Many of the Upper Deck releases prominently feature memorabilia. Some have them as common hits, while others feature artifacts as the main theme. The Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey release is amongst the latter group.
What makes it unique? The main selling point of this brand appears to be allowing collectors access to vital memorabilia hits for a reasonable price.
Therefore, 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey should be judged by these specific criteria. How does it hold up in those terms? Read our 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey review to find out.
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The breadth of hockey products that Upper Deck releases annually is truly impressive. We have previously covered their overall roster and Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey’s place in the annual release calendar.
The Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey release first saw light in 2005. Before that, it had been an occasionally appearing insert set. The first standalone product was the 2005-06 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey. It had an extensive checklist of 342 players, including no less than 142 rookies.
It had some very lovely hits available as well. Each hobby box had 3 game-used memorabilia cards and a single autograph card numbered /100 or less. Upper Deck also promised a good chance to land a 1/1 parallel card. The set did quite well. But to be fair, so did most releases from that year.
After all, it included rookie cards for Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. No biggie. So that may have helped Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey find a permanent place in the roster.
The next year’s release saw a big step down regarding the autos in the box. The number of memorabilia cards was the same. But while the cars had been /100 or less in the 2005-06 release, the 2006-07 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey release had/999 or less autos.
Considering the crop of rookies available, it was a natural step down from the inaugural release. Soon, they dropped the guaranteed autos altogether.
This is something we often see from releases in that era. They slowly dropped some of their selling points to keep prices down. But luckily, the autographs would return in later years.
Today, Artifacts continues to drop every year with its signature three memorabilia cards per box. It has since dropped the guaranteed auto yet again. Providing high-quality hobby boxes at low prices has become increasingly harder. Nonetheless, that has limited the overall popularity of the release.
Like Panini, Upper Deck has been trying to deal with a long-standing problem of delays stemming back to the supply chain crisis of the COVID-19 era. 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey was scheduled for release in October of this year but was delayed.
As of now, the release date stands at January 25, 2024. We will update you if there are any changes in that regard.
If you compare them to last year, you can see how badly delays have hit this franchise. The 2021-22 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey box dropped on September 28, 2022.
That was over a week before the 2022-23 season started. The 2022-23 box is coming out well into the 2023-24 season.
Believe it or not, there was a time when these boxes came out BEFORE the relevant season started. For example, the 2019-20 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey hobby box was released on September 19, 2019, two weeks before the season began.
We hope Upper Deck gets their act together eventually because the dates are moving in the wrong direction.
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The Artifacts release is traditionally relatively inexpensive and is natural for a retail release alongside the hobby box. This year will be the same as in previous releases.
We will have a very inexpensive hobby box: one of the cheapest available on the market. In addition, you can find retail boxes and blasters at your favorite retail stores.
The price of the retail products is the same as that of most other products. Meanwhile, the hobby box is far less. So that can raise some questions on what to pursue. But as we will discuss, the retail releases for Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey tend to be disappointing.
So, you will probably want to spring for the hobby box. It is relatively inexpensive and does guarantee so hits.
The price is the leading pro for 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey. This has always been an inexpensive release. The current prices are meager when considering the incredible extent of inflation in recent years.
So, if you are a fan of memorabilia cards and don’t want to spend a lot, this is probably the best option.
But for this release, the price was not supposed to be the main attraction. Instead, it should have included the first real Connor Bedard cards.
There are junior cards and an excellent card in Series 1. But this will be his first legit part of the checklist professional release. So, that is where the big excitement was supposed to be here.
We wouldn’t say that 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey are the most beautiful cards we have ever seen. However, they don’t look like cut-rate cards for a cheap release.
I mean that they don’t suffer from Panini Score syndrome. The memorabilia cards from Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey look legit.
Shop for 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey boxes on eBay
The basic cons of this product are pretty well known. In most boxes, you won’t find any significant hits. That is probably true for most releases. But in the case of Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey, that is doubly true. You often don’t get an auto of any kind.
Meanwhile, the most common result for the memorabilia cards is to get a few veteran swatches of dubious quality. At the end of the day, the most likely outcome for this box is severe disappointment.
We can’t say this will be the case for the new release, but there have been severe quality control issues in previous releases. For example, some customers have complained that the boxes did not have all the cards that were supposed to be in the box.
Some packs were missing promised cards. Meanwhile, others did not have promised hits. In 2021-22, for example, they said there would be redemptions in the box, raising expectations for another big hit. But it ended up being an acetate insert called a “redemption.”
These sorts of things have annoyed collectors and reduced the prestige of the box. Of course, none of this is an intentional move by Upper Deck.
But we can’t help but notice that they treat this release slightly less seriously than others.
Since then, Upper Deck has put legit redemptions in these boxes. And collectors appreciate that. But considering this release comes after Series 1 and its Young Guns have been released, they are often less than excited to wait for more rookie cards.
