Box Break! 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions

A few weeks ago, I was browsing Amazon and found a box of 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions selling for a little more than the price of a blaster. I'd bought a box last year and really liked it and, since the price was so cheap, I decided to open another.

By way of quick background, this set was a kind of fusion between brands from the mid- and late-2000's: Parkhurst, the old school brand that Upper Deck bought years ago, and Champ's, another old-time brand that Upper Deck revived and gave a brief two-year run in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Champ's was a bit like the hockey version of Allen & Ginter. I have no idea why they killed it after just two years, but I sure wish they'd bring it back....Regardless, what made Parkhurst Champions really stand out (in my mind, at least) were the subsets and the autos. The base cards are nicely done, but there were two short-printed subsets that were even better: Wire Photos, which were black-and-white photos of great players and great moments from the game's history, and Renditions, which came in both in color and harder-to-find black-and-white versions, which were painted portraits. (It's probably not a surprise that I like these two ideas since, if you combine them, you basically get the Signature Renditions subset in The Cup that I've gone bonkers over). The autos, meanwhile, were all on-card and featured a cool cross-section of players. Even better were autographed parallels of the Wire Photos and Renditions cards, but those are really tough pulls.

Having opened one box of this before, I already had 69 of the 100 base cards, plus a handful of wire photos  and renditions cards. My goals for the box were three-fold: 1)Finish off the base set and 2)Avoid any dupes on the short-printed subsets and 3)Pull two autos, since the boxes specifically advertise 1-2 per....Without further ado, here's how I did.

#100 -- Gordie Howe

This is, in my opinion, the coolest base card of the bunch. It's actually the second of Howe in the base set (the other one depicts him with the Red Wings, of course). And it's one I didn't pull in my first box, so I was really pleased to find this one in a pack.

#94 -- Pat Stapleton

Here's another base card I needed. Like a lot of sets, Parkhurst Champions includes a mixture of current and retired players. The older players look especially nice in this design, because when you combine photos taken with old cameras in poorly lit old arenas with the hazy border design of this set, the effect is almost like the picture was taken in a dream.

#17 -- Brett Hull

Here's my favorite current (at the time time) player card. It's a nice down-the-bench shot and the colors of Hull's jersey pop nicely....But this was also a base card I already had. In fact, I only found 12 of the 31 base cards I needed after this box. I don't believe any of the first 100 cards are short printed, so it's fairly disappointing to still be missing nearly 20 percent of the set after opening two hobby boxes.

#115 -- Johnny Bower (Wire Photos)

I did better on the Wire Photos. I pulled four of the single-player versions, which are seeded at 1 in every five packs. So I got the expected amount. And, more importantly, none were dupes of any I got in my first box. This hot of a mask-less (with a headless Yvan Cournoyer cameo-ing in the background) was my favorite.

#105 -- Brett Hull (Wire Photo) 

Here's another single-player Wire Photo (even though Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek is every bit as a prominent in the photo as Hull), which captures one of the biggest -- and most controversial -- goals in NHL history.

#112 -- Denis Potvin (Wire Photo)

Man, these cards really are fantastic. This is another single-player card, even though it shows two Hall of Famers in Potvin and Mark Messier. The photo isn't dated, but I love that this card basically captures the entire '80's in one photo. (The other single-player Wire Photo I pulled was of Marcel Dionne, though it was a fairly boring photo.)

#130 -- Bobby Orr/Phil Esposito/Johnny Bucyk (Wire Photos)

In addition 20 single-player Wire Photos, the set also includes 10 multi-player versions. These are much tougher to pull: 1 in every 20 packs, or 1 per box on average. I didn't beat the odds, but the one I did pull was a great one: A mid-1970's locker room shot of three Hall of Famers, including one of the two or three greatest players of all time in Bobby Orr.

#137 -- Mark Messier (Renditions)

#147 -- Peter Stastny (Wire Photos)

Here are the two colored Renditions cards I pulled. These are slightly rarer than the Wire Photos, falling at a rate of 1 in 8 packs. I had a 50-50 chance to pull three, but only wound up with the two. Neither were dupes, though. They're nice cards, but the Wire Photos are nicer.

#160 -- Wayne Gretzky (Renditions Black & White) 

The set ends with 10 black-and-white Renditions cards, which are the toughest pull of all the subsets. These fall at just 1 per 32 packs, or roughly 2 out of every 3 boxes. Was nice to find the Great One, as this would be an irritating card to have to buy as a single. And it's always nice to pick up the final card of the set. (Gretzky actually bookends the entire set, as he's also featured on card #1.)

Unfortunately, my box only included one auto and it wasn't a Wire Photo (which fall at 1 in every 500 packs for single-player versions and 1 in 3,000 for multi-player versions) or a Renditions card (1 in 800 for color versions, 1 in 4,000 for black and white versions). Nor was it a Hall of Famer. But at least it was of someone I remember well from my childhood. Al Iafrate was a bit of a bad ass during his day, both for having the hardest slap shot in the league -- he actually held the record for more than a decade, if memory serves, as measured by league's annual All-Star skills competition -- and for kicking the crap out of teammate Gary Leeman when he found out that Leeman had slept with his (now ex-) wife. An interesting player to say the least.

But while I didn't get a second auto, I did wind up with one other "hit"...

 ...Although it's one of the lamer hits I could have imagined. This is a "gold rainbow" parallel of a mini-card insert set that's part of the overall set. The regular minis fall at one per hobby pack -- although you can tell how much interest I have in them by the fact that I didn't bother to mention them until now. I'm not much of a mini-card fan as it is, and the Parkhurst Champions minis are especially ugly, in my opinion. There's one of Adam Oates where he looks like a vampire. So pulling some sort of rare parallel of one isn't exactly a big score, at least to me.

Naturally, these are some of the toughest pulls in the entire set. Each is hand-numbered to just 11 copies. But it doesn't look like people are clamoring to collect them anymore, at least based on a quick eBay search....Finding this card in my box was a bit like winning a boat -- when you live 1,000 miles from the nearest lake. I would have happily traded this out for another single-player Wire Photo car. Oh well, c'est la vie, I 'spose.