1993 Action Packed Hall of Fame, #31 Bob Pettit

We’re currently building this set of 1993 Action Packed Hall of Fame, a really underrated set of high quality cards of basketball greats! This is card #31, Bob Pettit, the 1954-55 Rookie of the Year and two-time MVP in 1956 and 1959. He won the All-Star MVP award four times. When he retired, he was the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. And this image, showing him soaring over none other than Bill Russell! How can you not like this card?! Watch out for the ERROR on this card! His hometown is incorrectly spelled “Baton Rogue” instead of “Baton Rouge.”

The construction and feel of these cards is great! They’re thicker cards. Action Packed was known for these rounded corners. There’s an embossed image of the player with the rest of the full-bleed photo in a flat finish. The gold foil on the strip marking the 25th anniversary of the Basketball Hall of Fame often wears, so don’t automatically assume you have a PSA 10. The back is glossy and loaded with information. Nice hardwood background. There’s a patent number as part of the fine print (#315,364 seen on the back). We’ve seen those with Topps Chromium cards as well and they show that Action Packed was really being serious with the physical design of the card. The red and blue font for the “NBA Totals” and “Career Highlights” matches the NBA logo in the corner. Every back tells you the year the player was inducted into the Hall of Fame. For Bob Pettit, it was 1970.

This complete set, often overlooked, can be found for under $20. 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.