Wednesday, September 17, 2008

1991 Upper Deck w/ Random-Sequencing!

Ah, the classics... 1991 Upper Deck... The logo in the upper corner with the (GASP!) date on it, the little strip of turf running down the side, the 'home-plate' design team logo in the lower corner, and the.... random-sequencing?? On the pack, in blue-and-white, it reads, "Random-Sequencing * Tamper-Proof Pack" Okay, the tamper-proof thing, i get. Wax packs were being searched left and right and poor unsuspecting buyers were made into suckers. Was "random-sequencing" an issue before 1991? I'm not sure I even know what that means... Were the packs before this that, say, Numbers 333, 334, 335, 336 all in a row in one pack? Was it that if you opened the pack and saw a particular player, you could predict the pack? Someone fill me in here... In the meantime, let's get crackin...


In no particular order, this pack has Rich Garces (Twins), Jack Morris (Twins - RANDOM-SEQUENCING!?), Pat Borders (Blue Jays), Luis Sojo (Angels), Larry Walker (Expos), Steve Sax (Yankees), Bill Spiers (Brewers, doing his best to steal first from home, I think)...


"Triple Threats" (Astros - Luis Gonzalez, Karl Rhodes, and Jeff Bagwell - Two out of three aint bad), Jeff Bagwell (Astros - wait a minute, I thought this was RANDOM-SEQUENCING!), Wally Joyner (Angels), Gary Redus (Pirates), Glenn Braggs (Reds), Brent Knackert (Mariners), Rob Deer (Tigers), Phillie Team Sticker featuring Constitution Hall (or whatever that's called), and Marquis Grissom (Expos).

A couple of decent players in there, and couple great players, but a lot of "who the blankety-blank is THAT!?" At least the seal hadn't been broken....
at

3 comments:

  1. matt.1:33 PM

    Yeah, there were a lot of sets back then where if you knew the first card in the pack, you could figure out the rest with 90% accuracy. I remember getting a list for 1990 Fleer basketball with the players who, if you saw them on the top of a rack pack, ensured you would get a Jordan or a Robinson. Oddly, I was also provided a list that tipped you off to the presence of a David Wingate somewhere in there. At this point I think all three cards are worth the about the same (roughly zero), so maybe it was just a comment on the inevitable downfall of the hobby.

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  2. dayf7:34 PM

    Matt is correct. 1989 Fleer baseball and the Hoops set with David Robinson's rookie had such predictable collation that if you could see the top card, you could find the packs with Griffey and Robinson. That's why Random Sequencing was so important. Of course the sequencing wasn't that random, as I remember ripping an entire box once where every pack had two of the same card in the exact same spot as all the rest of the packs.

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  3. William9:53 PM

    Great post, I have a few comments:
    1) Pro Set Football = horrible sequencing. I remember having a box of those cards and busting 3-4 packs that had the same exact cards in the same order.
    2) You got the Jeff Bagwell rookie only available in the HI set AS WELL AS the Bagwell/Gonzalez/Tuffy card.
    3) The fact that you pulled said cards made me have a cardgasm.

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