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Product Review: 2019 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors |
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While Upper Deck specializes in NHL cards, they’ve been releasing this Team Canada Juniors product since 2013 and one has got to admit that this is a very good product for its price point. Furthermore, we all know that Canada is hockey mad and its talent pool is always second to none every year so featuring it in a dedicated product was a stroke of genius from Upper Deck and adding in the alumni as well as the women from the national team just made it even better. Each box contains 15 packs of 5 cards and should yield 4 hits (either autograph, memorabilia or both at once) and will set you back about $105.
The 100 cards base set features Canada’s top U-18 and U-20 prospects, the 2018 women’s team and greats from Canada’s past. Much like in the ever popular Upper Deck Series 1 and 2, you will also find Exclusive and High gloss parallels numbered to 225 and 25 respectively while the Black parallels are numbered to 5. Also included are the Program of Excellence inserts with Exclusives and High gloss parallels numbered to 99 and 25, the all-new Golden Futures Autograph Parallel insert set. What really sets this product appart from others though is the insanely good looking patch you can find in it and not just every once in a while, you’ll get some spectacular patch in every box from what I’ve seen.
Of course, this product is a little different from NHL releases, these are not all star players so there is an element of gamble to it. This year though, the hunt for Alexis Lafrenière is on and not just in the NHL. He’s of course present in the checklist of this product on numerous occasion, in the base set, as an exclusive, a high gloss and a base black auto, as a base premium swatch autograph (in the for of a short print with 25 copies only), in the base jersey form, in the Program of Excellence set and the Golden Future one (both as non auto and autographed version). It’s safe to say that his presence boosts the value of the product since he’s the consensus number 1 draft pick of the next draft.
It’s also worth mentioning that Upper Deck is not kidding when they mention the base premium swatch, this product has got some of the most spectacular patches I’ve seen. At the Montreal Anti-Expo, Team Canada Juniors was really popular with collectors for that very reason, every one was chasing the spectacular patches.
Without further delay, here’s what the box Upper Deck provided us yielded hits wise:
32. Josh Brook Base Premium Swatch Autograph 45/199
59. Micah Zandee-Hart Premium Swatch Autograph 91/199
36. Markus Phillips Base Jersey
2. Jamieson Aees Base Jersey
Program of Excellence:
105. Kaedan Korczak
116. Alex Newhook
120. Connor Zary
140. Samuel Poulin
Exclusives:
3. Jakob Pelletier 46/250
22. Cody Glass 200/250
23. Joseph Veleno 109/250
45. Sarah Nurse 73/250
77. Haedan Horczak
High Gloss:
51. Blayre Turnbull 2/25
Golden Future:
GF-18 Peyton Krebs
Overall, this was a pretty nice break with two premium swatch hits instead of the guaranteed one and I must say that I really love the inclusion of the Team Canada Women in this product. It’s great for fans of the women’s game to be able to collect these cards. I’d go a step further though and perhaps include a Rivals sub set which could feature the best women from the other countries such as Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel from Team USA and Noora Raty from Finland for instance.
Grades
Design: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Resale value: 4/5
Variety: 3.5/5
Break enjoyment:5/5
Final grade: 86%
Personally, I love the simple design of this set, in action shot of the players with the main player in colours while the others are faded in black and white at the back. It really makes the featured athlete pop out and I can’t say enough about the look of those patches. This year, the product gets a value boost thanks to the inclusion of Alexis Lafrenière and that’s always welcome by collectors and serial breakers alike. I feel the product could have a bit more variety though which is the only area where I believe improvement is really needed. Nothing to say from a break enjoyment standpoint though, this is a great product and the thrill of the chase sure helps keeping the breaker on their toes.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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