The same hockey card set was often sold in three or four different boxes: hobby, retail, blaster, value box. They look similar on a shelf and they are not the same product. Our catalog holds Upper Deck boxes of every type from 2008 to 2012, and they make the differences easy to see.
Hobby
The hobby box is sold through card shops and is the configuration the published odds and guarantees are written for. 2010/11 Series 1, with the Young Guns rookie cards of Taylor Hall, Jeff Skinner, Jordan Eberle and P.K. Subban, and 2011/12 Series 1, with Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, both hold 24 packs of 8 cards with around six Young Guns per box. 2009/10 Series 2 carries the Young Guns of Brad Marchand and Logan Couture. The 2009/10 MVP hobby box guarantees a game-used memorabilia card.
Retail
Retail boxes were made for department stores, and the difference can be small or large. The 2008/09 Series 1 retail box is the cleanest example: the same 24 packs, the same 192 cards, the same six Young Guns as the hobby box — and one game-used jersey card instead of two. The 2009/10 Series 1 retail box also holds six Young Guns and one jersey card, from John Tavares's rookie year.
Elsewhere the gap is wider. The 2009/10 Artifacts retail box does not guarantee its hits at all; memorabilia and autographs are randomly inserted. The 2009/10 MVP retail box has the same size and card count as the hobby box but different odds for the memorabilia.
Blaster
A blaster is a small retail box with bonus packs, and occasionally it holds something the hobby box does not. The 2008/09 Series 1 blaster contains a 3½ × 5 inch oversized Young Guns card that was made only for these boxes. The 2008/09 MVP blaster (10 packs plus 2 bonus), the 2009/10 MVP blaster and the 2009/10 Fleer Ultra blaster are the other examples in our range.
Value and full retail boxes
The 2008/09 O-Pee-Chee retail value box, 13 packs plus a bonus, still carries its original $19.99 price on the box. The 2009/10 Fleer Ultra retail box is the full 36-pack version of the set in the blaster.
The rule to remember
Published odds and guaranteed hits almost always refer to the hobby box. They do not carry over to retail or blaster boxes of the same set, and each product page on our site describes the configuration of that specific box.
2009/10 Series 2 hobby box · 2010/11 Series 1 hobby box · 2011/12 Series 1 hobby box · 2009/10 MVP hobby box
2008/09 Series 1 retail box · 2009/10 Series 1 retail box · 2009/10 Artifacts retail box · 2009/10 MVP retail box
2008/09 Series 1 blaster · 2008/09 MVP blaster · 2009/10 MVP blaster · 2009/10 Fleer Ultra blaster
2008/09 O-Pee-Chee retail value box · 2009/10 Fleer Ultra retail box
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