Product Grade: B+
2012-13 Upper Deck Fleer Retro had the potential to be a truly breath of fresh air for the hockey card community. Had Upper Deck taken the risk of including no autograph content, but adding 2 more inserts and lowering the price to around the $125 to $150 mark, they would have had a complete product that is desperately needed right now. Even still, the inserts in this product are going to be highly sought after in the time to come. It’s still worth it to break one box at the $200 price point. It’s VERY worth it to get into a few case breaks of this product. It’s funny that a product known as “Retro” is starting small murmurings of a possible new era in the hobby. Maybe the page has been turned and a new dawn of hockey collecting is rising (cue epic music). Or maybe not. Only time will tell.
Base: B
HB: 2012-13 Upper Deck Fleer Retro features a very simply 100 card base set with a strong mix of past and present players. Of course, in my excitement to open our second box of this product and review it, I didn’t keep track of how many base we pulled. I know we didn’t pull any doubles and we probably had somewhere between 15 and 20 cards left to complete the base set. Between the two boxes we opened, we had a full base set. The design is simple, I’m not a HUGE fan of the design. I think there were other retro designs they could have used that would have looked better. But the mix of players and the simple design was probably a smart move with the mix and intensity of the rest of the designs.
HB’s Grade: B
HG: Fleer Retro was so much fun to open! Not only because it is the first new product to come out in a longgg time, but also because there are some really fun cards you can pull too. The base card design is simple, but with so many of the inserts being over the top with their throwback designs, I think it was a good decision to keep the base card design minimal. They still have that 90’s element, but are not direct copies of a particular product of the past. Overall, while the base cards aren’t anything too spectacular in and of themselves, as a part of a whole product I think they work quite well.
HG’s Grade: B+
Inserts: A+
HB: I’ve been saying for a quite a while that what this hobby desperately needs is an mid-high end, solely insert driven product. Although this product isn’t all the that, it is a very big step in the right direction. The inserts in this product are absolutely perfectly well done. Yes, the designs are just updated inserts of old, but as a 90′s kid, I could not love the inserts in this product any more than I do. It’s so great to see the stars of today on all of my favorite cards of yesterday. The rarity of some of these inserts adds to it as well and I really think in a year or so some of them will be HIGHLY sought after and go for some big money. Combined with the rare inserts are the extra insert base sets (92-93 Ultra, 93-94 Ultra, 94-95 Ultra, Metal Universe). These 25, 35, 40, and 60 card sets will be fun, challenging, but attainable sets for collectors to put together. The Metal Universe set is by far my favorite and belongs in an art museum. I would love an uncut sheet of the Metal Universe cards (hook me up Upper Deck!). The one thing that I could say I was disappointed in was the distribution of inserts. We pulled 2 of the Playmakers Theatre cards (in another box, 3 of the 4 inserts were the Electrifying cards). As beautiful as these cards are, I wish we didn’t hit two of the same insert in 1 box. I could go on for days about the inserts in this product. They’re amazing. And I do truly think the inserts in this product alone make it worth the $200 price point (which will not be a popular opinion).
HB’s Grade: A++ (It’s Fleer Retro so I went with the grade school “A++,” stop judging me)
HG: The inserts are where this product really shines. All of the cards are just so much fun! And even though I did not really collect cards in the 90’s, I can still relate to the nostalgia this product holds as I have come to love HB’s collections that he collected as a kid. My favorite inserts that we pulled are the Flair Showcase cards. They just look so epic! I wish they put as much care into modern designs as these cards have. I love the foil background of the players face with the full player photo next to it and the big script name on the bottom. I think they are gorgeous cards and I would love to collect the full set. My other favorite insert we pulled are the EX cards. I have always loved cards that have clear plastic as a part of the design and this card uses that so well. The raised up player photo also gives it a uniqueness that I love. They really are such nice cards, and much better in hand than in the picture too. And I know it is going to sound like all of them were my favorites, because I really did like all of them, but I do have one more favorite that I want to write about; The Metal Universe cards. HB has a set of the 90’s baseball Metal Universe cards and I loved them, so I was so excited when I learned that they were making a hockey set for this product. They are such cool cards. The foil space scene behind the player photo is so bizarre that is is amazing. I LOVE these cards! We also pulled two amazing Playmakers Theater cards which are beautiful. (in case you couldn’t tell, I really liked the all the inserts in this product :p) The inserts make this product and if you accept that fact when you buy a box, you will not be disappointed!
