From what I've been able to gather, the blogs will soon be inundated with the opening of packs and boxes from the coming release of Topps' flagship baseball set. Spoiler alert: I will be one of the few who doesn't partake in that particular frenzy. Nor will I be joining the craze for the next big thing the following week, or the week after that. But some of you probably already knew that. Thankfully, I'm many years past that kind of chaos. That being said, I won't be missing out entirely on the ripfest; as I've just unknowingly lucked into a pack of cards from what will undoubtedly be this year's hottest release.
This came courtesy of, David, who not only helms the excellent CardBoredom website, but is also behind the semi-recently started blog of the same name. I don't know how many packs were produced, but I'm assuming that they were fairly limited.
This release has received little to no hype, has had no commercials produced for it, no previews have been dropped on the Twitter, and no breakers have been paid to influence anyone to spend their lifesavings on it. In other words, I don't know what to expect from it. In a way, it's kind of like the old days when you didn't know what was what until you actually opened up your first pack. If the design of the pack is anything to go by though, I think I'm gonna be in for something good.
I've heard of people pulling something of great interest to them and then stating that it was almost like the that pack had their name on it. Well, this pack literally has my name on it, so that's gotta be a good sign, right?
It's been a few years since I've last opened up a pack of cards, and even longer since said pack was of the wax variety. I've dusted off my old, albeit short-lived, pack opening series for the occasion, and am ready to see if I remember how to do this right. So, without further ado...
Wow, a 1961 Topps Billy Muffett! I haven't opened any packs for a few years now, but I'd probably be more inclined to do so if more of them started off like this. It's hard to imagine that anything better could out of this particular pack, but there's still 14 more cards to go...
Another 1961 Topps Billy Muffett!! Were I to be attempting to collect this set I might be inclined to say something about the poor collation of this pack, but I'm not, so I won't. In fact, so far, this pack is collated almost like it had my name on it 😏
Two down, 13 to go...
It's a Billy Muffett hot pack!
I can imagine someone whose shown up here for the first time being confused by what they're seeing, and/or possibly thinking that I've been the recipient of a practical joke. If you're that someone, I can assure you that, no, I was not pranked -- this is one of my all-time favorite cards, and is one that I'm mildly hoarding. I say mildly, only because it's not my goal to own every single copy produced; just a whole bunch of them. And in case those in the know haven't figured out yet what David's done, let's move on to card #4...
Yep, it's another one. I was really tempted to do this 11 more times, but I'll put you out of your misery (the suspense must be killing you!)...
That's officially the best photo that you'll see on the blogs today.
I can, without any hyperbole, say that is the greatest pack of cards that I've ever opened. Sure, I've probably opened packs that had cards worth more monetarily, but in terms of sentiment; this one top(p)s them all. And honestly too, I don't see how any future pack could ever take this one's place, well, maybe if there were 16 Billy Muffett's...
I can also now say, with only a hint of jest, that 15 of my beloved Billy Muffett's were pack pulled, by me no less. That's very cool.
Some may've noticed that the pack stated that it came with gum, which it did, safely sandwiched between two pieces of cardstock. Hopefully David won't be offended by my not chewing the gum; with all of my fillings I'd be afraid to try and chew gum at this point in my life (it sure smells good though!). I have, however, slipped it into a penny sleeve so that I can keep with the wrapper that I was thankfully able to salvage most of. I don't imagine that I'll ever be the recipient of another custom pack, so I will be keeping this one -- probably in the binder that's housing my Billy Muffett's.
I'd be remiss too if I didn't also show how the pack was shipped. Foam holders in between foam board. Take note Topps, that's how all of your cards can be guaranteed PSA 11's right from the get go.
To my monkey brain, people creating custom wrappers is akin to someone turning base metals into gold. Even with the curtain being pulled back, it still feels like wizardry.
I must admit that I was a bit skeptical when I got David's email a few weeks ago saying that he had some cards for me. I don't have any want lists up on the blog currently, and aside from my leaving a few comments on his blog, we had never had any real contact. Clearly though, my skepticism was uncalled for, as David would've been hard pressed to send a better mailing.
Many thanks to David for this extremely fun (and thoughtful) surprise. I'm not sure that I was worth all of the effort, but am extremely grateful for it nonetheless.
Collecting cards, or any other item for that matter, has always been a fairly lonely hobby for me. Aside from a friend who collected baseball cards when I was really young, and a friend who briefly got interested basketball cards during my teens, it's pretty much just been a thing I do, by myself, for the majority of my life.
