UD & ITG - Best Product of the Year (EACH) in Your Opinion & Why!

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NJDEVILS30

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Hi All,

Call this a positive vibes thread.

I'm hoping to put together an article for IE about the favourite ITG and UD product this year, and figured I'd ask you, the members of the HI community for your input!

RULES:

State your favourite UD AND ITG product for 08/9 and briefly describe why you have chosen it. Feel free to comment on the quality of your box breaks, and how enjoyable they were as well.

DO NOT state why you don't like a particular product or manufacturer.

Will be interesting to see which products win! I will profile them for the article, so all positive input will be very useful!

Thanks for your time!
 
Since I am a set builder, I found that the OPC set was fun to build, even if they did it in 2 lots (for the first time). As for ITG, I loved what they did with BTP this year. Those Super Pads are absolutely stunning!
 
ITG....Between the Pipes....candidate for product of the year

UD....OPC and OPC Update......Fun to put together..comes with "shiny" cards
 
I really cut back on my wax busting a lot this year - but the one release that really had me and my family excited was UD Champs and, namely, the MINI Natural History cards.

We aren't there yet but getting closer by the day but my wife, daughter and I have all had a good time putting these together.

Didn't spend too much time on the ITG side of the house but have picked up a number of the Ultimate singles and really like the design of those cards.
 
The best Upper Deck product for the 08-09 season has been, hands down, the Montreal Canadiens Centennial release. Put together by the Canadiens and using UD as the vehicle, this set delivers in a big way. As a lifelong Canadiens fan, every hit is a PC item and even though I've put together 4 full base sets I still get the urge to bust this stuff open in the hopes of the ever-elusive and much-desired autos, jerseys, and more. I've been able to get over 40 of the Habs Inks autos and have almost a complete jersey set, and I just love it. The set continues to sell very well, so all those dupes make excellent bait to--you guessed it--go out and get more Centennial! My box breaks have been strong - on release day I cracked two boxes and my biggest hit was a Price/Markov dual auto #'d /50. The next day I got another half-box and pulled a Langway/Savard/Markov triple auto #'d /15. That's bang for the buck! For the PC aspect alone, to say nothing of the set's attractiveness and its value, this set is hands-down my big winner for UD.

For In The Game, I was a big fan of Heroes & Prospects this year. I know that most folks will gravitate towards Between the Pipes, and even though they honoured the Habs with the very cool Bleu Blanc Rouge set, I also really like collecting the stars of tomorrow. My connection with the Kelowna Rockets runs deep even though I'm a few thousand kilometres away, so getting to see them represented is always a treat. Plus, H&P always has some of the future Habs stars--PK Subban, Ben Maxwell, and Max Pacioretty have all gotten the H&P treatment this year to varying degrees. And of course you simply cannot go wrong with the He Shoots He Scores redemption program - for my points I got the Ovechkin/Datsyuk + Ovy auto. A beautiful card that was very hard to give up - except that it was for the Roy/Price + Price auto from the same set. My biggest pack hit from H&P this year was a Taylor Hall auto. I've been hanging on to it since the pull knowing full well that its value will appreciate from the measly figure Beckett currently attaches to it. Sure enough, with a Memorial Cup MVP under his belt, the consensus #1 draft pick for 2010 is starting to get the whispers and hobby love already.
 
Wow, to have a grand winner like this...

UD product: O-Pee-Chee. Amazing base set became a phenomenal parallel set. The 5 different parallels were all distinct, and made it interesting. Hits of some sort always delivered. A fair early rookie crop helped. Great buybacks, rare signatures, etc., and nice memorabilia trios. A little bit tarnished by the update set and it's Metal parallels, but it met the early high expectations and exceeded them with hits like the Winter Classic and unannounced Blank Back parallels.

ITG product: Bleu Blanc et Rouge. I actually didn't crack any of the Leafs Franchise version, so this isn't intended as a slight. I really, really felt like I was opening a vault with this product, between the book and pack placement. Given I'm still under 30, I could only appreciate a fair amount of the history without going back and reading more, but getting some amazing Beliveau hits really, really made my evening. A old-style rouge parallel base card of Maurice Richard was just a beautiful thing as well.

Good luck with the article.

-Michael
 
ITG... Between the pipes, great card designs and "hits" in almost every box

UD... OPC, It has cards of players that dont usually have cards in other products which is great for a team collector, like myself.
 
ITG: Between The Pipes without question. The memorabilia hits and value per box was enough to warrant my first ever case break, a rapidly-growing memorabilia PC, and my first "Made to Order" experience. My favorite product of all-time right now.

