Engrained Icons

[Inferno]

No chatter about Engrained Icons is a bit surprising to me. It won’t get the traction SP Signature Legends got but it’s still a pretty loaded memorabilia heavy product. As someone who likes stick relics I’m going to be hunting a lot of singles from this product.

[FatButcher]

There is a little chatter in the box opening I posted, but not a ton.

I think the problem will be how infrequently the notable names come out of this. After watching a good amount get opened, it's 1 every 3-4 cases for a "big" name. The price also likely turned a lot of people off, $300/box should have been half that in reality.

If you are after non superstar stuff, you will have a field day with the singles.

[stoopid]

Originally Posted by FatButcher

There is a little chatter in the box opening I posted, but not a ton.

I think the problem will be how infrequently the notable names come out of this. After watching a good amount get opened, it's 1 every 3-4 cases for a "big" name. The price also likely turned a lot of people off, $300/box should have been half that in reality.

If you are after non superstar stuff, you will have a field day with the singles.

.. ..

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by FatButcher

There is a little chatter in the box opening I posted, but not a ton.

I think the problem will be how infrequently the notable names come out of this. After watching a good amount get opened, it's 1 every 3-4 cases for a "big" name. The price also likely turned a lot of people off, $300/box should have been half that in reality.

If you are after non superstar stuff, you will have a field day with the singles.

Just checked it out, love the Mikita stick!

I don’t break at all so my focus is always 100% on the singles. The checklists on the game used sets are pretty strong and the designs all look pretty good for the most part. Definitely a lot of super deep cuts on the autograph checklists but it’s nice to have that variety once in a while. All the other products UD makes have the usual suspects so it’s fun to see names you never see elsewhere. I do get how it would suck if you paid $300 for a box and got a scrub auto though.

[FatButcher]

I think this is a great product for those not opening the boxes themselves I lucked out getting Blackhawks, but will be grabbing Hawks in breaks or buying singles from here on out.

[creasecollector]

I've enjoyed seeing some names you don't normally see out there. That is always fun.

Very nice looking cards, too!

[Svetlov]

Interesting! I hadn´t heard of this one in advance at all.
The base auto set´s checklist is right down my alley, think I´ll go for those, though the design looks a little too mondern for a vet centric set, maybe?
Also has got my main pc guy in it. Though as a triple stick with Selanne it might be too pricey for me.

[odjickfan]

A lot of depth in the checklist. The cards are nice, but many boxes will turn 300$ into 20-50$.

[ThatGuyPal]

I’m not surprised at all

-This board rarely has a new post for a new set, there should be an all-encompassing thread to discuss any new sets as I tried to do with e-pack but there isn’t.

-This has nothing really for the modern collector in 2025. No rookies to speculate and sell for high before they crash, no cards that on the surface will buy you a new house….heck no Celebrini lol

-The Cup just came out, smaller breakers moved on quick to try and sell this but a lot of money is tied up in the Cup, no reason to buy Engrained especially for reasons above.

-What’s the difference between this and regular Engrained? More players no one knows? Dave Keon autos? lol for real though may be differences but reg Engrained had legends, most UD products have the GOOD legends, SP had the legend future watches what is the big deal about Engrained Icons?

[KayneofThrones]

I bought three boxes of it and got incredibly lucky. Patrick Roy Signature Shots and Gretzky Stick /49. Beautiful cards. Love that everything is hard signed as well. I will be picking off a few more singles.

[rizzeedizzee]

There's very little chatter because it is pretty diluted. That is not a criticism, as it is most definitely a GREAT product for collectors, with players you might not see except in things like the Centennial sets that UD has done. But I mean diluted in terms of opening. So if you stick to singles, you'll do great, even more so than normal.

[kingb22]

Originally Posted by rizzeedizzee

There's very little chatter because it is pretty diluted. That is not a criticism, as it is most definitely a GREAT product for collectors, with players you might not see except in things like the Centennial sets that UD has done. But I mean diluted in terms of opening. So if you stick to singles, you'll do great, even more so than normal.

The issue is the price. At $100-150 I'd buy a case or two. At $300 a box not a chance. The names in the set are nostalgic and fun, but not worth much to sell. Definitely a good singles play.

[Inferno]

My eBay watch list is taking a beating. I’ll be picking away at singles for months if not years.

[ThatGuyPal]

That’s a much more condensed version of why this got no chatter….anything where the advice is “buy singles” won’t get much hype. It’s all about the products people feel they have a slightly above average of coming out ahead ripping vs box price.

I’m seriously wondering about my question above still though….does this have anything different to normal Engrained as SP Legends did with the All-Time Future Watches? As I said above UD sets are good for having the legends you’d want in most regular sets if the only difference is more guys people are less likely to know I see the lack of attention. I could get a Gretzky carved in time and possibly a Bedard in reg Engrained not sure why one would get Icons unless much older just to get a Gretzky carved in time and a random retired player. Unless I’m missing a big difference which is what I’m asking. The ATFWA were basically the main selling point for SP Legends I remember

[kingb22]

Originally Posted by ThatGuyPal

That’s a much more condensed version of why this got no chatter….anything where the advice is “buy singles” won’t get much hype. It’s all about the products people feel they have a slightly above average of coming out ahead ripping vs box price.

