Released September 30, 2009 • hobby box includes 36 packs with 6 cards each, 216 cards total • click here for checklist on Trading Card Database
My review:
I like this set quite a bit, but it is still my least favorite of the OPC sets I’ll be reviewing. Once again, a giant O-Pee-Chee word mark takes up way too much real estate and prominence. Below, I’ve mocked up a quick edit with a more reasonable hierarchy between the player name and O-Pee-Chee mark:
actual card 
my edit
The repeated white “E”s along three edges are a strange twist that should not quite work…but maybe kind of do?
After a settlement with Topps meant Upper Deck could no longer use Topps/O-Pee-Chee designs from the past, Upper Deck still chose to produce a retro parallel set, this time with an all-new design with a retro feel. And as much as I like the 2008-09 retros that use the 1979-80 design, I actually think it is a good thing that Upper Deck has been forced to get creative with the retro designs ever since and I think their designers have done an admirable job creating “new retros.”
To my eye, however, this first effort in 2009-10 is their weakest yet. There’s nothing particularly terrible about it, just nothing especially strong either. They don’t evoke any particular era of cards, they just try to look a little old-fashioned by being overly simple, but the charm of old, simple designs is lacking. The retros have their card numbers on the back so buried that it took me years to realize they had numbers on them at all. I wonder if the timing of the settlement with Topps forced Upper Deck into a bit of a last-minute scramble to create these cards. They feel a little under cooked.
Other than the retros, the selection of inserts is pretty boring for my tastes.
So overall a relatively weak set—but even a “bad” year for O-Pee-Chee is a good one!
My ratings /10:
base design 6.8 retro design 7.2 inserts 2.0 overall 7.0
Affiliate Links:
eBay: click here to shop 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee
SportLots:
Regular Print Base Cards #1-500
Short Prints #501-600 • 1:2 hobby packs
Marquee Rookies #501-550, Marquee Legends #551-600
The pre-season release of O-Pee-Chee means the rookie content is often underwhelming, and the group of 2009-10 rookies is particularly weak. If I had to choose the highlights…Artem Anisimiov and Antti Niemi maybe?
Retro parallels • 1:1 hobby packs
Other Parallels:
retro rainbow • serial numbered to 100
retro blank backs • odds unknown, estimated print run of 5-20
rainbow • 1:4 hobby packs
Inserts:
Team Checklists, Record Breakers, Trophy Winners, 1st Team All-Stars, 2nd Team All-Stars, All-Rookie Team, Stat Leaders, In Action • combined 1:4 hobby packs
autographed buybacks • 1:432 hobby packs
box bottoms • two per blaster box (base design), four per hobby box (retro design)
Materials • 1:144 hobby packs
Signatures • 1:216 hobby packs
Canadian Heroes • 1:36 hobby packs
Canadian Heroes foil, Canadian Heroes autographs • odds unknown to me
Update Set #601-800
Upper Deck again released a stand-alone 200 card Update set later in the season, this time available only as a boxed set. Four out of every five sets included five rainbow parallels, and one out of five sets contained two rainbows and one Triple Jerseys card. Retro parallels were not produced for the Update cards.
There are a lot of good rookies included in the Update set, including Tyler Myers, Ryan O’Reilly, Jamie Benn, Braden Holtby, Brad Marchand, Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, James van Riemsdyk, Matt Duchene, & John Tavares.
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