In 1996-97, the year 2000 was approaching, but was still far enough away to seem futuristic. Skybox changed the name of its “E” cards to anticipate the new millenium (these cards started in ’94-95 with E-Motion). Here in 1996-97, they were called Skybox E-X2000. This started a series of name changes that felt a bit like, “Oops, what do we do now that we already used 2000?” The next season was E-X2001, then E-X Century, and when the year 2000 finally hit, what we’ve all been waiting for….just E-X. Yep, drop everything and give up. This kind of felt like anticipating the year 2000 too early and flailing for ideas. In my opinion, consistency would’ve been better.
But we got something neat out of the “futuristic” E-X2000 idea, an outer space insert set! It doesn’t get too much more fun than an insert set of fifteen rookies on an outer space background. The fonts are really great for the set, player and team names in the lower-left corner. These cards were inserted 1:9 packs, so not very rare. But with something as fun as outer space cards, you want to get them out there!
The Kobe Bryant is the highlight of this set. But this Joe Smith card is a reminder of the excitement surrounding him right after the draft. He was the number one pick and he started off strong for Golden State. Let’s take a look at the back of the card which gives some great information about that first half-season. Nice card here! And don’t let the outer space theme fool you. In addition to the nice graphics, there’s good substance on the reverse that makes this set a solid addition to a collection.
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