2011-12 Upper Deck Black Diamond hockey

When I am about to post here at APTBNL, I always make one final search to be sure I am not posting a duplicate pack. That's not to say I won't put up another copy, if I feel the pack is strong. But if it qualifies for the "we rip everything" mantra, I hate to waste a post on a pack that has already had its day in the sun.

That being said, here is a pack where we have posted all the years but this pack I am about to scan, if I understand the time frame of the set.

Black Diamond if a low to mid end set from Upper Deck. The gimmick of the set is the diamond patterns on the card. The more diamonds, the rarer the print. Kind of like the special symbols on Magic and Pokemon cards. BD cards, though, tend to scan like hell. Five cards in a pack, with hits available. As you can see, you are looking for triple and quad diamonds.

As I said - scans like hell. You can barely see the diamonds at the lower left. You certainly cannot see the player name. I don't have the card handy, but I believe this is Tyler Ennis. The background behind the player is textured hash makes, as Black Diamond has been in other years. The marks change directon to help with the feeling of shadows behind the player. You either love or hate BD. I lean to hate.

The off center doesn't work with this set at all. Completely unbalanced. Val Filppula here.

Still just single diamonds on Ryan Clowe.

Andrei Markov. The hash marks changing directon do help a bit on the card, but this is a set I just cannot get into. And not just because it's so hard to read. Maybe because of the diamond gimmick.

There are old timers in this set, but I didn't pull any. My last card is Loui Eriksson.

Different photo on the back at least. I do believe you get full career stats on the back. Also, you can see the diamond level on the back as well. A full pack of single diamonds - couldn't do any worse, unless is was a Red Wings hot pack.