#UDRAK Upper Deck Random Act of Kindness

Surprises come in all shapes and sizes and more importantly types. Good surprises are always preferred over bad ones and I don't think I am alone in this thought. Sure there are some that don't like surprises at all but the world is full of all types of people and I am one that loves a good surprise once in a while. Just before Christmas, Upper Deck sent me a good surprise. It was a completely unexpected and entirely enjoyed. I came home from work one day and sitting on my deck was this box. It looked cold and in need of a good home so I brought it in and took this photo.

I truly felt fortunate receiving this wonderful act of kindness.

Inside was all this cool stuff! I loved the Young Guns shirt and a load of Devils and two boxes of Upper Deck Series 1 which I hadn't had a chance to break any yet. Here is a close up of some of the great things that were in my UDRAK package. 

16-17 UD Series 1 SP2 William Nylander 

A pretty awesome prospect who finished this year with a solid 22 goals and 61 points. A Calder winning performance in some years.

16-17 Upper Deck Midnight Adam Henrique and Damon Severson /25

Upper Deck sent me the whole team set and I have decided to showcase my two PC players I received from the set.

16-17 Upper Deck Victory Black Miles Wood

Once upon a time Victory Black were some of the scarcest cards on the market with a print run of 5. Lots has changed since 05-06 but they are still a pretty cool card to get via NHCD or a Card Expo. I was fortunate enough to get a Miles Wood and a Pavel Zacha.

16-17 Upper Deck Victory Pavel Zacha

Pavel learned a great deal in his first season. During times he showed some great flashes and I'm excited to see how the Devils and Pavel grow and improve next season. This card is a beauty, definitely one of the better Victory designs in the past decade.

12-13 Fleer Skybox Autographics Patrik Elias

You may remember this card from a previous post which featured my tribute to Patrik Elias. It was Upper Deck that sent me this card and given the legacy he had as a Devil it was a very nice inclusion.

2015-16 SP Game Used Patrik Elias

More Elias!!! There were a number of other Elias beauties including this card and the next one.

2015-16 Upper Deck Top Draft Pick Jaromir Jagr

What a great looking retro card. Love the 90-91 design and seeing a young Jagr sporting a deer in the headlights look and puffy mullet are key components to this card's awesomeness. While his time was brief with the Devils, it was nice to see him continue to be so successful.

14-15 Upper Deck Premier Jaromir Jagr /249

Another Jagr, this time from his days with my beloved Devils. I have said this before but I am a fan of the Upper Deck Premier product line. Perhaps even more so than The Cup.

14-15 Upper Deck 25th Anniversary David Clarkson Auto Young Gun /25

The collector I am from 5 years ago would have felt this was the best card he has ever been given. In those past 5 years, David left NJ, went to Toronto, and unceremoniously was shipped to Columbus. Chances are he will never play again. During that time I had lots of chance for reflection and healing from a move that stung me a great deal but meant even more to Clarkson as a person. I would say I am a fan once again but only of his time in NJ and that will be how I choose to remember him. This card definitely exhibits those days well and I love the photo of him during training camp which adds to the cards authentic feel. Thanks for a gem Upper Deck!

2016 Team Canada Wayne Gretzky Program of Excellence Rainbow

The Great One in his 1987 Team Canada uniform? Yes please! This series was like my personal 1972 since I was not in existence for the Summit Series.

15-16 Fleer Showcase Hot Prospects Trio O'Neill/Blandisi/Hrabarenka

A nice little trio here. I believe if we can keep Blandisi after the expansion draft, he will be a solid producer for the Devils organization. So much potential and hopefully his diving days are done.

15-16 SP Game Used Sergei Kalinin RC /51

Shame we lost Kalinin during this past season. He's a solid defensive forward who would be great for any bottom 6. Best of luck and hope to see you back in the NHL soon!

15-16 Upper Deck Ice World Junior Championship Robby Fabbri /1299

A nice little Team Canada addition here. Robby is a pretty solid forward and one reason why the Blues will continue to be a playoff team.

Upper Deck was so kind to also send along some boxes to break open. I am going to share some of the highlights that I discovered in the boxes. I was fortunate enough to complete a base set from the two boxes which is an awesome start!

16-17 Upper Deck Series 1 Steve Santini Young Guns Exclusive /100

Wow!! What a hit. While there were bigger names in the box, to get a Devils player is a fantastic outcome for me.

16-17 Upper Deck Signature Sensations Jori Lehtera

I was also lucky enough to hit a case hit on my second box! This is my second ever Signature Sensations I have ever pulled.

16-17 Upper Deck Series 1 Game Jersey Matt Duchene

I also hit a Matt Duchene jersey card. Nice sized swatch and I like the larger photo too. I'm hopeful this summer the Devils can land another scoring forward or two via trade. Eberle, Duchene or Landeskog would all be good outcomes.

