30 years later

 

Unbeknownst to many of you, the 1993 Upper Deck set blog debuted this morning.

If you could be so kind to put it on your reading lists and blog rolls (if you can, that is, I'm having issues posting it to my own blog roll).

I am aware that set blogs are rather out-of-fashion. Heck, card blogging in general is. The set blog is pretty much what kicked off the card blogging boom, particularly the 1988 Topps blog. I know it's one of the first blogs I ever read, along with The Baseball Card Blog and Cardboard Junkie. So we're talking ancient territory in internet terms.

But as a set-builder, I admire immensely the appreciation of each card and can't think of a better way to demonstrate that but through a post about each and every one. You will find no other medium that does that better, nothing on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

Because fewer people understand that kind of treatment, this set blog will be different than my other ones (Yup, this will be my fourth set blog). I will not be doing a deep-dive into every player's card. The research will be minimal -- or at least as minimal as I'm capable, I have this knee-jerk urge to look up stuff about people.

I know that's why some people read set blogs, for the nuggets unearthed, but I'm tired, and I'm almost 14 years older than when I started my first set blog. I want to relax a little and just have fun.

The 1993 Upper Deck is a fun set. I won't say a "fun, little set" because the thing is massive. But it's easily my favorite from Upper Deck. All of the cards are interesting, which makes it one of the best sets for the set-blog treatment.

It will be my first time treating a non-Topps set like this. As you know, UD and I don't exactly see eye-to-eye. But I will put the '93 set up there in my all-time favorites.

 

And since I've never done anything like this before, I thought I'd rank my Top 10 favorite Upper Deck flagship sets. You already know No. 1. Here are the rest:

 

2. 1995 Upper Deck

 

The only UD set that comes close to 1993 Upper Deck for me. In fact, if the mid-1990s wasn't such a gross period for myself and baseball, I probably would have completed it, or at least attempted to by now.

 

The super-clean look will always be a plus for me, and the photos are terrific.

 

 

3. 2008 Upper Deck

 

2008 Upper Deck is just 1995 Upper Deck 13 years later. That little home-plate logo isn't going to discount that UD is stealing designs from itself now (which I suppose is better than when it was stealing designs from Topps).

 

Still like the look quite a bit.

 

 

4. 1990 Upper Deck

 

The 1990 Upper Deck set is the 1989 Upper Deck set except with a cleaner design and clearer photos. Everything about this set makes '89 UD look like practice for 1990.

 

 

5. 1992 Upper Deck

 

The minute Upper Deck scrapped the baseline theme, I was a fan. With the '92 set, you can see Upper Deck moving toward what would be its peak a year later. I really enjoy the shadow-frame treatment and the word-mark team logos. The '92 set really presents the photo well.

6. 2006 Upper Deck

I am letting personal bias elevate this pick. I like 2006 Upper Deck a lot because it's the first UD set I saw upon returning to collecting. I bought a lot of it, from "cube packages" that I found displayed on Walmart shelves in the middle of the main aisle that was near beauty aides and prescription medicine.

This was before "card aisles," at least where I was, that's how long ago it was.

 

7. 1997 Upper Deck

Not a huge fan of the gold-treatment of every set in the late 1990s, but I like the '97 UD set better than the 1996 one, and the little factoid on the front of every card is a neat trick. I can see trying to complete this set just to get all the factoids.

8. 2000 Upper Deck

An extremely BLUE set, which is why I like it. You'd think I'd like it more given how well teams like the Dodgers appear in it, but this is as high as 2000 Upper Deck will get.

 

9. 2009 Upper Deck

The final flagship Upper Deck set in which UD was allowed to show logos on its baseball cards. I didn't think a lot of this set when it was released and said so on my blog. But nostalgia is a powerful drug and now all it does is make me think of the golden age of blogging, and I love every one of those transparent red boxes.

 

10. 2001 Upper Deck*

That thing I said about 2002 Stadium Club looking like 2010 Upper Deck? Add 2001 UD, too.

The 2001 UD set is the middle of that black hole of Upper Deck sets for me that runs from 1998-2005. But I like the look a little bit.

But you won't see me do a set blog for 2001 Upper Deck or any of the other sets I just mentioned outside of 1993.

It's been exactly 30 years since that set came out and I cannot get my head around that. 1993 is a very interesting year to me and I want to cover some of the year as well. In '93, I was living in a small town, working in a small news bureau, hanging out with a small group of close-knit co-workers, but getting dissatisfied with life where I was.

That's what I think of when I think of '93. That and baseball expansion teams, alternative music and teal everywhere.

I hope you appreciate my casually updated 1993 Upper Deck set blog. It may be passé but it has my heart.

(*That's right, I said it, 1989 UD is not in my top 10).