The only real exception being a magical two-year period from 1991 to 1993, when I found myself surrounded by kids, kids my age and a little older, who collected, talked about, and traded all things comic books.
We moved to Beaverton (OR) in 1991. Summer had just begun, and despite all the other homes in the vicinity, I can remember thinking how desolate the place felt. I didn't see any people out doing things during the first few days, and more importantly, I didn't see any other kids. Turned out though that all I had to do was get out and explore my new surroundings, because once I did, I found other kids, lots of kids in fact, and by summer's end would have more friends than I had ever had up to that point, or would ever have again.
Finding friends was great, but finding out that the majority of these new friends collected comic books, comic cards, and comic related action figures, was like a dream come true for the then nine year-old me.
I was already working at my uncle's comic book shows by that time (this was the source of much envy from my new friends) , so I knew how popular such things were with kids my own age, but still, I never could've imagined that there was a place, outside of the shows, where I could be surrounded by so many of them -- but there was, and for the next two years, I was.
Things would get even better that first fall when 4th grade started, as I found that kids outside of my immediate vicinity collected as well. These were kids that generally lived a couple of miles or more away from my core group, and were rarely seen outside of school, but once we got to school everybody was the best of friends (for the most part), which worked out really well when one was a card or two from a particular set, because everyone had duplicates laying around, and everybody was always looking to trade. Comic books were traded at school on a fairly regular basis, and even though I never did so, action figures would often get swapped too. It was a good time to be alive.
This trading network would continue pretty much unchanged until I moved away in 1993. We moved far enough way that I really wasn't able to keep up with all of my neighborhood friends anymore. I only stayed in contact with one friend, and he was one of the select few who didn't collect anything, so I have no idea how long everyone else continued collecting. I would continue to do so until around 2000, when I took a ten-year hiatus from almost all things collectible, save for a few comic books from time to time, and those were for reading, not collecting.
I have a strong affinity for that 1991-93 time period, and the older I get, the more often I revisit it. And although rarely discussed, I will forever be drawn to comic related items from that two-year span as well. It was with all of this in mind, and a healthy dose of depression induced nostalgia (the two go hand-in-hand for me), that I purchased a lone pack of 1992 The Uncanny X-Men off of Sportlots a few months ago.
Even by 1992, the '90 and '91 Marvel Universe sets were still kings of the playground. Despite being released ahead of the now iconic X-Men: The Animated Series, I don't recall there being a lot of interest in the set from my friends. It probably didn't help too that packs from this set weren't for sale anywhere around us. I only remember ever getting a few packs at my uncle's shows, and then a few more some years later at Things From Another World (that's a comic book shop in Portland that still exists, but was much better in the pre-internet days). 1993 saw the release of X-Men Series 2, which was/is much more strongly associated with the cartoon, and therefor was, and still is, the more popular card set of the two. It's also worth noting that because the second series was just called, X-Men Series 2, most people nowadays just refer to the first series, as X-Men Series 1. I, on the other hand, still call the first set what it was called when I was a kid, The Uncanny X-Men.
Because of the difficulty of finding it at the time, and it's lack of popularity amongst my peers, The Uncanny X-Men is one of the few sets from this period that I never completed. With the ability to trade gone after I moved away, my only real option for finishing sets like this was if I came across some cheap packs, and was fortunate enough to pull the cards I needed from said cheap packs. That never happened with this one, and as the years passed, the completion of it became less and less important.
Like pretty much everything else in the last year, boxes and packs (but not singles) for this set have skyrocketed in price on the secondary market. After so many months, I can no longer recall how much I paid for the pack, but there were no other bidders, and it was basically gotten for the price of shipping -- which was multiple times cheaper than the current going rate on eBay.
As the front of the pack mentions, aside from the base set, one has a chance at pulling cards from one chase set, Gold holograms. It was also possible to find signed cards from the great Jim Lee . The holograms are still just as great as they ever were, and the autographs, if memory serves, were just base cards signed on the back by Jim Lee. Despite the lack of glitz, I would have to think that the autos have increased in desirability over the years, as most young kids wouldn't have been overly excited by such things back in 1992. Holograms on the other hand...
It had been so long since I last opened up a pack of this stuff, that I had completely forgot that the charts for the characters ability ratings were on the inside of the packs; had I known otherwise, I would've been a little more careful opening the pack. i.e. I wouldn't have just torn it open.
