2022 Upper Deck AEW Skybox Metal Universe Hobby Box | 15 Packs | Factory Sealed

A factory-sealed hobby box of 2022 Upper Deck AEW Skybox Metal Universe — 15 packs of 7 cards, released 30 August 2023. The first AEW release ever made under the Skybox Metal Universe name.

Per box, on average: 15 Base Set SP cards · 5 Bonzo Gonzo, The Merch and/or Technicians · 3 cards from the 1997-98 Retros set · 3 Skybox Premium · 1 Hardware or Palladium acetate · 1 Planet Metal · 1 Feeling the Love, Intimidation Nation or Turn Up the Heat.

PMG is the reason this set exists

Precious Metal Gems — PMG — is a parallel that first appeared in 1997-98 Metal Universe basketball, and its reputation rests almost entirely on one card.

The 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Michael Jordan was numbered to 100, split into ten green and ninety red. It is one of the most sought-after basketball cards of the modern era, and a green example sold at auction for over 350,000 dollars.

That single card turned three letters into a brand. Twenty-five years later Upper Deck applies the same treatment to a wrestling roster: Red PMG numbered 11 to 100, Green PMG numbered 1 to 10, and a Gold PMG that exists once. The numbering scheme is copied exactly from 1997-98, green being the scarcer colour, which is the point of the exercise.

The same logic runs through the whole product. The 1997-98 Retros set puts AEW wrestlers on the original Metal Universe design, each with its own space-themed background — a set that only makes sense to someone who remembers the basketball cards.

Jambalaya falls roughly once every forty-eight boxes

The published odds are 1:720 packs. At 15 packs per box that is one Jambalaya card in every 48 boxes — or three per 16-box case, on average, across the entire production run rather than within any given case.

Jambalaya is the other inherited Metal Universe insert, and the rarest thing in the set that is not numbered.

Other notable odds: Metal-X at 1:240, Competitive Advantage at 1:600, and the Feeling the Love and Turn Up the Heat autograph parallels at 1:2000. Base Set silver autographs fall at 1:75.

What else is in the checklist

The base set is 100 regular cards plus 50 short prints, featuring the AEW roster. Insert sets specific to this release include Bonzo Gonzo, a three-sided die-cut capturing chaotic ring moments; The Merch, a four-sided die-cut mimicking wrestler-branded shirts; Technicians, each showing a signature move; Feeling the Love; and Turn Up the Heat. All five have Gold parallels numbered to 25.

Palladium and Hardware are acetate inserts — the first covering popular wrestlers, the second those who have held a belt — each with Gold Spectrum parallels numbered to 25.

Metal-X cards are printed on rainbow foilboard with a PETG top layer and Spectrum Deco Foil. Printing plates from the complete base set are also in circulation.

Specifications

15 packs per box · 7 cards per pack · Factory sealed · Released: 30 August 2023 · Manufacturer: Upper Deck · Brand: Skybox