Collector’s Choice cards appeared on the market for the first time in 1994-95. The set was pretty large at 420 cards, two series of 210 cards each. These cards were inexpensive and affordable for young collectors and there was just enough variety and excitement to make the chase worth it for those of us rounding up our allowance at the time. There were two parallel sets, a Silver Signature card was found at least one in every pack and a Gold Signature card in every box. There were the “You Crash the Game” insert cards for assists, rebounds and points. You had to follow the player throughout the season hoping he surpassed 750 assists, 1,000 rebounds or 2,000 points to win. But even within the set there were a bunch of fun subsets where you could find more cards of your favorite players. There were Tip Offs cards, All-Star Advice cards where players talked about fundamentals of the game, Pro Files (featuring a Michael Jordan Golf shot on the front), Blueprints, Dr. Basketball’s World of Trivia, Draft Class, and Checklists with drawn images of player’s. The combination of affordability and variety within in the set made these very popular with young collectors. I have fond memories of every one of these subsets.
They kicked the set off with a huge “instant-win” promotion. Some of these cards can still be found to this day. There were half a million prizes including a chance to meet Michael Jordan, a $10,000 shopping spree through Upper Deck Authenticated, two tickets to an NBA game, an NBA Draft card set, and more.
For the first card we’re looking at in this set, I just pulled one out randomly and selected this Jeff Malone card, #60. The numbering in ’94-95 Collector’s Choice is something I didn’t really care for. They made an attempt early in the set to match jersey numbers with card numbers. For example, Penny Hardaway was number one, Chris Webber was #4, Dennis Rodman #10, Dikembe Mutombo was #55, etc. But they had to abandon this and couldn’t sustain the theme and many players, like this Jeff Malone, are scattered everywhere regardless of team or jersey number.
Very simple cards, straightforward in design… Bordered photo on front, another on the back with the stats. The icon indicating a player’s position in the lower-corner can help to identify this as ’94-95 Collector’s Choice really quickly though. It was dropped the next year. With the low cost, you have to watch for condition though. For example, on this Jeff Malone, this has stayed nearly pack fresh, but the edges are still rough because of the factory cut. This particular card reminds me that not every ending is happy though. You look at this big stat box and everything is reasonably strong. Really solid as a player. But him in this 76ers jersey marks the end of that. He was with the Jazz and they traded him to Philadelphia for Jeff Hornacek. One more year of stats and you would see that his playing time with the 76ers dropped drastically. In the next three seasons, he only played 19, 25 and 7 games. So this stat box is the end of the consistency in his career. Things would wind down after that.
Hope you enjoyed this brief intro into 1994-95 Collector’s Choice. First card we’ve looked at from this set, certainly won’t be the last. Just a standard common. But, as always, a reminder to be grateful for all your cards, even commons. There’s enjoyment and history in all of them!
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