Assigning numbers to a characters abilities was kind of a big deal in the early 90's, at least as far as a lot of the card sets went. They were a starting point when looking at who might fare against who in a battle. My friends kept our "What If?" conversations relatively civilized (surprisingly!), but there were a few heated debates at school, especially if someone started cross-comparing ratings from different sets (I'm looking at you Marvel Universe!).
I had also forgotten that you only got seven cards per pack, so was surprised by the overall thinness of the pack. But again, the pack was cheap, and when you think about it, you really can't put a price on nostalgia, can you? (sounds like a tag line from an old Franklin Mint ad)
The first card out of the pack, Dark Phoenix, just so happens to be one of the better looking cards from the set. I wasn't a huge fan of the alternate Jean Grey as kid, at least not until I saw The Phoenix and Dark Phoenix Sagas episodes of X-Men: TAS, than I began to pay a little more attention to the character.
Oh, and speaking once again of the animated series has reminded me of this:
You're welcome! Now back to the regularly scheduled post...
The abilities graph wasn't the best in this set, but it still did the job. As you can see, her mental powers are at 7 across multiple rows, or in other words, are off the charts -- this was basically code for, you don't f*** with the Phoenix!
A lot of people are only interested in the big names, but at this point, I appreciate these early 90's sets more for the lesser known, and forgotten, characters like Polaris, and...
... Caliban! Though I should mention that with fresh faces being needed for the myriad of comic related films and television series being produced these days, a lot of the once lesser knowns have seen a bit of a resurgence, even if it just to provide a meaningless death to advance the story, or worse yet, cannon fodder for the more popular characters.
I've never been able to get behind Forge, 'Exceptional Tinkerer' just isn't very exciting as far as mutant powers go. And big muscles, and big guns, doesn't make that particular power any cooler either; they actually make the power seem even less cool.
Lots of 90's star power here. I liked the early version of Shatterstar, but lost interest him as his character progressed. Ditto with Domino (how's that for some literation?).
Despite the coolness factor of the Dark Phoenix, this is my favorite card in the pack. It depicts the first encounter between Mutant X/Proteus, and the X-Men. Nightcrawler and Wolvie didn't fair so well, were the next few panels shown, both would be seen incapacitated, and in a bad way. Had Storm not been able to weaken Proteus, Nightcrawler probably wouldn't have survived the battle.
No autographs or holograms (not that I was expecting any mind you), but still a pretty solid pack. It even inspired me to do something that I haven't done in over two years, which is to try and complete a set. Thankfully I held onto what I had gotten as a kid, after finding my stash, and then resorting them, I found that I needed about half of the 100-card set. This pack alone took care of four of those needs, and between the Baseball Card Store, and a TCDB trade, I've been able to acquire all but nine in the last few months. I suspect that I'll have it finished by years end, but even if I can't; I've waited 30 years to finish it, I think I can wait a few more if need be.
I wasn't paying much attention to major league baseball in 1999, well, actually that's a bit of a fib, as I was paying absolutely no attention to major league baseball in 1999. I know that many peoples interest in the sport had been rejuvenated by the previous year's steroidic (that really should be a word) display from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, but I wasn't one of them.
I'm not gonna claim to know that I knew that they were juicing during their sudden outburst of power, but even at 16 I knew that something was fishy, especially with McGwire. I knew enough about the human body to know that people don't usually continue to add that kind of bulk naturally as they age. Fat bulk, yes. Muscle bulk, no. And he just kept getting bigger and bigger as time went on. It was suspect for sure, and I'm sure it was noticed by many, but was not being vocalized at the time. I guess folks were just too caught up in the ensuing circus to say anything that might dampen everyone's good time.
It's funny too, because before it got to the point in the season where people started talking about one of them breaking Roger Maris' record (which he still holds in my eyes), I actually was watching more games on television then I had in the previous few years. But once those two got going, and then the media got going, I got going, as in I stopped watching games, and didn't resume doing so again until 2001.
With this in mind, and with me recently mentioning that I stopped collecting baseball cards in/or around 1993, it should come as no surprise to hear that I wasn't opening up any baseball card packs in 1999. In fact, I was all but done with cards in general by 1999, and can only remember opening up packs from two different basketball sets that year. So this pack, which was part of a prize pack that I received from, Brian, of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary fame, will go down as the first pack of cards that I've ever opened from a 1999 baseball set. And with prices being what they are these days, it might end up being the last pack of baseball cards from 1999 that I ever open as well.
I tried to scan the odds for you, but as you can see, it didn't turn out so well.
