Reps from UD and Panini were on hand, and here's what they had to say. Feel free to post questions here and I'll answer them (if I actually have an answer for you):
PANINI
Tentative release schedule for 2012-13 season:
August -- Score
October -- Classic Signatures (legends autographs 1 per pack $30 MSRP)
Late October -- Certified Hockey
November -- Limited and Titanium
December -- Crown Royale
January -- Donruss Elite
February -- Totally Certified (base on the old TC with HRX video cards)
April -- Contenders
May -- Rookie Anthology
early June -- Prime
late June -- Dominion
Other notes:
* All Prime Ties cards in Panini Prime (which have the entire lace-up from the front neck of the jersey) will be redemptions because of the thickness of the cards and fear of damage in the packaging. However, all cards will be produced and ready for immediate redemption.
* Gordie Howe will have autographs in Prime and GU memorabilia cards in Dominion. Panini acquired a Howe gamer from the 1950s.
* Dominion will now feature an autographed patch rookie card /199 in EVERY PACK. The card will be a vertical format, and there will also be a horizontal variation /99.
* Dominion has been changed to have more different designs and fewer parallels. Base cards will also come on thicker, 120 pt stock, and there will be less variation in the point stock of cards across the set.
* Score will have 49 holdover rookies from last season and features the return of the Check-It inserts from the mid 90s. There will also be more Recollection autographs.
UPPER DECK:
* UD felt there were too many boxes with no card representing the best rookies, so SP Authentic will feature some major changes. They include a 100-card Extended Rookie set seeded 12 per box and a rookie Holo FX set. They were no release date given.
* Ultimate, in the words of product guru Grant Sandground, will be "patchier" this year. They are trying to replace standard jersey with more patch cuts and variations.
* There was absolutely no mention of The Cup, other than to say there was another product not being mentioned and we knew what it was. However, my impression was that the product is in production and awaiting return on autographs, etc.
* O-Pee-Chee Hockey will release in August and has some relatively major changes, including the dropping of the Souvenirs GU cards and the addition of Team Logo Patches. This set will be similar to the Animal Patches in Goodwin and be seeded 3-4 per case with some incredibly tough pulls. OPC will also feature a hobby-only 600-card red border variation set available through wrapper redemptions. There will also be cards available through these packs not available anywhere else.
* Artifacts has been expanded to include a larger base set, allowing for more players who might not have low print run patches and autos to be included. Stars and Legends /999 cards will be changed this year to a 25-card goalie set and a 25-card Team Canada set. Also, EVERY BOX will have either a patch, fight strap, stick or tag in it.
* Series I will again feature the Canvas subset and also hand-signed Gretzky AU /79. There will also be six six-card PETG sets /100 called Pride Of ... featuring different countries. There will also be the return of Silver Skates (including SPs and gold and gold SPs) and a 60-card Radiance set inserted 1:432.
We were given SPA Extended Rookie Promotion 4-card preview packs. Given that it's a 100-card set and there were no more than 100 people in the room, these have got to be pretty limited. The full checklist is on the Upper Deck Blog, and I'll post scans of what I got below.
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