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C.A.: 1991 Score Randy Ready

(Freakin' March. You can't convince me Spring Break even exists. As far as I'm concerned it's an urban legend. People disappear in the middle of the busiest time of the year and reappear in island warmth sipping fruity drinks? Yeah, right, I don't believe you. Anyway, here is Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 175th in a series):


I've mentioned before that 1991 Score has some good points -- a few very nice subsets, some decent-looking photos -- but not enough for me to attempt to collect the set.

The road block for me is the turquoise-bordered cards. As you know, the base cards in '91 Score come bordered black, white, blue and turquoise. I think three-fourths of the cards look terrific. Blue? How can you not like blue? Black? Well black borders are just plain bad-ass, I'll say that as many times as you like. White? I actually think the white borders look best of all.

But the turquoise is just horrendous. Score doesn't help any by combining it with purple. And it thought so much of that offensive color combo that it used it again in the 1992 set. Green and purple just shouldn't be. Make it the exclusive domain of the Incredible Hulk and the Joker and leave it at that.

The turquoise cards take away from the set so much that I rarely look at it. They just sit there stewing in that horrible combination of blue, black, white and turquoise waiting to be loved.

The other day I ventured into those cards to add one that came out of a repack thing. I pulled out this Randy Ready card and noted how much I enjoyed the photo, despite all the turquoise surrounding it. That caused me to look at some of the other '91 Score cards and I found great photos that I don't ever remember seeing before.

Then it occurred to me how nice the set would look if I just put all of the colors together. Black with black. Blue with blue, etc., etc.

Yes, I am talking about segregation. No colors mixing. Separate water fountains for every border.

(Geez, I'm going to get emails for this one).

But, really, I think this could save my appreciation for the set.

So I've decided not to sort my '91 Score by card number or team, which is the way I sort 99.9999999 percent of my sets.

I'm going to sort it by border color.


All the blue borders together.


All the black borders together.


All the white borders together.


And, yes, all the turquoise borders together.

I'll put them in the back.

(Yup, I'm getting emails).

This won't make me want to complete the set any more than I did before. But I will look at it a little more often. Maybe some day I'll even take it out of a box and put it in a binder.

Anybody else organize cards by anything other than card number, player or team?

I've said many times that I would have liked '91 Score better if it was just one type of a border color. This doesn't explain my love for '72 or '75 Topps, except I think I like those so much because there are SO MANY color borders. You can't whittle them down to just four. Score's problem is there are only four and three I really like and one I don't.

But one border color, that would've worked better.

As long as Score didn't pick yellow.

Then it would have been 1991 Fleer.

And nobody wants that.

Comments

Nick said…
I know of at least one person who would've liked to see yellow borders.

Me.
Commishbob said…
Alex Coles looks maybe 12 or 13 in that shot.
hiflew said…
This is my 2nd favorite Score set after 1988. I would agree that the turquoise is the weakest of the 4 border colors, but I wouldn't go as far as to say I don't like it.

I don't think you deserve e-mails for your comments, they were nice social satire.

Now if you decided to put the black borders in the back, then you might have issues.
Brian said…
I agree. Yellow borders would have been beeyutiful!

And what's wrong with the Bumble Bee set (91 Fleer) anyways? Best Fleer set produced and right up there with '72 & 74 Topps! Just full of Springtime colour.
I sort my cards by thickness.

Ok, I don't really. But I might start.
Bo said…
you do know that if you sort it by number, you are also sorting by color? Much like the '88 and '90 sets (and more subtly, '89) the score sets were sorted numerically by color. Actually in '91, it was two series, each one that was all blue cards, then all green, then all black, then all white (that is from memory, might have the order wrong).
night owl said…
I haven't paid enough attention to '91 Score to know it was numbered by color. Good to know, I guess.
Adam Kaningher said…
Ah, this one made me laugh. I remember buying lots of 1991 score at Toys R Us when I was about 10 since the packs held SO MANY CARDS and they were less than a buck.