Cards per pack: 7
Boxes per case: 5
Release date: November 6, 2015
ollowing months of hinting of its return, Leaf Trading Cards is officially giving collectors their take on one of In The Game‘s most enduring premium releases and 2015-16 Leaf In The Game Superlative Hockey will be released in time for the Fall 2015 Sportcard & Memorabilia Expo in November.
Since its debut in 2007-08, Superlative managed to carve out a strong reputation for itself while it was produced by In The Game by offering up a strong mix of limited memorabilia and autograph cards. Each box of 2015-16 Leaf In The Game Superlative Hockey will yield seven cards and production has been limited to just 200 five-box cases. This is a dramatic reduction when compared to previous Superlative releases. Every card has been placed inside of a magnetic one-touch holder, which is a nice change for collectors who want the security of their cards having extra protection before they open their packs.
Memorabilia
One of the hallmarks of this brand during its tenure with the previous incarnation of In The Game was the assortment of extremely limited game-used memorabilia cards. Some of the concepts from older releases will remain, but Leaf has injected some new ideas which could resonate with collectors.
A favorite from the early Superlative releases returns in 1000 Point Club and 300 Win Club and while these cards will not feature photos, they will have large pieces of game-used gear from some of hockey’s most accomplished players. Famous Fabrics Four will combine four of the game’s greatest icons while Superlative Six takes the idea to another level with six swatches.
In previous years, In The Game had a tendency to save skate pieces for its Ultimate Memorabilia releases, but Leaf is making good use of them in 2015-16 Leaf In The Game Superlative Hockey with the creation of Blade Runners. Perhaps the most anticipated addition to this product is Superlative Emblems, which feature jumbo pieces of emblems. Other memorabilia collections that expected to come out of packs include Superlative Swatch, International Ice, Superlative Numbers, Superlative Five, Superlative Sticks, and Famous Fabrics Record Book.
Autographs
Many collectors busting boxes of 2015-16 Leaf In The Game Superlative Hockey will undoubtedly be chasing the extremely limited Jack Eichel autograph cards. Expected to be incredibly scarce, the company dropped them into the product at the last moment. These will be the Buffalo rookie’s first certified autographs and Leaf announced that he had signed an exclusive autographed trading card deal with them back in August.
Another In The Game concept makes its return in Superlative with International Ice Signatures. Some of the greatest performers from all over the world should appear on these acetate cards and parallels limited to as little as one copy each can be pulled from packs. Other notable autograph sets will include Superlative Signatures and Immortals Signatures along with Superlative Signature Memorabilia which offers collectors the best of both worlds.