HG’s Grade: A+
Rookies: N/A
There are no true rookie cards in this product. Because of that, no grade will be given or factored in for Rookies.
Hits: C
HB: I debated for a long time what to qualify as hits. This product is going to be greatly misunderstood because people want and expect the “hits” to be the autographs. They’re not, although in this review they’re listed under hits. The autographs were an after thought for Upper Deck in this product. That CLEARLY shows. My guess would be they had a lot of extra stickers of guys who are not big names that they needed to get rid of so they threw a ton of them in this product with some big name guys to mix it up. The autographs can’t, won’t, and shouldn’t be what drives or dooms this product. It’s not fair. The inserts are the true hits of this product and should be looked at as such. I wish the secondary market would back that up with the sales of these inserts and maybe in time it will. I’m not complaining about pulling a Taylor Hall autograph, and I know most people pulled much worse autographs. But I would gladly give up all 6 of these autographs (yup, including the Hall auto) for 2 more inserts.
HB’s Grade: C-
HG: Now I know a lot of people who have opened this product already are disappointed in the quality of the hits, and I won’t argue with you there. The hits are not, or should not be, the reason to buy this product. However, with that said, there are some amazing, very high end, buyback autos of Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky that you have a chance (although probably pretty slim) of pulling. We didn’t pull any of these unfortunately, but we didn’t do bad with hits either. We pulled Four Autographics cards, including a Wendel Clark, and then three other players I don’t really know. And we pulled one Rookie Sensation auto of Reilly Smith of the Dallas Stars. The nicest hit we got is a 93-94 Ultra Auto of Taylor Hall! I like the design of all of these cards, but none of them really compare to the inserts to me.
HG’s Grade: C+
Satisfaction: A-
HB: I will say this right from the beginning and I know I am in the minority but, I am satisfied with having paid $200 for this box break. Yes, it’s a lot of money. As someone who’s getting married in just over 2 months (Hockey Girl said yes on New Years’ Eve! So maybe we will have to start referring to her as Hockey Wife?) to spend $400 on 2 boxes of 2012-13 Upper Deck Fleer Retro was a little bit of a stretch. But it’s the most fun I’ve had opening hockey cards in quite a while. My encouragement and advice to you reader would be to give the product a chance. Rome wasn’t built in a day and I think this is a good change for the hobby. I think it’s a needed change for the hobby. Maybe I’m giving too much credit to Upper Deck and Panini, but it seems like they’re starting to get it. There are too many game used jerseys and autographs that are really anything but “hits.” I’m excited for Panini Prizm to come to hockey. And I loved that Upper Deck released Fleer Retro for us hockey collectors. Give the product a chance. Maybe you can’t spend $200 on a box of Fleer Retro, but pick up a few singles on eBay of your favorite team or player. Instead of spending $20 on a blaster or a few packs, spend $20 on a nice insert. We’ve complained so much for so long about how game used jersey cards and autographs aren’t as rare as they used to be. Let’s follow through with that by spending money on inserts that are incredibly well designed and tough pulls. I should probably get off the soapbox now, but I can’t help it. I really do love this hobby. I want to see the hobby return to the FOC (“fun of collecting” – just coined that term myself) rather than ROI. And for me, 2012-13 Upper Deck Fleer Retro was all about the FOC.
HB’s Grade: A
HG: Finally hockey cards are back! And I couldn’t ask for a better product to re-kick off the blog with! This product was so much fun to open! The only disappointment about this product is the price. $200 a box definitely is steep for this product because your chances of getting a valuable hit are slim. However, if you do have some extra money lying around, and especially if you were a 90’s kid, I would recommend you get a box as a fun splurge, but don’t expect to make all your money back. If you go into it with the mindset that you are going to pull some crazy fun inserts though, then I think anyone could enjoy opening a box of 2012-2013 Upper Deck Fleer Retro!
HG’s Grade: A-
Much love,
Hockey Boy & Hockey Girl
