Pack Sampling: 1998-99 UD Ionix

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...


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It's Miller Time!

Even though I have yet to attend one, I have been told that there is a guy, who is a longstanding member of one of those alphabet autograph organizations, that occasionally sets up at the monthly Nashville Flea Market.

As I said, I still haven't been, but my mom has... many times. And while there a couple of months ago, she bought a couple of autographs from this dealer, including a Reggie Miller signed 8x10 for me:

During his playing days, Reggie was one of those guys you either loved or hated -- I was among the latter, as I would imagine most non-Pacers were. He could be incredibly frustrating to watch, especially when playing against your team, and as I'm sure any Knicks fan could tell you, his ability to catch fire at any moment of a game, meant that no lead against a Miller led Pacers team was ever enough.

It was only after he retired that I was able to look back and appreciate just how good he was, and after doing so, was fully onboard with his being elected to the Hall of Fame.

This was my first autograph of Reggie in any format, and I always enjoy getting autos of HOF'ers, so this ended up being a gift that I was very thankful to receive.


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