Upper Deck’s 2nd release for the 2008/09 season (well, the 2nd announced set anyway. So far I’m unable to find a release date) is the Hockey Legends Masterpieces set. The base set features 90 cards of your favorite hockey legends. Inserts include Masterpiece Brushstrokes which I believe serve as the auto insert, Canvas Clippings, which are the jersey cards, and Masterpiece sketches, which I can only guess are special artist rendered cards.
Each box has 18 packs with 4 cards (72 cards total) featuring an average of 4 autograph or memorabilia cards. Also included will be 1 5×7 blow-up card (though I’m not sure how big it gets when you inflate it) and 2 matted parallel cards.
The packs have a suggested retail price of $6.99.
The cards look a lot better in black and white than they do in color, which is odd considering the nature of this set. But in color the cards still look nice, and for the first time in a long time I’m tempted to buy a box of hockey cards that aren’t just regular issue Upper Deck.
*UPDATED* Oh, yes. I knew Upper Deck had done something like this before in hockey releases. 2002/03 Upper Deck Artistic Impressions, which featured artist renditions of current players from that year. I actually liked the design of the set, although the portraits themselves left something to be desired. And I remember thinking at the time that I would never pay 70 bucks for a box of cards. How times have changed.
Hand Collated 