Forgive me, but I've been on a bit of a roll here. Collector's Choice was a pretty apt name for the set if you had asked me as a kid. The sets had a great mix of fun inserts, a cool base design, fairly good photography, and perhaps most importantly a mom-friendly price point. And as a result, my childhood collection boxes were littered with these things. Not that I'm complaining.
UD Choice was a pretty major flop on the baseball side, but the product had was a little more interesting (to me at least) on the football side. 
Awesome customs! UD Choice was one of the first sets I ever saw as a kid, so it's always been special to me for that reason.
ReplyDeleteI remember opening a ton of the UD Choice football Preview packs, which I was absolutely convinced were some really cool, rare cards. I guess they were actually just dealer samples that the LCS owner decided to make a buck off of.
DeleteMan, when I dug through the boxes of cards my mom sent after I moved to Texas, I found that it was littered with '92 and '93 Topps, and a TON of Collector's Choice. That price point was hard to beat. Would really love to see a set like that again. I pass out baseball cards to my 1st grade students, and some of them get REALLY into it. I'm actually giving one of my kids a binder with pages tomorrow because he's been carrying his cards around with him by using one of those big black binder clips. Would be nice if they could continue it after leaving my class, but 5 bucks for the cheapest rack pack is steep for a 7 year old.
ReplyDeleteOh, and as a Padres fan (and a fan of great human beings), that Neshek card is rad.
When I was 9 or 10, somebody a few streets up was selling cards at the neighborhood garage sale. He had Xerox boxes full of cards for $20 each, and said there were 20k cards in there. My mom bought one for me, and it was full of '94 Collector's Choice, '94-95 Topps basketball, and the early 90's Pro Set cards. It was an absolute goldmine in my world, even if all the stars and rookies had been pulled out. I probably spent the next year sorting everything by team.
DeleteOpening Day comes close, but I wish more care and attention was taken with the base set, rather than just recycling Flagship photos and adding a small logo. But unless Topps radically changes their business model, I don't see that happening any time soon. I guess that's why I sit at home and recreate designs from when opening a pack was a lot more enjoyable for me. But that's an awesome gesture for your class, and I'm sure it's something that will stick with many of the kids.