Pack Break: 2011-12 Score (x3)

I made a trip to the LCS the other day to pick up some top loaders and one-touches for my recent Howard pickups, but they were out of the 180 pt so I grabbed some 75 pt top loaders and a few packs of 2011-12 Score with the cash I had in hand.

This was the same LCS I found a few weeks back, Stadium Cards and Comics. The cool thing was that this store is where the 1978-79 Montreal Canadiens mini Stanley Cup redemption was pulled. Click here to read about it over at The Knight's Lance.

Let's start with the base design. Overall, I kind of like it because it's different enough from last year, but still has a bit of an old school Score kind of feel to it, or at least that's what I think. Here's my favorite of the lot:

Now for the glossy parallel. Am I the only one who thinks this is an absurd idea for a parallel set. I mean come on, you can't even tell the difference on the front unless you tilt the card in the right light. Whatever, at least they put some kind of note on the back this time around, unlike last year. Here's one of the one's I got:

This next one is one of the "Season Highlight" cards, featuring Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks. This one is kind of neat because the photo actually matches the moment on the card and features Niemi in his very first game as a Shark. 

As far as rookie cards go, Score brought back the Hot Rookies again with a design pretty similar to last year. Of course I ended up getting two no-namers again, and here's one of them. Who else has heard of Matt Campanale before?

Finally a decent insert, well at least I think it's decent. I don't know, you tell me. It's an Alex Ovechkin card from the Score B set. These are actually pretty cool and rank up there with the Net Cams as my favorite Score inserts.

Let's just say this is another reminder of why I tend not to buy single packs, hoping to get something good out of them (i.e. something for my PC or something of great trade value). At this point, I'd rather put the money towards singles for my PC, but there's always something about busting packs/boxes that brings me back for more time and time again.

All is up for trade if anyone's interested. I'd be looking for the usual stuff in return (i.e. Howard, MVP, etc).