Having never collected a baseball set from this particular year, and with me not following the sport at the time, I have no idea who, if any, were the hot rookies that year. And other than the refractors, which I've seen in many a dime box, I can't say that I know anything about any of the other inserts/parallels either. I could've looked up some of this info before opening the pack, but that isn't very fun. It's much better to go into something like this with as little information as possible, that way you don't get your hopes up, and subsequently can't be let down when the pack doesn't yield whatever it is that you were hoping to land.
My only hope going into the pack was that the cards wouldn't be bricked, and I could tell from the shiftiness of contents within the sealed pack, that they weren't, so I there'd be no letdown on my part.
First card out of the gate is... Mitch Meluskey?!?! Yeah, no idea who he is, bUt It'S a RoOkIe. Looks like he was a catcher with great potential on the offensive side, but was less then stellar on the defensive end. Oh, and apparently he has some attitude problems, and couldn't, or wouldn't, get along with his teammates (punching one of them probably didn't help his cause any). His retired in 2004, to very little fanfare it would seem.
He would go on to have much more success elsewhere (five rings, five All-Star appearances, and a Cy Young), but to me David Cone will always be a Met, if only because that's who he was with when I first started out collecting cards. 1999 proved to be a good year for David, he got a ring, was an All-Star, went 12-9, and had himself a perfect game against the Expos on July 18th.
I wonder if our resident Barry Larkin collector needs this one? Probably not, but still worth checking.
Think your scribble is long enough there, Larry? Almost ran out of room! I didn't know of any Braves fans when I was a kid (growing up in Oregon might've had something to do with that), but have come across quite a few as an adult. I always wonder with Braves fans, especially those around my age, if their fandom grew organically, or if it came about because of the TBS factor?
Quick, someone pull the SICK HIT alarm! In case you can't read the poorly scanned odds up top, these Late Bloomers were seeded at 1:12 packs. Good looking card too, much shinier in person though. Since he sent the pack, Brian has first dibs on this one. Nick just mentioned his Mark Grace fandom again the other day, so he'll have the second option on it. If neither of them wants it, I'll just add it to my TCDB trade fodder.
It should come as no surprise that I'm not familiar with Brent Butler either. Looks like he got about 2½ seasons in the bigs, all with Colorado.
Looking at his career stats (2,134 hits, 332 HRs, 1,287 RBIs, and 421 doubles, all while batting .303), I have no doubt that if Moises would be a HOFer if had played during the 1920's, 30's, or 40's. Unfortunately for him, he didn't, and as such will only ever make it as far as some SABRmetrics nerds "hall of very good" list.
I wonder if our resident Pudge collector needs this one? [We sure have a lot of resident so-and-so collectors!]
Hey, it's another rookie card of someone that I've never heard of. Julio Ramirez played for four teams in five seasons and is now a position coach in the Dominican league. And I hadn't noticed it until I was here doing the post, but I see that Bowman did the whole red logo for the A.L./blue logo for the N.L. thing. Scrolling back up, I see that it worked out pretty well on a few of the cards (Larkin, Pudge, Ramirez), looks-wise that is, but still isn't something that I care either way for.
I had to go back and look at the pack to find out what the deal with this chromey was (it's the one-per-pack Bowman International). I like the idea of one-per-pack parallels, unfortunately mine was a rookie, and a Rockie! Todd Sears played in parts of two seasons, neither with Colorado. Looks like he showed some power during his limited time, and there's no mention of him being injured, so I don't know why he didn't see more playing time. Now the question is, does our resident Rockies collector need this one? I sure hope so, because nobody else probably will.
Despite the lack of any keepers, this was still a very fun pack to open. And while I have no plans to ever acquire too many cards from the set, I really do like the overall look of it, I mean it's certainly better than the modern Bowman cards (not that that's hard to accomplish). I suppose my only complaint would be about getting so many rookies in the pack, but I don't know if every pack was like that. Plus too, I've never been gaga over rookie cards, so this complaint could just be a matter of personal taste; take it with a grain of salt!
And as per usual with this series, if you see anything here that you can't live without, don't be shy about saying so.
Thanks to a combination of the Rona, and the recent MJ produced "documentary" about MJ, all things 90's basketball have been deemed cool again, or at least most things have.
I've never considered myself to be one of the "cool" kids, and probably won't be winning any points from them with today's pack, as Jam Session wasn't a must have brand when it came out, and after doing a quick search, I see that despite the resurgence of love for all things 90's, still isn't.
