Today we’re taking a look at 1995-96 Collector’s Choice, specifically the “You Crash the Game” insert set. You could find these randomly inserted in Series I packs. There was a set connected to a player’s assists or rebounds and there was a scoring set connected to a player’s points in a particular game. This Mookie Blaylock is from the scoring set. In this set, a player had to score at least 30 points against the team mentioned in foil on the front. If he did, you would win a redemption set. There are three different variations of each card in the set. The other two versions of this Mookie Blaylock say “vs. Pistons,” and “vs. Raptors.” The three different variations are not indicated by the card number. The cards simply had a “C” prefix and set number on all three variations. This Mookie Blaylock is #C6 (all three versions of this card lost by the way). There are two versions of these cards, silver at 1:5 packs and much rarer gold at 1:50 packs. The foil on the front indicated this very clearly (you can see a very large “silver” on this Mookie Blaylock card). This was probably just as much for the employees fulfilling the redemption sets as it was for the collector, although I’m sure there would be no complaints if a gold set accidentally went out for a silver redemption card.
The reverse of these cards is nothing but rules and fine print.
This card is a common within the set, and it is also a loser in terms of being able to redeem it for a redemption set. But that’s not what these cards were about! I respect this set in terms of its goal to engage young collectors in the game. Cards were meant to draw fans further into the sport. We know that when the quantity of cards exploded in the early ’90’s with those large sets of Hoops and Skybox, part of the goal in producing so many subsets and so much variety was to give fans as many opportunities to engage with the game as possible. And from a business perspective, a card like this has slight similarities to sports gambling, where suddenly, a young collector has a stake in a particular game.
So this is a situation where much more enjoyment came from this card than it’s modern value would suggest. Imagine getting this card as a young, but casual NBA fan. You might not be a Mookie Blaylock fan, or a Hawks fan, but you’re going to investigate. How was his scoring average…it’s always below 20 ppg? Did he often top 30 points? Still a no? Well, I’m still going to watch that game versus Dallas in case there’s something out of the ordinary. My point is, even a common card from this set provided quite a bit of enjoyment or at least engagement between a collector and the sport.
This card’s not worth a lot, but I’m pretty sure that many young collectors spent a lot of time with this card back in 1995-96!
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