We’re adding a standard base card from 1992-93 stadium Club today, our sixth card from this set. These cards were not grouped by team, so Nick Anderson of the Orlando Magic appears early in the set on card #35. But this card is also about Charles Barkley in the background. Here’s one of the last pics of Charles Barkley as a Philadelphia 76er, because it was this 1992-93 season when he actually started playing for the Suns. I wonder if this shot went in. Nick Anderson is clearly stretching and Barkley was a great defender. Looks like he’s about to push Anderson into the stands. Not the best photo for Nick Anderson.
It’s worth pointing out the information on the back of this card. Nick Anderson was with the Magic from the beginning in 1989-90 and he was growing along with them. The card points out that his scoring average improved over the last three seasons from 11.5 to 14.1 to 19.9 points. And we all know the team was about to get a huge boost this 1992-93 season with Shaquille O’Neal coming on the scene. Other than that, the reverse is standard. There is a picture of his Topps rookie card, not to be confused with his real rookie card. You probably recall that Topps disappeared from the basketball card scene after their 1981-82 set. But then Shaquille O’Neal joined the NBA, and Topps was obviously going to sell some cards! So they returned with not only a regular set, but this premium set that they called Stadium Club. So unless these players were around before 1981-82, there Topps rookie card would naturally come from 1992-93 Topps.
These cards also featured a “Sporting News: Skills Rating System,” some arbitrary numbers that were interesting in that you could compare players with each other quickly. Good conversation starter. Just at a glance here, comparing Nick Anderson to Latrell Sprewell’s rookie card, we see that Anderson is .1 higher in ball handling (probably fair), .1 higher in “Running the Court,” equal at shooting range, but .5 lower on defense (again, a fair assessment). So although the numbers aren’t as concrete as true stats, they do tell an interesting story.
I also want to point an aspect of the design of 1992-93 Stadium Club on the reverse. I still can’t figure it out. There’s either a very small “A” or “B” at the bottom of the basketball on each card. It’s a mysterious little thing… After noticing first seeing the “B” on a Member’s Choice subset card, and an “A” on a handful of regular ones, my guess is that this was a template indicator that wasn’t removed later in the process. Format “B” was for creating Member’s Choice” and format “A” for everything else. But on this #35 Nick Anderson, the “B” is present. So now I’m guessing that these are different printing sheets the cards are cut from. Does anyone know what this letter means?
Overall, this was a nice set for Topps’ return to the hobby. Just like Fleer and it’s Ultra brand, Topps went with a regular set and a set where the front was a simple full-bleed photograph with everything else minimized. Even the player’s name was minimal, smaller than the Stadium Club logo itself! The team name was barely noticeable hidden on the top of two gold foil bars at the bottom. The Alonzo Mourning and Shaq rookies, along with rookie appearances by Latrell Sprewell, Robert Horry and Christian Laettner help the set maintain its importance to this day. It was an orderly set, two Series at 200 cards each. In short, with these cards, it was all about the photograph and nothing but the photograph! Today, Series II boxes still remain popular. The important rookie cards are there and there is a possibility of finding a Beam Team card, the only insert set for ’92-93 Stadium Club. This values Series II boxes at sometimes three times the value of Series I.
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