There are plenty of high quality, really enjoyable sets with a low price tag. Complete sets can be found for under $20. But the 1993 Action Packed Hall of Fame set is too often overlooked. But in the early ’90’s, vintage was impractical for lots of young collectors and this set was another way to connect into the history of the sport. Plenty of players represented with a five-card subset dedicated to Larry Bird and another subset for Julius Erving.
All in all, the construction and feel of these cards is great! They’re thicker with rounded corners. The back is glossy and loaded with information. Just like Topps Finest when it arrived, a patent number is part of the fine print (#315,364 seen on the back). The front has an embossed image of the player with the rest of the full-bleed photograph in an attractive flat, matte finish. The gold foil is nicely integrated into the cards with a strip marking the 25th anniversary of the Basketball Hall of Fame and a small amount for the company name and name of the player. The backs are also intelligently designed with a basketball court background, an abundance of information (bio, career highlights mentioning year of induction into the hall of fame…1987 for this Walt Frazier, NBA stats) and touches of gold foil (player’s name and a thin dividing strip). The only design failure is the red and blue font for the “NBA Totals” and “Career Highlights”…the card would be better served by blending a dark brown, more gold foil, or even simple black text.
This is the very first card in the set, the #1 Walt Frazier. This set is interesting in that it actually starts with subsets before getting into the base cards. It opens with this subset called “One on One.” The other card with the same color of this “One on One” logo represents a dream matchup between two players. Walt Frazier is paired with Jerry West in this subset. The reverse provides a wonderful snapshot of the player. Let’s go back to the 1970 NBA Finals here when Frazier and the Knicks won the championship. Look at this game 7 performance, 36 points, 19 assists and 7 rebounds. And look how many Knicks records he held at the time of printing. And he was the 1975 MVP. What a career!
What a great way to add Walt Frazier and other Hall of Fame players to your collection for hardly any cost at all! This set deserves to be more popular than it is.
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