemption Rookie: 1 - R3 #/499
Our Thoughts:
Design
Nothing spectacular. A simple design with the name across the bottom woth the Certified logo in the lower right hand corner with an arc of color in the background. The player is featured on the rest of the card with the background foiled out for the base set. The back has a blurb about the player, the last 4 years of stats and career totals. The inserts are about the same excitement. Not much to differentiate them from other releases that Panini puts out.
Player Selection
The base 100 card selection is for the larger hyped players. The insert sets do a good job of highlighting different players and some past greats. This is satisfactory.
Inserts
I like that there isn't tons of insert sets that you might want to chase. In each insert set though, they have usually put in at least 20 cards which means hunting around to find that elusive single card to complete the subset. The parallels are held to 5 of each card.
Price
I found this box for around $40 without hunting too hard. For the price, I might think about purchasing another box. In this box, I did receive a redemption for a Certified Rookie Redemption of R3. Jonathan Huberdeau from the Florida Panthers. The redemption date has expired. For what I received, a $35-$40 price range is about right.
Final Thoughts:
I did receive the Rookie Redemption of R3. Jonathan Huberdeau from the Florida Panthers but it expired a year ago. I hate redemption cards. If you want to include rookies, then hold off releasing the sets until they have signed and you can produce the cards. Otherwise, it is a solid but unspectacular release. If the big hit out of the packs is a Simon Gagne piece of jersey and you can still halfways like the product, then you know that it is a good thing. I am thinking about completing the base set just because.
Box Value: 3 out of 5.
