Those of us who grew up during the ’90’s remember the fun of Upper Deck’s Collector’s Choice basketball cards. Very inexpensive, geared toward youth…it was a chance to buy and collect plenty of cards with just enough inserts and parallel sets to add excitement. But the Collector’s Choice name was rebranded in 1998-99 to UD Choice. So how do you make sure collector’s know about the change? A preview set revolving around Michael Jordan doesn’t hurt! Let me explain that and tell you where this Mookie Blaylock card with a gold-foil “Preview” stamped across the front comes in.
Before the regular UD Choice cards appeared, Upper Deck released a 55-card set of preview cards, and these cards retain the card number from the normal set. So it’s important to know there’s only 55 of them or you’ll be looking for a long time for numbers that don’t exist! Take this Blaylock card for example. It’s #3, but it’s the second card that appears in the Preview set. The card after this Blaylock is actually the #7 Ron Mercer. You could purchase these in a variety of ways but the most interesting way in a Michael Jordan tin can. There were six of these cans and each contained a pack with six preview cards and one Michael Jordan NBA Finals Shots insert (which, as the name suggests, featured a memorable shot in the Finals). There were regular packs for sale for 79 cents, but for only $1.97, you had to go with the Jordan tin. There were six different tins and they had all of the information about the preview set in fine print. We might look closer at these later, but this is tin #5 of 6. All feature the date June 14, 1998 on the cap on top, one of his most memorable NBA Finals shots. His last, game-winning, shot as a Chicago Bull winning their sixth championship over the Utah Jazz, 87-86. So clearly a great way to market these UD Choice Preview cards.
These UD Choice cards look conventional on the back. Small photo, full stats, some information. But there is a fun feature above the stats, some trivia questions. Two are statistics-related, and the answers are printed on the card. But more fun is the “Web Trivia” question? “Which player did Atlanta trade to New Jersey to acquire Mookie Blaylock prior to the start of the 1992-93 season?” That was Rumeal Robinson. If I’m remembering correctly, when Kenny Anderson joined the New Jersey Nets, Blaylock wasn’t very happy with his playing time being limited by another guard. There was some tension there and that was an element of that trade. Also note, looking at the back here, that Upper Deck was being cheap and they printed their hologram on the card. This isn’t just for these preview cards either. It’s printed on the regular UD Choice cards too.
Overall, with the Michael Jordan focus, I think Upper Deck successfully made collectors aware of the rebranding of Collectors Choice into UD Choice.
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