Acetate is back again with 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey

By Stephen Laroche | Beckett Hockey Editor

Acetate cards have long been a favorite of hockey card collectors and last season, Upper Deck brought back its iconic ICE brand after several seasons of being a box topper pack. With a significant rookie class, 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey is bound to carry on the brand’s tradition.

While the ICE Premieres rookie cards are a major draw, each eight-pack box will also contain one autograph card and one memorabilia card. On top of that, Upper Deck is also offering up the second wave of Exquisite cards as an additional incentive to tear open some wrappers.

Base Set and Inserts

The base set for 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey has a typical 100-card lineup that the company delivers, but there are not short printed goalie cards this season. The signature ICE Premieres rookie card subset is going to once again be split up into five different levels with serial-numbering ranging from 99 to 1,999 copies each. Naturally, the more desirable rookies will be in the scarcer tiers. Even better than this may be the 2005-06 Retro ICE Premieres (/149 or /799), which are expected to use the memorable design from a decade ago.

Collectors got their first taste of this season’s Exquisite cards in boxes of 2015-16 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey and they are back for a second round inside 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey. The action begins with Exquisite Legends (/499), but the greatest draw will be the Exquisite Rookies which are split into two tiers and numbered to either 299 or 399 and have parallel versions in Gold Spectrum (numbered to jersey #) and Black (one-of-one).

Last season, ICE was expected to have an international flavor but the proposed World Junior-themed cards did not make it into the final release. This time, there are World Junior Championship inserts (/699 or /1,299) along with Global Impact (1:8).

Autographs

Every autograph in packs of 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey is hard-signed and the lineup boasts the usual mix of rookies, stars, and legends. The easiest to track down will be Glacial Graphs (1:32), and it has a black version (varied numbering). Rinkside Signings and Signature Swatches arrive once in every 64 packs respectively, but the toughest autographed cards to find will come from Superb Script (/49 with Portraits version (/15).

The ICE Premieres concept also gets an autographed treatment this season and is a multi-tiered effort that is numbered to either 125, 199, or 499. There are also ICE Premieres Autograph Patch cards (/10) that will be a hot commodity for players such as Connor McDavid, Dylan Larkin, and Max Domi.

Not satisfied to just offer Exquisite base cards in 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey, the company is also producing Exquisite Signatures and Exquisite Materials Signatures that are available in varying quantities. This season’s newest players are also getting a lot of high-end ink with three tiers of Exquisite Rookie Signatures (/149, /199, or /399) that have the Black (one-of-one) and Gold Spectrum (/10) parallels.

There are also sets called Exquisite Signature Rookie Preview and 2003-04 Exquisite Rookie Auto Patch Tribute. The former is split into a trio or tiers (/99, /149/, or /299) and the latter is based off the landmark 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Basketball rookie cards. With just 25 copies of each of those cards available, competition should be quite stiff for them. Naturally, the Black and Gold Spectrum (/5) parallels make their presence known for both of these sets as well.

Memorabilia

Jersey pieces are somewhat plentiful in 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey, and perennial favorites Frozen Fabrics and Fresh Threads are back again. Both are inserted at a 1:24 rate, but some collectors will pull red and black parallels. Rookie Relic Jumbos (/299) add some value to the memorabilia hits, but the likely winner of the bunch are expected to be Frozen Foursomes (1:128). For both of these longer-odds pulls, the red version is tough, but the black one has only three copies produced for each card.

2015-16 Upper Deck ICE Hockey at a glance:

Packs per box: 8
Cards per pack: 4
Boxes per case: 8 per inner case, 16 per master case
Set size: 200 cards
Release date: May 25, 2016

What to expect in a hobby box:

– 3 ICE Premieres or 2005-06 Retro ICE Premieres rookie cards

– 1 autograph card

– 1 memorabilia card

– 1 Exquisite card

Stephen Laroche is the editor of Beckett Hockey, Beckett Basketball, and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at slaroche@beckett.com or follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Laroche.