UD: Didn't really break many UD boxes or pick up many singles, but as a Leafs fan it really pains me to admit that UD did a great job on the Centennial set this year. The cards are holding value, if not increasing in value, and collectors still can't get enough of it. As a matter of fact it's payday and maybe I'll run to my local Wal-Mart and try my luck at another blaster tin ;)
 
ITG: Heroes and Prospects. Just a perfect set for collectors like us that love the junior and AHl cards and checking back in a year to see what unkowns are now prospects! Also the boxes are fun to open and the jersey and auto sets are great looking.

UD: Series 1 and Series 2. Fun breaks. Jerseys, sometimes an auto, lots of inserts, and of course the young guns which a lot of the time is the first rookie card made by UD of the guys making NHL debuts. Also very affordable with a chance at a high end patch or auto and always at least one big rookie hit possible (Crosby, Ovie, Kane, Toews, Stamkos, etc.)
 
Wow, thanks everyone who has replied so far, this is great stuff!

Personally I agree with the majority so far - BTP was incredible, and those goalie memorabilia cards were very unique!

UD hit one out of the park with UD Black - I love the different colours of ink that were used for signatures, great checklist and new ideas like Pride of a Nation. The Cup will, however, get my vote based solely on the inclusion of the Brodeur 552W autographed cards. If I can get one of each of the Chirography and Emblems of Endorsement singles, they will instantly be among the most meaningful in my collection.
 
UD - Canadiens Centennial set for sure! The selection of players, the inserts, and of course the GU and Autos made this a fantastic set for any Habs fan or any true hockey fan, in general. It's one of those sets where even the base set matters and isn't just another. It's a stand out standalone product!

ITG - although I like BBR, I'm going to go with BTP... I like this set year in and year out, but ITG outdid themselves. Beauty designs, great memorabilia peices, and not only was there extra value per box due to being loaded up, each hit was great on their own individual basis. Every box was a fun rip!
 
ITG - BTP by a mile. BB&R was nice but just not worth the pack price.

UD - Habs Centennial - just no denying the legs this set has. We haven;t seen anything respond on the secondary market like this stuff in a long, long, time.

Darren
 
UD- Montreal Centennial set for sure! Amazing resale value, simple but nice design, and auto's / jerseys / parallels that made even retail tins worth opening! I would have went with OPC, but to me, compared to 07-08 it was a letdown. No normal buybacks (I know many of them were bad, but I enjoyed the chance at pulling a sweet original vintage card and even pulled a Bob Gainey rookie from a box), triple instead of quad jerseys, some terrifically poor buyback autos, and an all around weaker design left me wanting more.

ITG- Hands down BTP! The super pad and glove cards were awesome and it was nice to see the insert ratios beefed up. I'm not a fan of copious parallels a la Artifacts, but a simple base parallel could have been added which would have sweetened the deal for me!
 
I don't really break/buy wax so I'll give this a shot:

ITG: I'd have to say that BTP gets my vote here. I constantly catch myslef thinking of picking up a super pad or glove. I have no use for them, other then a brodeur which I can't afford, but they just look so cool from the outside.

UD: I really like Premier, but my guy wasn't in it, I really like the Cup, but my guy wasn't in it. So i'm going off the board and puting a vote in for ICE. I really dig the card designs and I really like the look of the glacial graphs. I think it is perhaps outside of black one of the truely original products UD has. It has a nice crop of rc's, is very affordable and offers varity. The only downfall, it doesn't hold it's resale. But I do like looking at the stuff.
 
ITG: Going against the grain, I'd go with Superlative Franchise, but then again, I'm a Tim Horton collector! I also love all the great autos and GU memorabilia I've been able to pick up from Barilko, Broda, Kennedy, etc!

If second choices were allowed, I'd have to say BTP with great value in each box and fantastic card designs, such as the super sized pads.

UD: Going off the beaten track a bit by not choosing OPC, and going with Black instead. Although I didn't break any wax, I picked up a bunch of singles and now have a great Game Night Ticket PC.
 
for ITG: Between the Pipes. Reasonable and loaded with great stuff. The Super-Sized Pads and Super Gloves were a hoot.

for UD: The Cup. They amped up their signature product to the point where it is pretty hard to get a bad tin.

Dave
 
ITG: Between the Pipes. period

-Awesome design, new ideas and the swatches are usually darn nice looking.


UD: none

-just meh, blah, nah..... and oh yeah, I forgot: TOO MUCH STUFF!!!!!!! :|


Matias
 

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