Upper Deck Has Vaulted Flagship Products to New Level Thanks to Outburst Parallels

Upper Deck enhanced their Flagship Series by adding Outburst parallels. The Flagship products are Series One, Series Two, and Extended Series. Outburst parallels debuted in 2023-24 Upper Deck Series One Hockey.

Silver Outburst parallels are found one out of every 15 packs and Silver Outburst Young Guns are found one out of every 60 packs.

Red Outburst parallels numbered to 25 and are extremely rare. The one-of-one Gold Outburst parallels are the cards that everyone is chasing. As of writing, the $1,000,000 bounty for the one-of-one Connor Bedard Gold Outburst Young Guns has not been paid. 

Value Difference From Base Young Guns to Silver Outburst Young Guns

We need to review the importance of the population count before we go into the difference in values between the base Young Guns and Young Guns Silver Outburst parallels.

The population count represents your competition when buying or selling cards. Cards with higher population counts tend to sell quickly as there is a large pool of buyers. 

There is more control for the seller when selling cards with lower population counts. It is not like there is a new comp popping up every day. The seller can set the market and hold out for their price.

Connor Bedard, Luke Hughes, and Matthew Knies were used to compare values and population counts for PSA 10 Young Guns and Silver Outburst Parallels. 

The first standout from the chart above is the difference of population count from base Young Guns to Silver Outburst Young Guns. There is nearly a 99:1 ratio of Bedard Base PSA 10 Young Guns to Silver Outburst PSA 10 Young Guns. 

There is nearly a 70% value boost when comparing Bedard's base Young Guns to his Silver Outburst Young Guns. The gap is a bit closer for Luke Hughes and Matthew Knies.

Long Term Outlook for Outburst Parallels

Outburst parallels are new, they are the shiny new toy. Sorry, that was a poor pun. But the cards look great and collectors have shown their appreciation of the Outburst parallels based on early sales.

Many collectors expressed concern when the first renderings of Upper Deck 2023-24 Series One Hockey were released. The Outburst parallels were a non-traditional change to Upper Deck's most traditional product.

That concern is no longer.

Time will tell if the Outburst parallels carry long term value. Based on the population counts of the Outburst parallels when comparing to the base Young Guns, there is always going to be a demand for the Outburst parallels.

One has to wonder if Upper Deck will follow in the footsteps of Bowman Baseball and offer additional colors and numbered parallels in future Flagship products. It would not be a bad move. 

Happy hunting and collecting!