Like many other releases, the hits in Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey have been watered down. There have often been fewer memorabilia cards (which is the entire point of the release), and they have been replaced with dubious inserts.
Recently, they have made “Tech Cards” count as inserts. What are there? Inserts that have a bit of a Panini Flawless vibe but no distinctive identity of their own. Having these (no offense Upper Deck) crappy cards as a “hit” means that in practice,
Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey has only two hits. That is a step down from the three it had in the early years.
Another complaint pertains to the retail releases of Upper Deck Artifacts. We don’t expect to hit big cards in blasters often. But fans of the series have complained that there is a complete absence of worthwhile memorabilia cards in the retail formats.
That defeats the purpose of even having retail versions of this. After all, Artifacts is about, well, freaking artifacts!
But Of course, Upper Deck is way behind on the production of its cards. Therefore, the Connor Bedard rookies will have to wait for later.
Oh, you have to wonder if the value of the cards will hold up once his Young Guns and Big Patch cards come out. Then there is a further problem. Unfortunately (and we will talk about this in the cons), that card will likely be a redemption.
That may even lower its value as the first card to come out. So, it is very cool to get Connor Bedard cards. But these may not be the best ones to get. Either way, you must wait for next year, making these cards even less desirable.
The checklist for Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey has shrunk over the years. With over 300 cards in its first incarnation, in recent years, 100 regular base cards and assorted stars, veterans, and rookie series were added on for 180 cards.
This year, the checklist is a bit bigger, at 200. It will include Stars, numbered #101-135, Goalies at #136-155, Legends at #156-170 and Rookies at #171-200.
The base list will have the following parallels:
The rookies in the base list have this set of parallels:
Many of the base cards come with the following memorabilia or autograph versions:
On top of these are autographs and memorabilia versions for select cards:
Meanwhile, the goalies and veteran cards have these parallels:
Hit-based parallels include:
As we have mentioned, the problem is that the Conor Bedard cards are delayed until next year. Therefore, we have to look at the crop of the 2022-23 rookies, which is not as strong.
The key rookie here, by a mile, is Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken. He catapulted the Seattle Kraken into contention for the playoffs with his performances.
Matty won Rookie of the Year honors while leading all rookies in goals, points 57, and minus (+14). He has a fabulous future ahead of him, and his cards are worthy of investment.
No one else had been quite that outstanding. Nonetheless, Logan Thompson has proved a capable young goaltender for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Meanwhile, Owen Power (what a great name) is a mighty two-way threat of a defenseman with a great future ahead of him. So, this may not be the most loaded rookie class ever. But it is respectable enough.
It’s too bad no one cares because everyone is about Connor now.
The Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey release is not known for its great inserts. We are talking about a release that puts memorabilia first, after all.
One great advantage that Upper Deck has over its competitors is its cool bounty contests. Usually, they involve sending in a series of cards in return for a reward.
And indeed, that is the concept behind the Aurum Bounty as well. Aurum is a yellow precious metal, a chemical element of atomic number 79. That’s right. I have Google and am not afraid to use it.
So, this metal is the fragile concept behind the Aurum insert set. There are 48 of them, available in hobby packs only. It would be best to collect all of them to access two extra rookies unavailable in the set.
But wait, that is not all! You can do even better if you get a head start on this. The first 20 individuals to complete the set receive an exclusive 12-card Aurum set. The first 10 get an auto card, and the first three to finish get a dual autograph.
I am not sure anyone will be too excited about this, but the Tech inserts are back.
Upper Deck insists they count as a hit, but most collectors disagree. They are not a particularly attractive insert, with metallic spheres on each side of the image.
It is not clear what “tech” is themed about them. They also have very little market value. Therefore, they are a fake hit. No one wants to get these as a hit.
When this brand first came out, the boxes had a guaranteed auto. Since then, they have been dropped as a secured card and can pop up as one of the hits.
The AutoFacts are not the most attractive auto cards you will ever see. But they are on-card and relatively easy to find. You can find one in every 1:33 hobby and 1:1,000 retail packs.
The most fantastic new auto card has to be the Award Winners series. Each highlights an award won by a player. I happen to be a bit of a sucker for this kind of thing.
The cards are also quite attractive and help you learn hockey history while at it. They are also numbered /25, so they should have some value. A welcome addition to the checklist.
The most controversial autographed cards in Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey are the redemptions. These aren’t real redemptions but are called that, which is weird. The base version of these cards is 1:18 in hobby packs and 1:160 in retail packs.
The hobby boxes include an Emerald parallels (1:130 packs). You can also land SP Photo Variations (1:265 hobby packs) or an Emerald version of that (1:5,200 hobby packs), Autograph (1:4,800 hobby packs) versions, and there are also 15 Retro Rookie Redemptions (1:45 hobby packs).
