Musing about '93 UD

 

Just a quick blog post tonight because every school team in the country must play a "big game" today.

 

I know I mentioned that I will be starting up a 1993 Upper Deck set blog at some point, perhaps in 2022, perhaps during the 30th anniversary of the set in 2023. But I buried the news at the bottom of a recent post and maybe some didn't catch it.

 

I don't have a lot of planning to do for when I do start the blog. I've written three set blogs now so I know the routine, just have to switch it up a little so it's not exactly like the others. I also have the whole '93 set so I don't have to chase down any last-minute cards.

 

However, this set has something that the other sets I've written a blog about didn't -- inserts.

 

What to do with the inserts?

 

I don't have all of them, just a few. When I bought packs of the cards in '93, I didn't have much of an idea that inserts existed. I know I pulled a couple of cards that didn't look like the base-set cards but probably just assumed they were part of the set.

 

Here is a look at a few of the insert sets in '93 Upper Deck:

 

 "On Deck"

This set is much like the Studio sets from that time in which the back gives personal glimpses of the player by asking questions like "If Not for Baseball I Would Be ..." I pulled a couple of these back in '93.

"5th Anniversary"

Upper Deck was very proud of itself, lasting five whole years in 1993. It celebrated by giving a few past notable cards a black border. Kind of an interesting look. I didn't pull any of these.

The Iooss Collection

My favorite of the '93 UD inserts, it showcases the photographs of famed sports photographer Walter Iooss Jr. It's a 27-card set, which I'm sure would've blown my mind if I knew it at the time. I did pull the Ken Griffey Jr. card, one of the best cards of the entire year, but again thought it was just some strange base card.

Future Heroes

I have a bunch of these. I'm sure I figured this was just another subset and probably got them mixed up with actual subsets in the '93 set -- that's what happens to me when you have multiple, full-bleed insert sets, I will be confusing them all. ... The write-ups on these backs are pretty extensive.

Then And Now

The superstars of the 1993 UD inserts. These are all-in holograms when holograms were king. I'm not as big of a hologram fan as most '90s card fans, but I do like these quite a bit. I've managed to own just two, pulling the Mattingly way back in the first couple months of the blog, giving it away and then reacquiring it. There's also a Darryl Strawberry in which his clear image is as a Met and his hologram image is a Dodger, which I guess is a Dodger card and I should have? UD always made things so muddled.

Here are the insert sets in which I don't own an example:

-- Baseball Heroes Willie Mays

-- Home Run Heroes (actually I do have the Karros card, I just forgot to pull it)

-- Reggie Jackson's Clutch Performers

-- Season Highlights

-- Triple Crown Contenders

I had no idea there was a set from almost 30 years ago with so many inserts that early in the game.

There's also a couple of food issue sets, the Clark Bar Reggie Jackson set, which I just mentioned, and these Denny's Grand Slam holograms:

So I have to think about how I'm going to handle these and what I need to acquire, since I do like presenting my own cards on the set blogs instead of filching images.

My gut tells me to have at least one example of each. Or if I want to go blow-by-blow with each insert card, just gather a few that I like and go with online images for the rest.

After all, the base set is 840 freaking cards and that will easily be the most I have done for a set blog even without the inserts.

Stuff to think about anyway but it's fun stuff. I am looking forward to it.

I just hope I have more time for it later than I do now.