16-17 Upper Deck Series 1 Young Gun Josh Morrissey

Other than my Exclusive, this is probably the most exciting Young Gun I hit. Josh had a very very impressive rookie season in Winnipeg and I believe he will be a fantastic defenseman for the Jets in future years.

16-17 Upper Deck Young Guns Canvas Connor Brown

I did also hit a Canvas Young Guns from Toronto. While it wasn't Mitch Marner, I did get both a base and canvas Young Gun of Connor Brown. Brown was a nice surprise for both myself and the Leafs this season. Brown hit 20 goals this year and added 16 assists. I am not sure what his ceiling is but I am guessing he hasn't hit it yet.

2016 Team Canada Nolan Patrick

Is this foreshadowing? I would be pretty pleased to see him in NJ.

2015-16 Upper Deck Series 1 Gretzky/McDavid SP1

A Gretzky/McDavid card? Oh my, thank you very much! Definitely one of my favourites from this amazing random act of kindness.

15-16 UD Ultimate Platinum Blue Relic Cory Schneider

The best for last? Depends on your taste of course but this is the most unique piece of the package!! Love the tag. 

Well there you have it, a sampling of my truly phenomenal UDRAK package. If you are reading this and are a sports fan, I hope you too are able to receive on someday as it's truly a cool experience and one that I don't imagine many companies do for their customers. What makes this package truly remarkable is I didn't even ask for it or sign up or enter any contests. It just showed up and the people at Upper Deck know my interests and just dropped a box of kindness on my lap. There were even other PC players in the package like Adam Henrique and Damon Severson which I didn't get a chance to share yet but will at a later date. One last time, thank you Upper Deck and thank you for stopping by. More posts to come very soon!

An Improved 11-12 Upper Deck The Cup Adam Henrique Auto Patch Rookie /249

Couple years ago I picked up an Adam Henrique The Cup Rookie which was pretty great. Great in the sense that it was a must have for a PC and I believe most collectors who have a big interest in a specific play will try and land one. A little while after I posted the card I noticed something sad.... finger nail indentations into the top of the card. They were small, but just enough to make me feel disappointed. It's not the first time and in fact I have noticed it several times over the years. I don't know if it is the player who damages it or if its the pack opener but either way the card is now far from mint. Fast forward a couple years and I was able to find a new copy which has no indentations and a slightly better swatch too! Win win!

My old copy is still in my collection and actually I have it displayed in my classroom where it looks fantastic and my new copy is at home in my collection where I enjoy it regularly.

11-12 Upper Deck The Cup Adam Henrique Auto Patch Rookie /249

 Front side is standard issue. Nice on card auto and a two colour patch this time instead of just one white piece.

This time around here is the back side.

This season has been a forgettable one for the Devils. After a great start we have been inconsistent since December and as a club we clearly have a ways to go before we will taste the post season again. I'm hopeful for a good draft pick in a believed to be weak draft class and perhaps we can see some continued growth from the prospects we do have so veterans like Adam Henrique can be rewarded for these lean years.

How about your own collection? Do you have any cards the require an upgrade or have you upgraded some in the past? Thanks for stopping by.

13-14 National Treasures Adam Henrique Treasured Steel /5

Speaking of skates....I have a bit more of Mr. Henrique's skates and here it is!

13-14 National Treasures Adam Henrique Treasured Steel /5

This card is both thick and HEAVY. I am in awe of this card and every time I look at it I smile. The design on the front is very simplistic and while the absence of colours can hurt some designs, I believe it works really really well here. Just black, silver and white is essentially all you see here (with the exception of his face). I wonder if they ever considered a black and white photo?

My lone complaint is the blade is actually upside down and I would have preferred the curved part that touched the ice to be down. There is a plastic cover over the card for those wondering so you can't touch the steel directly.

 

Here is the back side of the card. Again a very simplistic and clean design. The red really pops out in the Devils emblem and the story on the back is a cool one. For those interested in a little extra reading, here is a blog post by Panini America which talks about this particular insert set. Thanks for stopping by, no more Henrique skate pieces next time, I promise!

Sometimes you need to pick up a second copy of a card you already have...

Ok, maybe you don't need to, but have you ever done so? In the world of autographs, serial numbers and memorabilia swatches sometimes no two cards are alike and in this case that is definitely true which is why I went and picked up a second copy of this card:

13-14 Panini Prime Adam Henrique Prime Skates /25

So I guess of the print run of 25 I own 8%! My first one I picked up a few years ago when the product was first released and it featured just a black piece of his skate with no markings or writing. Then I saw this one a little while back and what a beauty. I love seeing the lace holes, my only complaint is the missing metal but what the hey, it's still very cool. Both cards are neat in their own way and together work very well in my collection if you ask me!

