The fine folks at Upper Deck provided me an opportunity to open a box of 2020-21 SP Authentic Hockey. In this post I’ll share both the results of that box break and my overall thoughts on the product!

Overview

SP Authentic is a staple in the hobby world. The brand dates back to the 90s and has plenty of fans. The checklist layers a variety of subsets and can create some confusion for set collectors. It’s not necessarily easy to determine what is considered a complete set. Hobby boxes contain 18 packs with five cards in each pack. At the time of release the boxes were retailing for about $250-$300 on eBay.

The first 100 cards are considered the “base set”, and it is completely made up of veterans. The next 16 cards are called the “base celebrated moments set”. These unnumbered cards fall one in six packs. The next 31 cards are the “base future icons set” and these cards are serial numbered to just /199. Finally, cards 148-232 are the ‘base future watch rookies” set and are numbered to /999. This is where it can get a bit complicated for set collectors. About 75% of these are autographed and the remaining cards are serial numbered only. Several parallels exist for all these tiers of base cards.

A variety of insert cards also exist for collectors to chase.

First up is a massive 100 card 2000-01 Retro set. There is a Spectrum parallel for the card in this set which is numbered to /100. There are 15 Retro Future Watch cards which are numbered to /500. The Spectrum Fx insert set creates a Bounty Program chase element. These inserts fall into a variety of scarcity tiers:

Veterans 1:18 packs

Future Watch Level 1 1:36 packs

Future Watch Level 2 1:90 packs

Future Watch Level 3 1:360 packs

Future Watch Level 4 Bounty Reward

There is also a ten card Top Performers set which falls 1:30 packs and a 21 card True Leaders set which falls 1:8 packs. In addition there is an unannounced Acetate Young Guns set but the specifics are still a bit vague since it was a surprise!

Box Break

I enjoyed opening this box. I did not hit anything huge, but I did end up with three autos in my box instead of two!

In my opinion, the base cards look really nice. The player is featured overtop of a greyish white background. What I really like about the design is that the players photo has a glossy finish that really pops on the matte white/gray background. It looks awesome in person but I think it’s hard to do it justice in a photo.

The three autos I received in my box were a Sign of the Times Marc Staal, a Brayden Schenn, and a John Leonard Future Watch. All the autographs were on-card which is nice. If given a choice, I’d take on-card autos over stickers every day.

The only parallels in my box were the common red base parallels. They were ok, but didn’t really do anything for me. The Top Performers and True Leaders inserts were ok, but nothing about the design of those cards was notable in my opinion. However, I really like the Retro set. It provides a nice 100 card complement to the base set. I think collectors could have a lot of fun putting together the 100 card base set and the 100 card retro set. I got the one expected Spectrum Fx card which looked kind of cool, and if you are a die-hard, the bounty chase will be a challenge. I think this is a creative twist that Upper Deck has in place and I hope we see more of this type of program in the future!

Wrapping It Up

Overall, I really enjoyed this product. The base cards look really nice and there are a variety of both hits and inserts to chase. My only real complaint is around how the lines between hits and base set numbering are blurred. I prefer a clean line between what is in the base set and what is a hit or insert. I’d also say that the prices at release are a bit higher than I’d like based on what the product is designed to be. I think $275 a box is a bit steep and would be more comfortable if they were in the $150 range.

Have you opened any of these? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!

Also, if you haven’t heard, I have a podcast called the WaxPackHero Sports Card Minute!  It’s available here directly on the site at the Podcast link at the top of the page, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Amazon!  Check it out, let me know what you think, and tell your friends!