2011-12 O-Pee-Chee Box Break

OPC has been my favorite product to bust for years, and 2011-12 has proved to be no exception!!  I had a case hit in my first box (that I thought I had posted about, but it appears that I did not) a few months back (Brayden Schenn Team Canada Auto - I will put a scan at the end of this post).

I have also picked up a number of both hobby and retail packs as well and ended up pulling another signature card and a Bobby Hull black rainbow retro parallel, so needless to say its been a pretty good year from the hits perspective.  Regardless of the hits, trying to put together the complete base set always proves to be a daunting task given the base is 500 cards (not counting the Rooks and Legends SPs).

A typical box contains 36 packs with 6 cards per pack.  Per the UD website, an average [hobby] box break will contain:

• 36 Retro variations
• 4 Playoff Beard variations
• 1 In-Action Laminated card
• 4 Rookie Updates (’10-11)
• 1 Rookie Update Retro (’10-11)
• 9 Reg. Set Rainbow parallels

An average case break will land you the following in addition to the per box hits:

• 3 O-Pee-Chee Souvenirs (quad jerseys)
• 2 O-Pee-Chee Signatures
• 1 Team Canada Signatures
• 3 Rookie Update Retro Rainbow parallels

 Anywho, I picked up my second hobby box of the product today.  How did I do??

I noticed rather quickly that there was something amiss in the box.  The first 7 packs I opened had 5 cards, each but did contain the retro card.  Further into the box a half/dozen packs only had 4 cards (still a retro per tho) and one had eight cards with a extra retro card...so I probably ended up getting shorted in the base card area, but here is the breakdown on the number of base, retro, and other cards contained in my box:

• 37 Packs (above average)
• 104 base cards (below average I would think);
• 5 Playoff Beard variations (one more than the average): Cleary, Boyle, Carter, Giroux, Mara;
• 3 Black Rainbow variations (which are not even noted above or on the packs with odds): Parros (love the old-time stache he is rockin), Tom Gilbert, Tim Kerr Legend;
• 2 In-Action cards (one more than the average):  Spezza (which is available for trade since I just pulled the same one last week) and Zetterberg;
• 9 Regular Set Rainbow parallels (the average) including Paul Coffey (which I think is a sharp looking card, scanned below), Sauve (rook), Gagner, Pavelec (OJ!!), Raymond, McDonagh, Hamhuis, Legwand, Colaiacovo;
• 10 Legends SP cards (above average): Bathgate, Kurri, Dionne, Doug Wilson, Neely (Kick his @$$ SEABASS), Denis Potvin, Hawerchuk, Sakic, Milt Schmidt, Red Kelly;
• 9 Rookie SP cards (above average): Campanale, McMillan, Blum, Todd Ford, Strair, Frattin, Bouma, Nemisz, Rinaldo;
• 5 '10-11 Rookie Update cards (above average): Emmerton, Della Rovere, Cormier, Cole, Tatar (he goes best with the fried clams I hear);
• 1 '10-11 Rookie Update Retro (average): Marcel Mueller;
• 1 Trophy Winner: Daniel Sedin;
• 2 Team Leaders: Oilers, Blues;
• 38 Retro parallels (above average): 3 Legends, 3 Rooks; 32 Base; and
• 1 O-Pee-Chee Signature (yes my third this year!)

Now how about a few scans of some of the cards pulled...

Am I the only one that finds it odd that some of the playoff beard cards are pink on the bottom and others grey?

Love the gapped tooth smile on this picture!!!

This is the auto pulled today!!  Nice!!

I pulled this one about a month ago from a hobby pack.

So in retrospect, while I may have been shorted on the base in the box, I would say I still made out pretty well by pulling a few extra of the shorter printed cards.  Once again, OPC delivers and I am thrilled by my pulls!

However, it should be noted that I emailed Upper Deck after I opened the 8th pack to tell them what was going on, so we will see if anything comes of that...I will keep everyone updated.