Help Me Choose My Next Set: 1990s Edition

There's really nothing like collecting a new—or new to you—set. I'm just putting the finishing touches on 1988 Topps baseball (only six cards to go!) and now I'm itching to start another. I've got it narrowed down to two possibilities: 1991 Topps Stadium Club baseball or 1992-93 Topps Stadium Club basketball.

I never collected either when I was a kid; both were too expensive. Fast forward 25 years and you can still find unopened wax for under $20 a box (what an investment that turned out to be!). Here are the pros and cons of each set...

1991 Topps Stadium Club baseball
As Topps's first foray into super premium design and materials, 1991's TSC had an undeniably great design on both front and back. It was also the first Topps baseball product to be released in more than one series in 18 years (last multi-series Topps baseball set was in 1973). There was a card of Nolan Ryan wearing a tux. For no good reason. (Collection idea: Guys in tuxedoes. There are a ton of cards depicting players in formal wear, for some reason most of them produced in 1991.) The backs featured an inset of that player's Topps rookie card. This was especially great when that player's rookie card was his 1991 Topps Stadium Club card. My 12-year-old self really loved the crap out of this ripple in the spacetime continuum. The photography is fantastic, and with full-bleed photos without borders, getting a miscut card is a really big deal (no borders mean miscuts are obvious; an excellent prospect for miscut collectors like me).

There are few drawbacks to this set. Foremost are the head-scratching data splits on the card back. Second, because the cards are basically just 25-year-old color photos, the cards stick together. Also, there are only 600 cards in the whole set, which means the last of the scrubs won't have cards. Also, there are few rookies (Bagwell, Luis Gonzalez) and no Chipper Jones.

1992-93 Topps Stadium Club basketball
I only purchased two packs on these when I was a kid, since packs were insanely expensive. Now you can buy a jumbo box of series two for $40. The photography is exquisite. The backs feature "rookie cards," which is self-defeating, since Topps did not create basketball cards from 1983 to 1991. Conversely, the actual rookies in series two are great, as the 1992 draft was hobby-defining for the 1990s: Shaq, Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner, Jimmy Jackson, Harold Miner, Walt Williams; even Latrell Sprewell. The checklist is robust at 400 total cards, which is especially deep for a pre-Toronto/Vancouver NBA expansion set.

And series two featured the ridiculous "Beam Team" insert, which was meant to highlight a laser-light extravaganza shown at halftimes of select NBA games and instead became the hottest insert of the early 1990s. Man, how I wanted those cards! And I don't think I ever even actually saw one in real life, just in Beckett.

The drawbacks are similar to those of the baseball set: clumped card stock, data points that make no sense to little kids, and the aforementioned non-rookie rookie cards.

So now I leave it up to you...

panel management

Come Back to LA, Shaquille O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal

• I've never liked Kobe Bryant. His game doesn't really scare me, even when he's in 'untouchable, no man can stop me' mode. You know why? Because he can't take over a game. He doesn't alter the defense of good teams, and he's not especially good in a one-on-one setting. Maybe I've been spoiled from watching Paul Pierce and James Posey defend him, but he's definitely not as good as Michael Jordan. I'd say he's more like Clyde Drexler: he needs a big man in order to win a championship. And in case you haven't noticed, Pau Gasol is not a good stand-in for Hakeem. Or even Shaq. If the Lakers still had O'Neal--performing at any level of dominance--I'd say the Celtics would have their work cut out for them in this series. He's big, lumbering, can't hit free throws, and doesn't have a shot he can hit away from the basket. But he's the perfect complement to a guy like Kobe Bryant, a guy that forces the defense to collapse, leaving Kobe open to hit from the perimeter or attack.

I'm not saying anything new here, that's obvious. But as you watch the rest of the Finals, keep two things in mind:
1. Would Michael Jordan be called for cheap fouls?
2. Would the Celtics have stolen Game 4 if Shaquille O'Neal--at any capacity--had been on the floor for LA?



• Is it just me, or do Clinton and Bush look like reanimated corpses on this card? Seriously, someone should have slipped twenty bucks to one of those goofy Topps graphic artists to add blood dripping down Bush's chin.