How does a hobby box of 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP compare to a box of 2022-23 Upper Deck Extended Series?
I appreciate the opportunity to review Upper Deck products. They provided me with a couple recent hobby boxes to open and review. A couple months ago, I shared my reviews as a box battle, comparing the highlights of each product as well as my suggestions on areas of improvement! I thought I’d do that again, so here you are, 2022-23 Upper Deck Extended Series vs. 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP.
The Details
I’m excited to be able to feature two “entry level” products in this battle. The Extended Series is part 3 of Upper Decks flagship run and puts a bow on the end of the 2022-23 season. MVP is a long running brand in the UD lineup and traditionally kicks off the new season with an affordable product for collectors.
I love entry level products. In my opinion they highlight the heart of the hobby. They are affordable sets which provide an opportunity to collect a deep checklist of players with a variety of designs and chase elements when you include the inserts and parallels.
At the time of this article, the both boxes are selling for $60-$70 per box!
2022-23 Upper Deck Extended Series
The Extended Series box has 24 packs, with 8 cards in each pack. The base set extends the UD flagship checklist by another 250 cards. Similar to Series 1 and 2, the final 50 cards feature rookies as either a Young Guns card or a 1st Round Rookies card. Five different parallels exist for the base set included French (1:120), Clear Cut (1:288), Exclusives /100, High Gloss /10, and Clear Cut Exclusives. In addition to the standard parallels, 25 limited photo variations an additional chase. These variations were a surprise and were not mentioned in the sell sheets.
While autographs are available, they are not the primary focus of Extended Series. Instead, the parallels, rookies, and inserts drive much of the demand and collectibility of this product.
There are about 15 or 16 insert sets, most of which focus on retro designs from Upper Deck’s past. It kind of gives my the Chronicles of Hockey vibes!
2022-23 Upper Deck Extended Series examples of base design and three inserts.
2023-24 Upper Deck MVP
The MVP box contains 20 packs with 8 cards in each pack.
The MVP base set includes 250 cards, with the final 50 cards being short printed. While technically they are more limited than cards 1-200, they are not difficult to find and do not really carry much of a “SP” premium. There are six different parallels for the base cards ranging from 1 per pack Ice Battles to 1/1 printing plates.
Similar to the Extended Series, MVP does have the possibility of autographs, but they are hard to come by (1:800 packs) and are not the primary focus of the release.
Cards from five different insert sets are found in each box and a variety of parallels exist for many of those sets as well.
2023-24 Upper Deck MVP inserts and parallels.
The Battle
I opened one box of each product and in this section I’ll be comparing my thoughts on both the enjoyment from opening and the value I received in each box.
First up is the Extended Series box. I was very pleased with the card quality. Over the last couple years, Upper Deck has struggled from time to time with print defects and damaged cards coming from the packs. That was not an issue with this box. They cards looked and felt fantastic.
Part of my enjoyment with opening wax is the process and experience of ripping. The 24 packs allows for a good pack opening experience without getting boring. The variety of inserts and parallels makes every pack a fresh experience.
I received:
1 High Gloss parallel /10 of Kevin Fiala
1 French Parallel
3 Young Guns
3 First Round Rookies
17 Inserts from 10 different insert sets. This was the box content that hits all the nostalgic feels since so many of the inserts are based on past releases from decades past.
A whole pile of base cards with great photography.
Next is the MVP Box.
With twenty packs of 8 cards, the opening experience is pretty comparable. Again, I like that. I don’t focus on the lottery ticket/gambling aspect of breaking so I want my packs to last.
The ice battles parallel provides the opportunity to play pack wars with a strength “score” on the back.
There was a bit less variety with this box since there aren’t as many different inserts, and a Ice Battles parallel comes in pretty much every pack. I should say the Ice Battles concept is pretty cool. The “game” cards provides a direct opportunity to play pack wars or another game of your own making. It’s a fun way to add some utility to the collection you are building.
My MVP box breakdown looked like this:
1 insert parallel /250
1 insert parallel /20
6 Silver Signatures parallels
20 Ice Battles parallels
12 inserts from all 5 insert sets
A pile of base cards.
From a pure financial perspective, neither box was a total bust, but the Extended series provided a bit more value. A few of the rookies and the High Gloss out of /10 were nice finds in the Extended Series box. Overall, both were pretty in line with what you would expect.
The MVP box was still fun and if you enjoy playing pack wars, having the game essentially built into every pack makes it easy and fun to play. I got a /20 parallel in this box which helped the value and provided an opportunity to start a fairly scarce set if I wanted to start chasing.
So who won? Which provided a better experience to me?
The Extended Series box!
At essentially the same price, it’s hard to argue with the content you get out of the Extended Series. You get more cards, a wide variety of inserts, more opportunity for parallels, and some great photography on the base cards.
The MVP set is still a great product, and if pricing was closer to what we’ve seen in the past with the Extended series being over $100 and the MVP box closer to $50, the MVP would be a great box for the money.
But as of this writing, they are roughly the same price and I think the Extended Series gives you the better bang for your buck!
Have you opened these products? What was your experience like? What about in past years, was your cost or experience different?
I only opened one box of each? I wonder what the experience would be like for a whole case?