I don't recall too many card shops near me carrying boxes of Fleer's inaugural Jam Session release back in '93-94, but somebody must've had at least one box, because I know I did get a few packs before they were gone, then had to wait many years before seeing them for sale again anywhere.
Being a fan of the vintage tall boys since the first time I laid eyes on one, I liked the idea of Fleer creating a modern set of tall's, and felt like they did a pretty good job of giving us something that felt relevant to the times. Even after all of these years I still think that they're great, and will never turn down a cheap pack/box, which is how I ended up with this pack, 25¢ at the print/copy/card shop down in town was just way too cheap to walk away from -- I just wish that there would've been more than one pack of the '93-94 set left though, but one is still better than none, so let's get to sampling, shall we?
I forgot to scan the back of the pack, so I can't remember if you're supposed to get an insert in every pack or not, but I'm pretty sure that you are, as that's the way the packs would work for future releases. But either way, the good news is that I did get insert, the bad news though, Rookie Standouts was the worst looking of the four insert sets, what with there lack of logos and all -- good news 1.5, Penny was/is the best card to get from this ugly set, so I guess that's something?
I just recently watched Clutch City (and Double Clutch), which was an NBA produced "documentary" about the Houston Rockets and their 1994-95 championship season. This "documentary" was not that great, way too much player interviews, and clips of motivational speeches from the locker room, and not nearly enough in-game action -- not that this was at all surprising mind you, as the NBA is kind of known for the poor documentation of their own history. It's no wonder that today's fans can't even name a handful of players from say, the 80's, when you realize that the league can't even properly document a teams championship season less than a year after it happened. Anyways, the point of me mentioning Clutch City, wasn't a veiled excuse for me to critique the NBA (of which I could in a series of posts), no, it was because I had forgotten about the role that Carl Herrera had played in those two Houston title runs. I don't think that it could be called a key role, but it was a role nonetheless.
Chuck Person had a solid career, but I can't think of him without thinking about Larry Bird. In case you're not familiar with some of the stories, I'd encourage you to do a Google search and read some of them, and/or watch some videos if they're available. Speaking of Larry Legend, am I the only one who'd love to see a multiple part ESPN documentary about him? I didn't watch any of that MJ circle jerk, but I can say with the utmost confidence that a properly done Bird special would blow the Jordan one out of the water. There's nothing better than a good Bird trash-talking (and always backing it up, btw) story, and there's certainly no shortage of them out there. Plus there's the whole Bird in his prime (pre back injury) being better than Jordan in his prime thing, and that's not just me talking out of my butt either, many a NBA great has said the exact same thing, and I tend to value the opinions of guys like Russell and Chamberlain, over some twentysomething on Twitter.
I'd never make any assertions as to him being the best point guard of all-time, or even in the top 25, but Terry Porter was the point guard of my childhood, so he'll always carry a special place in my heart.
The backs on this set are almost as good as the front, and that's a fact that isn't debatable.
I don't know if it's still being used or not, but in professional wrestling they used to call a match between two really big guys, a hoss fight, and I can't help but think how appropriate that term is when looking at this match-up between Mark Eaton (7' 4" 270lbs?) and Kevin Duckworth (7' 0" 280lbs-ish). It's also interesting to note the placement of Big Duck's hands, that would be a foul in today's NBA, as making an offensive player actually have to work to get their shot is big no-no these days.
Googs was one of my favorite players during the mid to late 90's, especially when he was paired up with KG in Minnesota. Dude could pretty much do it all, at 6' 10" he could put the ball on the floor, pass like a point, rebound, shoot the 3, and was a serviceable defender. One could say that Tom was a little ahead of his time, as his skill set would've been much more suited for today's game.
Frank Johnson was backing up Kevin Johnson (no relation) by this point, so it's kind of interesting to see that he was included in the set, especially since a) He was never a big name, and b) At 240 cards, this was only a medium sized set, and given how many recognizable names there were in the league at that time, it's bit surprising that he would've made the cut.
I didn't take note of the set, but at some point in the last few weeks I saw a cards of Vinny's on COMC that had either LEGEND or LEGENDS (I think?) printed across the top, and this struck me as bit odd, and thought that Panini (I'm assuming it was Panini since their only one's with an NBA license) might've been stretching just a tad on that one. He was alright in college, and pretty good overseas, but nothing about his NBA career screams LEGEND, or anywhere near it.
He's often overlooked, and probably mostly forgotten by today's fans, which may sound odd given that he is a HOF'er, but it's true nonetheless. It's unfortunate that most of his best years were spent in Sacramento, especially since the higher-ups at the time seemingly weren't willing to put any viable pieces around him, so his prime years were wasted being the best player for a terrible franchise.
