With 2020-21 Series 1, Upper Deck has delivered an outstanding hockey card set.  The combination of photography, star power, and unique inserts make this one of my favorite “flagship” products from the last couple years!

The Breakdown

Following the pattern of the last few years, the 2020-21 Series 1 base set includes 250 cards.  The first 200 are made of of veterans, and 201-250 are the always popular short printed Young Guns cards.  Young Guns fall in about 1 in 4 packs or 6 per hobby box.  The photography of this set is outstanding.  Action photos, unique candid shots, and some of the first pictures of rookies in their pro uniforms are all appealing aspects of the set.

The prospect everyone is after this year is Alexis LaFreniere from the New York Rangers.  He hasn’t played in an NHL game yet, but his young guns card is already selling for over $200.  This is actually a little bit of a divergence from the norm.  Traditionally, part of the NHLPA and Upper Deck agreement is that players could not have an NHL card unless they had played in at least one NHL game.  However, with the COVID shortened 2019-20 season, Upper Deck was granted an exception to include Alexis as well as a couple other players in the set even before making their NHL debut.

Upper Deck really stepped up their game with the inserts this year.  They have a retro 90s vibe that I’m really digging!  Let’s take a closer look at the lineup.

The Portraits are back again, but with a twist!  The logo is a very 90’s, brightly colored font, and the background has the school photo laser background that was all the rage in 1992.  Next up is the 50 card Dazzlers set.  I typically don’t care for “patterned background” cards, but these really stand out.  The player is over top of a metallic blue background that really seems to come alive as you rotate the card.  The Dazzlers name is in neon pink at the bottom of the card. I’m a big fan.  The Predominant set is the other insert that makes my list of favorites.  In this horizontal set, the player is in full color, but the background of the photo has been converted into black and white.  The photo combines with a black and sliver foil logo to make a really nice looking card.

The traditional Canvas parallel, Rookie Retrospective, NHL Worldwide, and Debut dates are the other standard insert sets.  There are are variety of other sets unique to retail packaging.  In addition, there are some very limited insert sets.  The Day With The Cup set falls 1:2,880 hobby packs, the Cup Components set falls 1:900 packs, Clear Cut Foundation Duo and Trios fall 1:288 and 1:4,000 respectively.

Hits are not a major focus of the product, but there are a variety of autographs and relics included.  It seems autographs only fall in one or two boxes per hobby case.  Relic cards are more common.  In the three boxes I opened, there was one relic in each box.

My Box Break

I opened one hobby box and two retail boxes of 24 packs.  The main reason I went this route was price.  I was chasing Young Guns, and there are just as many rookies in the retail boxes as the hobby boxes at almost half the cost!  

This was the first time in a while I’ve opened new, sealed wax. The price of NBA, NFL, and MLB cards has been ridiculous in 2020, however this brand new hockey release was very reasonably priced.

I ended up with 18 regular Young Guns, and two Canvas Young guns.  These base and insert cards provide a big piece of the value you get with hockey cards.  Unfortunately I didn’t get an Alexis LaFreniere, but I did get a couple Leafs rookies for the PC.

With some box breaks, you can just fly through the cards and most of the enjoyment comes from finding the hits.  With 2020-21 Upper Deck Hockey Series 1, taking the time to look at each of these base and insert cards was super fun.  I took about three hours to enjoy the experience of opening and going through these three boxes.

I kept a Leafs team set and about a dozen other base and inserts for my PC and will be selling the rest on Sportlots, eBay and in the shop.

Overall, I’m estimating that I’ll break even with these boxes.

Checklist

I would recommending checking out the full checklist on Beckett.com.

Also, if you haven’t heard, I started a new 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, Amazon, and TuneIn!  Check it out, let me know what you think, and tell your friends!