I’m seriously wondering about my question above still though….does this have anything different to normal Engrained as SP Legends did with the All-Time Future Watches? As I said above UD sets are good for having the legends you’d want in most regular sets if the only difference is more guys people are less likely to know I see the lack of attention. I could get a Gretzky carved in time and possibly a Bedard in reg Engrained not sure why one would get Icons unless much older just to get a Gretzky carved in time and a random retired player. Unless I’m missing a big difference which is what I’m asking. The ATFWA were basically the main selling point for SP Legends I remember

There are tons of guys in Icons that aren't in SP Legends. It's both the strength of the product and why it can't be $300. A typical box might be a Gord Murphy auto, an Al Secord auto and a Syl Apps or Denis Savard stick piece. If you are a fan of those teams they have interest but if you pull guys you have no interest in there is no market for the cards. I'm a 50yr fan of the Flyers and there are plenty of guys I want, but have little interest in the tier 3 guys from other teams

[mfw13]

Engrained reminds me a lot of 2012-13 Panini Classics.....a product completely focused on retired players, but with most of the best players SSPed to the point that they are effectively non-existent.

I was thinking about collecting the base autos of all my favorite 80's stars......but they're all SSPs and only 1 has shown up on EBay so far (a Ray Bourque).

[rizzeedizzee]

It's basically SP Legends meets the Centennial sets. More breadths, and lots of guys who only hometown fans care about. And nothing at all is wrong about that.

I talked to one breaker who is trying something clever. He divided the players into three tiers, with the top guys in tier 1, the mid-range guys in tier 2, and the "nobodies" in tier 3. He's doing a random where each spot gets you a random tier 1 guy, two random tier 2 guys, and three random tier 3 guys. That's probably as good an idea as any if you are going to try to break this.

[ThatGuyPal]

Originally Posted by rizzeedizzee

It's basically SP Legends meets the Centennial sets. More breadths, and lots of guys who only hometown fans care about. And nothing at all is wrong about that.

I talked to one breaker who is trying something clever. He divided the players into three tiers, with the top guys in tier 1, the mid-range guys in tier 2, and the "nobodies" in tier 3. He's doing a random where each spot gets you a random tier 1 guy, two random tier 2 guys, and three random tier 3 guys. That's probably as good an idea as any if you are going to try to break this.

Obviously some teams have way better options but I mean you’re probably getting that in a team break too unless some teams just got completely bunked on top players.

[FatButcher]

Team breaks, as you would expect, are heavily skewed towards Original 6 teams. If one of those is your goal, team breaks will likely be very fruitful.

[ThatGuyPal]

I mean teams like the Stars have Modano and Belfour autos etc, Colorado has Sakic, Forsberg and Roy. If there’s examples where teams don’t have a top tier guy, mid tier and lower tier guys someone can post but as I said obv guys like Gretzky etc are tops but most teams are gonna have those tiers imo.

Also depends on if you consider certain players in each tier. For example I just chose a random team to test my theory took the Blues and I’d say for top tier you have : Al Macinnis , Keith Tkachuk, next tier guys like Pronger and Jay Bouwmeester, then lower tier like Murray Baron and Nelson Emerson. Now it depends how someone tiers guys obv if only top tier guys are guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, Roy etc that way is better but if guys like Macinnis are tier one as I said I don’t see which teams wouldn’t have those. This is also all based on autos for St Louis for example you can get a Brett Hull Carved In Time as well.

[FatButcher]

I think it definitely comes down to how people tier certain players. Tier one for a lot of folks are Gretzky, Orr, Messier, Mikita (shameless Blackhawks plug), etc.

Just depends on how broad they want to expand that tier. The good news is team breaks for folks like Vancouver or Carolina are going pretty cheap so accessing the less high end tier 1 cards is pretty accessible.

[mortuus]

Ive seen some breaks on youtube and its just crazy how bad most boxes were. 3 base cards for 1 box that is like 300 dollars ? utter madness if you ask me... and dont get me started with the "manufactured" stuff.

[mfw13]

There's also the fact that the (many) Canadian sellers are asking ridiculous shipping prices for single cards.

You can ship from Canada to the US for less than $5 US.....but many Canadian sellers are asking $10-20 shipping for $3-5 base commons.

[ZappBrannigan]

Originally Posted by mfw13

There's also the fact that the (many) Canadian sellers are asking ridiculous shipping prices for single cards.

You can ship from Canada to the US for less than $5 US.....but many Canadian sellers are asking $10-20 shipping for $3-5 base commons.

An American hasn’t shipped a card for 5$ or less to Canada from Ebay for 10 years.

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by ZappBrannigan

An American hasn’t shipped a card for 5$ or less to Canada from Ebay for 10 years.

Canada to the US can be cheap (tariffs aside) but the US doesnt have any tracked options to Canada that arent $$$$$$$$$$$$$