These rookie autos come at a rate of 1:1,000 hobby packs. Since they are fairly rare and are signed by rookies, there are great cards to land. It’s too bad they are sticker autos because they are pretty attractive aside from that.
Many non-memorabilia cards exist in 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey. Indeed, if you buy the retail versions, you will be overwhelmed by these items. But the product is there to provide artifact cards. Luckily, they do deliver some very nice ones. Here are our favorites.
When you buy a product dedicated to memorabilia like this one, you expect to see exciting and slightly off-the-beaten-track cards of that kind. The Game Ticket Artifacts series does a great job of providing just that.
The concept is simple and involves a physical ticket to an NHL game. The execution and design are clean and appealing. These are some of the coolest cards of their kind that I have seen.
Fans agree with me that these are great cards. Therefore, the best ones have decent value by the standards of this product. Wayne Gretzky and Sydney Crosby cards from this set sell for a few hundred dollars.
It is quite unfortunate that many of the best memorabilia cards in Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey are not available in the retail products. However, NHL Remnants is, which is a great thing.
These are very nice-looking memorabilia cards that often have choice jersey parts. You can find them at a rate of 1:40 in hobby packs and 1:100 packs in retail.
The great thing about this release is how incredibly inexpensive it is. A box of memorabilia-rich (in theory) cards at $89 a pop is a great deal today. Therefore, our threshold for value is very low.
When we buy into 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey, we are not expecting some great boon to our investment portfolio. But it’s still nice to know we can hit big by getting the right card. So, is there any real value in this release? We looked at how it performed in previous years to find out.
We are confident that Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey is not on anyone’s list for stashing away. But since these boxes are so darn cheap, it wouldn’t be hard for them to be worth a good deal more than the entry price.
Therefore, we looked at the costs of boxes in recent years to try and get an idea of their value.
Release | Approximate Value |
---|---|
2017-18 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Hobby Box | $199.95 |
2018-19 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Hobby Box | $200 |
2019-20 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Hobby Box | $299.95 |
2020-21 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Hobby Box | $149.95 |
2021-22 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Hobby Box | $71.95 |
What a pleasant surprise! There aren’t many boxes that seem pretty much guaranteed to double in price within two to three years. But Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey fits that category.
I am not sure there are many better investments for a hobby box under $100. And considering that this is not a product people usually think of stashing away, it is all the more impressive. Another nice thing about these boxes is how consistent the price gain is.
All of the boxes experience a pleasant and healthy accruement of value. So, while you won’t be making untold millions by keeping boxes of Artifacts in the closet, you could do worse.
We know that Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey is a sneaky good product stash. But as we know, people usually buy it to enjoy a cheap rip. Therefore, the real test here is whether it has any decent value. Here are some of the most significant sales of Artifacts single cards in recent months.
Card | Value |
---|---|
2022-23 Artifacts Hockey – Connor McDavid Double Jersey Auto 7/25 | $650 |
Wayne Gretzky 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Game Ticket /8 (AlLe) #GTA-GZ | $288 |
2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Marco Rossi RPA /15 Rookie Card | $270 |
Yaroslav Askarov 2023-24 UD Artifacts Hockey RC RPA Dual Patch Auto Green /35 | $225 |
Alexander Ovechkin 2019-20 Upper Deck Artifacts Auto Materials Gold /15 | $205 |
As expected, there are no massive cards in Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey. It is not a release that enjoys much cache with hockey collectors. However, the best cards in this release are so great that they cannot be ignored.
You have beautiful, low-numbered auto and jersey cards in Artifacts that people are willing to spend a few hundred bucks to get.
If the sales here don’t look eye-popping to you, I have two things to say. First, you are right. These sales aren’t super impressive. Two, remember the price of entry. There are some releases where hardly any big cards cover the entry price.
With Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey, your chances of hitting that are pretty good. Your chances of doubling the cost of the hobby boxes are pretty good as well.
I didn’t come into this review expecting much. After all, Artifacts is not considered one of the top-of-the-line hockey releases. But that is the weird thing about reputation.
Sometimes, brands have overpriced boxes because they are overhyped, and others are cheap because their reputation is unjustifiably poor. The Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey line falls squarely in that latter group.
While it isn’t among the best value boxes out there, it’s a solid buy for $89. You can stash it and double the value in a couple of years. If you rip it for fun, there is a good chance you will also get your money back. You can’t say that about a lot of cheap boxes. So. This is a great box to rip if you are a hockey and memorabilia fan.
It may even work well that Connor Bedard isn’t in this box. The lack of a marquee name among the rookies will keep the box price slightly lower. But as we discussed, the 2022-23 cohort is pretty good, and many of the most valuable cards here are veterans.
One thing I would like to see more of in future releases is legit RPAs. They already have memorabilia, autos, and rookies here. Why not have an excellent line of RPAs? They will make this release more desirable and prestigious. Of course, that would also raise the price.
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