Anyone has any opinions on this release?
Anyone pre-order?

Are you serious? Do you have the sell sheet?

I think this will be a premium product out of my price range but something that people who buy the Cup or the higher end stuff will be buying. The preview was in UD Ice according to this article:


Upper Deck Warns Hockey Collectors to Watch Out for Black Ice

UD Black preview cards were randomly inserted into 2007-08 Upper Deck ICE Hockey

Carlsbad, CA (March 25, 2008) - Drivers in colder climates are frequently warned to watch out for black ice which is the weather condition where water freezes over a highway in the evening, giving morning travelers quite a surprise when they hit these patches. Collectors who have been busy opening packs and boxes of 2007-08 Upper Deck Ice Hockey have received quite a surprise as well when they found high-end, short-printed UD Black preview cards in the ICE packs.

As a special unannounced preview of UD Black Hockey, Upper Deck has randomly inserted limited-edition quad jersey and quad autograph jersey cards into 2007-08 Upper Deck ICE Hockey. The "Black Ice" quad autograph versions are all hard signed and include such NHL stars as Martin Brodeur, Ilya Kovalchuk, Joe Thornton, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky.

"The stealth inclusion of short-printed UD Black preview cards has created some great excitement around 2007-08 Upper Deck ICE Hockey," said Josh Zusman, Upper Deck Hockey brand manager. "We felt a technology driven product like ICE was the perfect product to introduce just some of what we have planned for Upper Deck Black Hockey and the cards seem to be very popular so far."


Dave and Adams has this presell information but no pre-sell pricing:

APPROXIMATE Release Date: 09/10/2008
2 packs per box, 2 cards per pack

Every pack contains (1) Autograph or Multi-Swatch Memorabilia Card and (1) Rookie Letterman Patch Card!

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
Two Awesome Hits in Every Pack, on average:
o An autograph or multi-swatch memorabilia card!
o A Rookie Letterman Patch Card!

Highlighted by Autographed Manufactured Flag Patch "Pride of a Nation" cards!

Collect sweet Marks of Obsidian cards!
o With an autograph and a patch, single and dual versions!

Four distinct inserts with cut signatures - some paired with recent superstars!
Commemorative "Game Night Ticket" cards, with 1 or 2 autographs on each!
Tons of triple and quad memorabilia cards, some jerseys, some patches and some combos!

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:
" UD Black Cards (combining to deliver an avg. of 1 per pack!)
o Regular Cards - Quad Jersey - numbered to 99
o Regular Cards - Jersey/Patch, Gold Parallel - numbered to 15
o Regular Cards - Patch, Blue Parallel - numbered to 1

o Auto Jerseys (Quads) - numbered to 25
o Auto Patches (Quads) - numbered to 5
o Dual Player Auto Jerseys (Quads) - numbered to 15
o Dual Player Auto Patches (Quads) - numbered to 3
o Dual Player Jerseys (Quads) - numbered to 50
o Dual Player Jersey/Patch, Gold Parallel (Quads) - numbered to 25
o Dual Player Patch, Blue Parallel (Quads) - numbered to 5

o Trios Jerseys - numbered to 50
o Foursomes Jerseys - numbered to 25
o Trios Gold Parallel Jerseys - numbered to 10
o Foursomes Gold Parallel Jerseys - numbered to 5
o Trios Blue Parallel Patches - numbered to 1
o Foursomes Blue Parallel Patches - numbered to 1

o 3-on-3 Jerseys - numbered to 10
o 4-on-4 Jerseys - numbered to 5
o 3-on-3 Jerseys, Gold Parallel - numbered to 5
o 4-on-4 Jerseys, Gold Parallel - numbered to 3
o 3-on-3 Jerseys, Blue Parallel - numbered to 1
o 4-on-4 Jerseys, Blue Parallel - numbered to 1

o Pride of a Nation Autographed Patches - numbered to 25

Blowout has it pre-sell at $210 a box?

That's too pricey for me. I'll just look for singles on ebay like I do with any high end product.....Although I would like to feel the thrill of opening something high end for once.

