When a trading card product delivers a diverse selection of valuable inserts that spans beyond the sport it covers, people usually say the product is “loaded.” That is the case with 2011 Parkhurst Champions which arrives in stores on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. It will be available only through the hobby channel through Upper Deck’s network of Certified Diamond Dealers and Authorized Internet Retailers. Each twenty pack box will include either two autograph cards or one autograph and one additional special insert card on average.

The base set will be a perfect challenge for set builders consisting of 160 cards with intriguing subsets seeded at varying rates of scarcity. The 100-card base set is followed by “Wire Photos” (cards 101-120 found 1:5 packs on average), multi-player “Wire Photos” (cards 121-130 found 1:20 packs on average), painted “Renditions Color” (cards 131-150 found 1:8 packs on average) and painted “Renditions Black & White” (cards 151-160 found 1:32 packs on average).

The player selection of these subsets is structured such that the most valuable players make the cut as you move up the checklist, resulting with a stronger set with big names like Gretzky and Orr being a part of each subset. That creates a potent punch for content and kicks into high gear when you take into account that all 160 of these base cards have hard-signed autograph parallels.

The product will deliver great value with hard-signed signatures of legendary NHL players like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic and Mark Messier. Upper Deck also pushed pens into the hands of some great players who haven’t signed very frequently and acquired signature cards for Brett Hull, Bill Ranford, Dave Schultz, Bill Barber, Brad Park and Steve Larmer. These players signed a variety of awesome inserts like “Wire Photo,” multi-player “Wire Photo,” “Renditions Color,” “Renditions Black & White” (in gold paint pen) and Champ’s.

Outside of the base set and autographs, look for the return of Champ’s with one mini card found in every pack on average. Champ’s cards 1-45 are considered common and cards 46-57 are short-printed found 1:20 packs on average. Each of the cards in the Champ’s set was painted by famed sports artist Ron Stark within a beautiful design that harkens back to the pre-World War II era of tobacco cards. Similar to the base set, the Champ’s mini cards also parallel out to hard-signed autograph versions, including the rare red ink variations that will be numbered to just 15 copies or less!

A new type of NHL card debuts in 2011 Parkhurst Champions with hand-painted “Parkhurst Masterpiece” cards. These truly stunning keepsakes feature an impressive selection of 30 NHL legends limited to just 10 copies each. This concept was first seen within Upper Deck’s 2011 Goodwin Champions set featuring U.S. Presidents and was extremely popular with collectors. Now hockey collectors have a set of their own to pursue with subjects like Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe (painted by Jared Kelley) and Bobby Orr (painted by Ben Young).

Upper Deck is also bringing back one of the most popular elements of the Champ’s set with the inclusion of rare Champ’s Fossil and Artifacts redemption cards. Upper Deck has really pushed the envelope with this set creating some incredible cards for a set where the ice meets the ice age. There are some incredible artifacts in the set like an ancient cave bear tooth (still embedded in a jaw bone), the brain cavity of an Auroch, teeth from prehistoric creatures like the Spinosaurus and ancient coins dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

The Cave Bear tooth

The Auroch skull cavity fossils

Spinosaurus teeth

Coins from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire

Mark your calendars for this Tuesday; 2011 Parkhurst Champions is coming and it is LOADED!