Best photo in the pack? I would assume that most people would say yes, from a personal standpoint I like the Eaton/Duckworth more, but this one is really good too. Young Shaq was such a beast, and this photo captures that sentiment perfectly, as all The Admiral, J.R. Reid, and Lloyd Daniels can do, is stand back and watch him do his thing
Not in my house, hahaha!
Love me some Dikembe :)
Danny was an all-time great in college, and had he not suffered a torn ACL during his rookie season, might've been poised to do the same as a pro. Despite the injury, and it's subsequent complications, he still managed to carve out a very respectable 14-year career for himself, which included two All-Star selections, and a Sixth Man of the Year award.
This pack was a perfect example of why I like this set, and just the Jam Session brand in general, so much, yes, they're difficult to store safely, but even at 240 cards strong, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a couple of big names (i.e. Hall of Famers) in every single pack -- or at least that's been my experience anyway, I've yet to open a Jam Session pack from any year and think "Wow, that was a stinker!". I just don't think that it's possible, but feel free to try and prove me wrong, as packs can still be had on the cheap.
It's not uncommon these days to hear collectors lament over being priced out of "The Hobby". This particular complaint isn't by any stretch of the imagination, a new one, but is being magnified more by our modern social media driven world.
I'm not sure if these carping collectors are just new to the world of cards, are too young to remember, or have just forgotten, but expensive packs and/or boxes have been around for awhile now, and today's pack is a perfect example of this not-so-new phenomenon.
Were you to travel back to 1998 (where do I sign-up?), go to a card shop, and pick-up a pack of the newly released UD Ionix, you'd find yourself holding a $5 ($4.99 on the pack) pack -- and that was five bucks for just four cards by the way!
1998-99 was around the time that my interest in cards started to wane, although it would be another two more years before I'd take my decade-long sabbatical. I'm not sure if the increasing pack prices had anything to do with my diminishing interest, but I do know that I never bought any of those "expensive" packs that started becoming more common in the mid 90's. Five dollars for a pack? No thanks, I could get two packs of Topps for that price... and end up with a whole heckuva lot more cards to boot!
Even though 20+ years have passed, and I have few more bucks to spend on cards nowadays, I still wouldn't pay $5 for a four-card pack, even a pack of this "vintage" -- in fact this particular pack only set me back a dollar. However I do have to give public thanks to my mom for finding it, as it was her that called me from one of those town sales that are oh so popular here in the south, to ask me if I was interested in any of the $1 packs that vendor was selling. This was about two years ago now, so the details have gotten a little foggy, but I do recall her finding today's pack, as well as a couple from the 1998-99 Black Diamond basketball set.
I don't know how I managed to wait so long to open this pack, but I did, and since all things basketball from this era have shot through the roof in recent years, I would imagine that this will have ended up being the only pack of Ionix that I'll ever be opening.
So, did I pull one of those elusive MJ autographs? Or maybe a Warp Zone? I don't know, I guess you'll have to scroll down a little further to find out.
Even though I've never opened up a pack of these, I have found quite a few in dime boxes over the years, so I already knew what to expect design-wise. I'm fan of this set's look, but unfortunately my scanner doesn't seem to share the same opinion, as it ended up washing out a lot of the finer details, as well as the red section on the top, and near the bottom. I snagged a pic from COMC, to try and show you what the cards are supposed to look like...
... but their picture wasn't much better, although the red shows up a little better, and you can see that there is an image to be seen through the slats.
I like the backs on this set too, they're certainly not great for stats, but I find them to be very pleasing aesthetically, so I can live without a more complete stat line.
Some people might not like that the checklist is only 80 cards deep, but having the set made up of mostly established stars and rookies doesn't bother me all that much, I do however have to point out that this was one of those sets where Upper Deck went a little overboard with their MJ love, as he's got at least a dozen different cards in here -- which seems like a bit much for an 80-card set.
Hey... it's a Houston hot pack!
Nuts, no MJ autograph! I'm okay with this pack though, all four cards were of guys that I collect, and all of said four cards were new to me, so no complaints there.
Even though I was happy with what I got, can you imagine paying five bucks for this pack back in 1998? No? Me either. And what about paying whatever crazy price these packs are going for now, and ending up with these four cards? Talk about your disappointment! For a dollar though, it was a pretty solid pack, and I certainly wouldn't hesitate to buy any more for the same price, not that I think this will ever happen again, but you never know...
