The Set: NBA Hoops and Skybox were under the same parent company, Impel Marketing, and although Hoops entered the scene in 1989-90, it was 1990-91 when the name “Skybox” made its debut on the market. On the reverse of the cards, the “NBA Properties, Inc.” copyright shows that this is one of the first times a division of a professional sports league became involved in the card market. While NBA Hoops was going for a classic look, the Skybox cards had futuristic, colorful, computer-generated backgrounds surrounded by a gold border. They really were very exciting when they first arrived. A lot of thought went into these cards. Even the statistics on the back a unique feature. They compared an individual’s stats to the average of his position. The set was a substantial 423 cards, 300 in a first series and a smaller 123-card Series II that arrived in mid-March. The Series II cards included coaches (301-327), team checklists (328-354), lottery picks (355-365), some basic player updates (366-420) and checklists (421-423). And just like we discussed in the 1990-91 Hoops set, cards were pulled from Series I to make room for Series II, meaning that these 123 pulled cards are short prints and a bit more rare than others in the set. There were some important rookies including Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton and Glen Rice. But, like most sets of the era, it was overproduced, and the values of all the cards never really took off.
The Card: It’s hard to capture the excitement that young collectors had when first encountering this particular Jordan card. Combining the futuristic design elements with a Michael Jordan dunk made this hard to beat. And it was truly a surprise to see Jordan with a golf club on the reverse! And the comparison of individual vs. position average stats allowed collectors to quickly see that Jordan nearly tripled the points average of the other guards in the league. This is a really worthwhile card with some unique features to include in your collection.
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