Thanks for stopping by and hope your NHL team is off the the start you were hoping for!

#UDRAK - Upper Deck Random Act of Kindness

Ok...round 2....FIGHT! Seriously let's try this again but rather than share what I did last time let's just get to the facts. I was lucky enough to receive a package from Upper Deck as a Random Act of Kindness (#UDRAK) after my BFAM Tom had nominated me and I was selected. 

The package was AMAZING and came during a day that wasn't going so good for me and really made my day and month for that matter! Here is what was inside:

New Additions for my Adam Henrique PC

11-12 SP Authentic Rookie HoloFX. This card is very cool in person and was missing from my PC. Doesn't scan the best but trust me when I say it looks very very cool.

14-15 Upper Deck Game Jersey. Another one that was missing from my PC and as with all Game Jersey cards is very welcomed in my home.

14-15 Artifacts Tundra Tandems. The future of the Devils on a single card, I say "Nice"!

11-12 SP Authentic Future Watch. This on card auto rookie is my favourite of the bunch and happened to be needed for my PC so once again thank you Upper Deck for selecting 4 well needed cards!

In addition to the Henrique Cards I also received two more surprise cards and two boxes of Upper Deck Dinosaurs!!! Here are the results of those two boxes.

Patch Cards

Is this the Connor McDavid of the Dino World? This dino was very similar to the Ankylosaurus except it didn't have a clubbed tail and its spike were far more pronounced.

This card sparked a question: "Who is the best NHLer from Utah?" Turns out there have been only 4 to come from that state and the best by far is Steve Konowalchuk.


3-D Cards

As I mentioned in my box review of Upper Deck Dinosaurs the 3-D cards are among my favourites of the product and I was able to pull this Arrhinoceratops as one of my 8.

Here is a 3-D card of a dinosaur most probably know about, the good old Iguanodon.

Here is my second triceratops, I was able to pull one in my first box too.

Here is another example of a dinosaur I have never heard of before pulling this 3-D Mussaurus.

Giraffatitan as I am sure you could guess was tall! This particular dinosaur could grow to as much as 74 feet in length (22.5 meters).

Ahh the Dilophosaurus! This was a pretty cool dinosaur in the original Jurassic Park movie and could be best remembered for spitting on Newman. I originally embedded the clip like I have had so many others and given it didn't turn out well I am going to skip it this time and leave it up to you to find!

What is considered the largest land animal that has ever lived, the Argentinosaurus has been estimated to be 130 ft long and 150 000 lbs.  That carnivore looks frightened to say the least.

Artist Signature

I was able to land my second Benito Gallego auto and this time it is on his drawing of a Quetzalcoatlus which is pretty sweet!

Predators of the Sea

In three boxes I have opened in total, I pulled one of these and they are without a doubt a great looking card. They have a shadowbox feel to them and they are a well made card which both my oldest and I were really happy to have found.

1/1 Sketch Cards

My first was a Kronosaurus and like my last box I feel I really lucked out with an awesome sketch card. This is also my second sketch by this artist (Eric Van Elslande) which speaks to his talent as far as my eyes go.

Here is the backside of the card.

My second one is a Quetzalcoatlus which made an appearance earlier in this post as an artist signatures card. This sketch is different than the previous two both in terms of artist and style as this one feels slightly different in comparison to the previous two. However I still very much like this one as well and plan on keeping all three instead of trading them.

On the back side we see a signature but at this moment I haven't been able to determine which artist made this sketch but I will keep at it until I figure it out! Check back for an update/edit on this one.

That was it for my two boxes but that wasn't all in the package from Upper Deck...Upper Deck had one last huge surprise for me and I have indeed saved the BEST for LAST!!

08-09 Upper Deck Champs Fossils and Artifacts Woolly Mammoth Femur x 2

Yeah!!! That's a fossil in a card and I was so very very fortunately to receive two of them! The boys and I were in awe of this piece of history. The next part is you can actually see the texture from inside the bone where the marrow would have been.

Here is the second one, each piece as unique as a finger print.

The best part is the back which explains to you about the Woolly Mammoth and where the fossil was recovered which just adds to the coolness of these cards. It's almost (but better) than getting a jersey card and knowing exactly when it was worn. I bought many packs of 08-09 Champs just hoping to land a redemption of a fossil card and even bid on a number of them on eBay as well with no success. I think when you consider all that with the sheer coolness of these cards speaks to how much they mean to me and is a huge cherry on top of an amazing treat.

So that was my UDRAK package and I can't thank both Upper Deck and Tom enough for the kindness they have shown me in terms of nominating me and then blowing me away with the awesome contents of that package. I hope you enjoyed this post at least a tiny fraction as much as I loved receiving it. Thank you Upper Deck and Chris Carlin for the kindness you have shown me, and I hope to pay it forward in the coming months and years.