Mike

I for one disliked the baseball release SO much that I will not be buying any of this.

Two risky for two cards in my opinion.

Instead I will continue to amass my money for ITG Ultimate VIII boxes!

I went ahead and pre-ordered a case...I'm a gambling man!!

Acee...what are you getting Ultimate for in pre-release? My guy doesn't have any info yet?

I might grab a box for giggles. The Football rookie class seems rather weak this year, so I'm staying away.

I agree with Steve on this one! The rookie class this year isn't deep and Upper Deck has already put in wayyyyyy too many whozit rookies in their high-end releases (The Cup, Ultimate, Sweet Shot, OPC Premier) Unless there's a guaranteed case hit and you get a full case, this is going to high risk!

Cards I've seen from the Ice previews are beautiful however I must agree that it's probably too high risk for me.

Steve

I agree with Thecircusmonkey, but I feel that way every year. You have 4-5 great rookies each year that will make or break your bust but they usually put 100 rookies in this stuff so odds are against you pulling that one great hit. Even in base UD it is the same just unbalance between the series. This year S1 had 4 good rcs (Kane, Price, Gagner, Bernier) and S2 has 1 good rc (Toews). Thus 4 in 50 pushed the price of those boxes to $90s, while S2 flutters just below the initial opening price of $60 a box.

With a product like Black, Cup, Ultimate even if they lower the rcs to the better 50 you still have a very small chance of hitting the top 5 and with only 2 rcs a box you have as good of odds as hitting the lottery.

UD Black Hockey, SWEET!!

Good point. One more thing that annoys me to no end is that not only do they put in a lot of whozit rookies, the good ones are usually short printed. It's hard enough as it is to get a good rookie from the huge rookie checklist, but short printing the better ones is like stealing your lunch money and then kicking you in the nuts for good measure.

It caters more towards the gamblers and people looking for a monster jackpot hit, and really does a disservice to people trying to collect and/or make a full set. 05-06 Ice is a perfect example where only 99 "complete" sets can be made, because of the Level 1 rookie print runs. Those top end rookie cards would still hold good value without having to short print them.

I think it looks great put as others have said maybe to high and hard to get your money back.

Do you guys think that a player like Nathen Gerbe from BC a Sabre now will be in any products this year?

Yes I think in 05-06 they could have made the better rcs out of 499 and they would have held value. As it is I will never complete that set as there is no way I can afford most of the top ones.

Later products he will probably be included in, that is assuming he plays in an NHL game for the Sabres.

Figure he will not make Victory (already released, might make UD S2 Victory Update release), Artifacts (unless a redemption), UD S1, and Black Diamond will be cutting it close as well since it releases in December. So realistically he would have to play his first game in October in order to make the December and after releases. I doubt he will make Artifacts and UD S1 as those will be in production in October unless he is part of the rookie redemption program.

Leave it to a Pens fan to forget about the Calder runner-up Nicklas Backstrom.

How could you forget him, he scored a goal for you last year!

Of course Tricky Nick only made series 1 stronger at Series 2's expense.

Who, you mean the Wild's goalie???


Sorry, was not meant to slight ol Nicky! Just was not on the top of my list.

HEY, HEY, Setoguchi was good too....



...alright, I'll crawl back into my hole.

So, who broke some Black?

I think the only card I have seen from this is the McCormick Letter marks...not sure if I've even seen any of the base in it in person...

Not me, not at $200 a pack. Saw a guy who busted some and was trying to sell at the show. Nice looking stuff, but what he had did not sway my opinion not to pay that much for a pack.

I broke 2 cases..

I thought you might have, but didn't see a break thread...

quite a few redemptions but Ive gotten most of them

Highlight was a dual game ticket #/5 roy/brodeur

roy quad patch auto #/5

Lots of letters!!!! but no rookie redeemers

somebody else broke some boxes here

got a crosby marks of obsidian and a eric johnson lustrous materials 1/1 which was pretty cool.

I just cant remember who it was..

the pride of a nation cards in this product are beautiful

Nice cards but out of my price range for hockey cards