[ricebondsmntna2young]

When it comes to card design, I'm hard pressed to think of a RC set more fetching than 2009-10 SP Authentic and boy have I not let you hear the end of it! But it's exciting to finally see a (dim) light at the end of the tunnel because after acquiring the flagship card of this Future Watch Autographed set, I hold for the first time all 3 of my favorite rookies from the 09-10 class. There's a certain relief that comes with reaching that sort of milestone (or breaking that psychological barrier, take your pick) and I can pause a moment to take a breath and look back at the progress:



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There's a long way to go of course. 8 stubborn cards still stand between me and immortality *er* I should say, my first complete AU RC set (has it gone to my head?):

205 Tyler Bozak
225 John Scott - Locked down via Clint
228 Cody Franson
229 Matt Beleskey
230 Dmitry Kulikov
242 Tom Wandell
244 Artem Anisimov
256 Luca Caputi

Wandell and Caputi'll require patience if they're to be obtained at a reasonable value. I should also fess up at this point to purchasing 4 cards for my set long before I'd decided to complete the project entirely from trades:

224 Byron Bitz - Arrived via Nick
226 Riku Helenius
240 Oskars Bartulis
248 Joel Rechlicz

So technically there are 12/60 outstanding...but who's counting? Still and all, 80% set completion allows me to turn my attention to parallels. Gazing back once again at these 3 stars, really, how's SP Authentic going to trump these?

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3rd Star - Senators fans are like, pfff no Erik Karlsson?...weak. Yes I'm a little biased too, but c'mon, the SPA FWA is for my money the essential card of any player who came into the league by 2001-02 and Cooch is the essential player in my PC.





2nd Star - This Tavares'll be familiar. I was waiting (hoping?) for a sophomore slump so that landing a copy would be a tad easier but I gave in because this man yeah he is good at hockey. It'll be fun to see if I should've followed my instincts to bide my time rather than panic though.





1st Star - Duchene's one of my all-time favorite pulls and this card could be the oldest piece in the set. I would've sent it in for grading but for the centering. You have 1 down year and suddenly the only rising superstar on the Avs is Landeskog. Sheesh, TSN analysts are as fickle as us.



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Oh, you were looking for the gauntlet? Here, I'll throw it down:

If there's a better looking modern era RC set out there, post it because I have to see it to believe it.

While you chew on that challenge (read: completely disregard that outburst), here's a ranking of SP Authentic AU RC design as I see it:

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I don't have any examples of 01-02 or 02-03 SP Authentic so the closest I can come is 02-03 SPx. SPx may very well have one-upped SPA that year, but the 02-03 Future Watch (not pictured) is still a striking card. Almost as striking as 09-10...but not quite.



03-04's look is understated and clean, sure, but that's the defining feature of SP Authentic and partly why it's such a great rookie chase year after year. But while it's a sleeper pick, you have to bring more to the table outshine oh-nine (ten).



05-06 is simply iconic, plus it's tough not to be swayed by this rookie class' star power. On a CLEARLY unrelated note, Bernier's my only 001/xxx pull. Anyways, if I'm an alien who's landed on Earth moments ago, I'm going with 09-10 FIRST and THEN commencing the invasion.



You can almost see the exact moment when Kopi's hand started to cramp up: *just* after signing 700 identical cards with 300 more to go. Anyways, I'm still debating whether I like 06-07 or 08-09 to go up against 02-03 for the silver medal.



The favorite SP Authentic pull of my life (Toews) came out of this set, another iconic one. It's hard for me to admit though that 07-08 is just a snazzed up nod to 05-06. Hrm, tempting, but I still have to go with 09-10.



There was a time when 08-09 gave 09-10 a run for its money but it's since fallen back. Stamkos makes collectors do crazy things but I'll try and retain my sanity just long enough to recognize that 09-10's a cut above.



10-11 was straight up "ugs" ("ugly" for those unfamiliar with 90210-area parlance). I think 10-11 should be banned from the set entirely. SPx puts it to shame. And that's not generally recommended.

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So without having had time to process 11-12 yet, my SPA card-design ranking goes roughly like this:

1) 09-10
2) 02-03
3) 08-09
4) 07-08
5) 01-02
6) 06-07
7) 03-04
8) 05-06
9) 10-11

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How does yours go?