Upper Deck promotes special packs for National Hockey Card Day

Posted Jan 25, 2013 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Mar 27, 2013 at 09:32 PM

Now that hockey is back in full swing, Upper Deck is hoping to fan the flames for collecting enthusiasts.

National Hockey Card Day will be Feb. 16 at participating retailers; this follows National Hockey Card Day in Canada, which will be held Feb. 9 north of the border. The packs are free; all you have to do is visit your favorite hobby shop (make sure they are a Certified Diamond Dealer with Upper Deck, or ask if they are going to have them; gasoline is expensive, you know …) and you will get a free pack.

The U.S. version of the National Hockey Card Day set will consist of five cards to a pack, with 16 cards in the set. Each card will have a special National Hockey Card Day logo in the lower right-hand corner, and there will be three subsets that will honor American-born players or international players who compete for U.S.-based teams. There will be five cards per subset; the 16th card will be a special limited edition card that features Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick celebrating the Kings’ Stanley Cup-clinching victory. That card comes with a price, as a collector will need to purchase something from the dealer to be eligible for that freebie.

Here are some of the players who will be included in the set:  The America’s Franchises cards will include Evgeni Malkin (Penguins), Alexander Ovechkin (Capitals), Ilya Kovalchuk (Devils), Henrik Lundqvist (Rangers) and Anze Kopitar (Kings). The “Stars in Stripes” subset has American-born players like Zach Parise (Wild), Quick (Kings), Patrick Kane (Blackhawks), Dustin Brown (Kings) and Ryan Miller (Sabres). Finally, the “American Icons” set will showcase legends like Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Neal Broten, Tim Thomas and Brian Leetch.

Upper Deck isn’t revealing precisely what else might be in these packs, although its news release coyly refers to some “other special surprises” that could be found and mentions “rare autograph cards.”

For more information, and to view the list of participating dealers, collectors can go to www.upperdeck.com. 

Also, Upper Deck has set up a Facebook page for the event and will be running a variety of promotions and giveaways on the page, so the company encourages collectors to “like” that particular page. Here is that link: http://www.facebook.com/NationalHockeyCardDay?fref=ts