Box Break: 99-00 Upper Deck MVP Stanley Cup Edition

My box has finally arrived! This post can be considered another addition to "my firsts", this time it would be my first box break. And boy, did I enjoy it! I invited a friend over to help me get through all the packs (36 in total), to keep me company and to increase the unpacking fun. And fun we had.

I hoped I would be able to complete the base set and that goal was indeed achieved. The set consists of 220 base cards, two of which are checklist and 25 of them are Prospect subset. Here is how it looks like:

 

I honestly like the set, it has pretty sweet looking base cards IMO with decent, but not-so-awesome photographs and nice font, I also like the "net" below players' names. Moreover, the set includes the very same card with silver foil AND silver autograph, called the Silver Script. I got a couple of those. On other person's blog I read that also Gold Script and Super Script exist, but I got neither of those, so I don't think I'm gonna pursue those.

As for particular cards, I like the photos and equipment of Mike Dunham and Sean Burke, I shed a tear for Tomáš Vokoun, as he is not included in this set :-( Being a Eddie Belfour collector, I was really looking forward to finding his card in the pack. As I was opening the packs, Eddie was nowhere to be found. I was panic-stricken, for there was only one pack left. Believe or not, Eddie became my card number 360/360, the very last card from the box and I felt a HUGE relief and a little wink of fate when I found it. Not only it expanded my Belfour collection, it completed the base set as well!

I posted the Sedin twins cards from the Prospect subset to show how the Subset looks like - not much different from the NHL cards of the set. Sedins were the only two players from SHL, the rest was chosen from CHL, therefore the names of the rest are in red, not in yellow. What I find interesting is the Wayne Primeau card. Normally, his name should be in red area, as shown on Hašek's card, because they were both Buffalo players. If you inspect the card further, you will see that Primeau was traded to Tampa and therefore the color changed. Nothing strange, really. What IS weird is the fact, that Tampa cards use completely different color - dark blue, rather than turquoise. It is actually only used on San Jose cards. 

Below, you can see a selection of Silver Script cards. I find Terry Yake's signature particularly interesting. Look closely. What do you see? Looks like Terry uses one technique to write all the letters. We laughed out loud, when we opened the pack and saw this signature.

Let's have a look at the inserts now, shall we? :-)

 

This insert is called "Cup Contenders" and is very neat-looking. It is covered in shiny foil and gives the illusion of speed, using black and white dashes. Although it is not clearly visible, it uses team colors. In this box, I got

5 Cup Contenders:

Milan Hejduk, David Legwand, Marian Hossa, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Kariya

I'm not sure about Steve Kariya being so elite though. 

 

 Stanley Cup Talent: 8 players

 I can be quite satisfied with the amount of cards I got here, the total number is 20, so I got almost a half. Not bad. I really like team colors again and half of the Stanley Cup on the left.

The players I got in this insert were:

 Ray Bourque (in Boston jersey, although he is shown wearing the Avs jersey in the base set), Patrick Roy, Brett Hull (who scored the cup winning goal in 98-99, which made me extremely happy, being the Stars fan :) )

nice looking Sergei Fedorov card, Jaromír Jágr, Jeremy Roenick,  Keith Tkachuk and Peter Bondra.

 Great selection of players indeed. Too bad Eddie is not included.

 

Golden Memories: 2 cards

Golden Memories tells the story of the players who managed to win the Cup and informs us about how valuable they were for their respective teams. I like this insert more then the previous two, because of the oval-shaped design, funky looking font (reminds me of some bar or something) and those little stories.

So far, I got Mike Modano and Martin Brodeur, both are players which I like a lot.

 

Second Season Snipers: 1 card 

Very modern-looking insert, covered in rainbow foil. It reminds me of the Matrix somehow. I like the gold foil used on the MVP logo, the dividing line and on the Snipers font, which looks also very cool, as if it was shot through by a bullet.

 

Clutch Performers: 2 cards 

 This type of insert is the nicest of the whole set IMO. Again, it doesn't really show on the picture, but the gold foil used on the frame looks just plain cool. It contrast with the background with enlarged and faded copies of players extremely well. And yay for me for getting Jaromír Jágr! :-)

Last, but not least...

 

Great Combinations: 1 card

I was VERY lucky to get this card. Actually, I got it a week ago in one of the packs, but nevertheless, I waited for this moment to show off. That little black round thing in the middle is an actual game-used puck!

Design of the card is quite plain and simple, but most of the game-used memorabilia cards are. Still, a wonderful catch!

That's about it! I plan to finish my collection of every insert in this set, but I have no interest in collecting the "Script" cards, as they are just way too many and not so easy to find in our country.