Doing a write-up of this set today, in 2021, is like doing a write-up of Abbey Road today, in 2021. This is a set that everybody loves and that has gracefully stood the test of time. One wrong move and I’m sure I’m going to hear about it from its many fans, so I’ll tread carefully (relax, I love it, too).
1993 Upper Deck came at an interesting time. We were approaching the end of the junk wax overproduction era as was heralded by the sudden appearance of foil in most base sets. Ultra and Leaf were already doing it, and pretty much every other set was already poised to make the leap to foil even on common base cards.
In the interest of clarity, “Overproduction Era” is that period from 1985-1995 (those dates are as debatable as the birthdays of Gen-X vs. Millennials – everyone has a slightly different take, so don’t hold me to this) during which card companies churned out what should have been an illegal quantity of cardboard. When a buddy tells me, “Hey - I have a bunch of baseball cards – can you tell me what they’re worth?” my first question is always “When did you get them?” If the answer is within this period (it always is), I have to tell them, “Probably not much.”
That said, it’s hard to lump this set in with the rest of the cards in that category. They’re just too nice.
The introduction of befoiled base cards was the beginning of the end of overproduction, or at the very least the beginnings of attempted scarcity. By the following year every base card from nearly every major brand would have foil (Topps was the big holdout in ’94 but would come around the following year).
Upper Deck would come hard with the foil in their '94 set, but in '93 player names were printed in a shiny gold near-foil that suggests Upper Deck knew exactly where things were heading. They just weren’t quite ready to commit to full-foil. Of course foil still made a number of appearances in the inserts, not to mention holograms which Upper Deck pretty much pioneered on cardboard.
Now with sets like this one where the base set photography is so good, I usually show off a bunch of different base cards, but I assume anyone that reads this blog already knows how good ’93 Upper Deck was and probably even has a few favorite cards in it already. We have a lot of Griffeys to go over, so today we’re just going to get right to 'em.
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| 1993 Upper Deck #355 |
Upper Deck’s design was pretty homogenous (and sometimes even a little boring) from 1989 through 1992, but like many of the big brands they took a major leap forward in ’93. We got a nice cursive nameplate in matte gold – it’s not foil yet but again you can recognize the progression here – printed over a single bar in team coloring. It’s an extremely simple design but also light years ahead of simply printing the name in the border which had been UD’s standard up to this point.
Speaking of borders, there won't be many when we get to the inserts. And as for the base design it's not hard to imagine this set without them. Universal full-bleed was right around the corner. That said, I like the clean, white borders here.
For the first time we got a brand name banner across the top of the card in lieu of Upper Deck’s signature green diamond logo. They even took care to superimpose the player over the lettering in the interest of noninterference with the photography.
As for the Griffey card itself, I see a young player who’s still amazed at his own talent. This is the expression of a guy who was aiming to put the ball in a certain place in the field, and it worked even better than he expected. The bat is out of sight, probably already a few steps behind him, so I assume we’re seeing the beginning strut after a left-field dinger. He’s several steps into his trip around the bases and he’s still looking - it must have been a big one. Man this guy is good. I imagine he’s thinking about the millions he’s going to make being able to push a baseball so well. That’s what I would be thinking about, at least.
This photo is pretty famous by now, and you’ve probably seen it on a few cards and/or baseball magazines by now. I’m partial to his checklist card from 1995 Select which shows the whole Griffey-in-repose where this is just a cropped version. Upper Deck’s devotion to photography is made even more apparent by the layout here: a massive photo over an itty-bitty stat box, player info, and the tiniest blurb you ever did see. Oh, and there’s the green diamond logo. I knew this was you, UD. As base cards go, particularly in 1993, this one is a solid 10 on any side.
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| 1993 Upper Deck #355 Gold Hologram |
You will know a card guy by how he flips through a dime box. Good card guys can fly through a box of cards in mere minutes in search of the best cards. The REALLY good card guys take the time to check the backs and find the real gems.
The Gold Holograms of 1993 Upper Deck can cost you, especially in comparison with the regular silver holograms which remain dirt cheap. These were released only via sealed factory sets. These sets were sold 15 to a case, and only one set per case had the gold holograms, assuming the buyer even bothered to unseal his set.
In terms of numbers, none of the millions of Hobby/Retail 93UD cards had gold holograms, and only 1 in 15 of the factory cards did. Given what we know about production figures in general from this era, there are probably thousands of gold holo's out there; but the overall ratio of golds to the many millions of silvers is tiny. Expect a fully-justifiable premium on these.
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| 1993 Upper Deck #525 Checklist |
Having shown the regular base card I usually try and take the remaining base cards in order by card number; but we’re going to make an exception today and get this one out of the way early.
This card hurts my feelings, guys. It’s two fabulous photos (front and back) utterly obscured by other guys’ names and washed-out colors (so you can better reads those other guys’ names, I assume). The worst part is that unlike many of the photos used across the 1993 UD Griffey checklist, this is one I’ve never seen anywhere else. And it’s a great photo! There even appears to be a cameo standing back there – is that Jay Buhner? I can’t tell! Could this be a Buhner Buddy card? I collect those, and I need to know!
Seriously - do any of my Griffeyphile brethren recognize this photo as having appeared anywhere else? Who is the other guy?
I have definitely seen this backwards cap portrait in sports magazines before. I seem to remember it having graced a Beckett cover, or it might have been Sports Illustrated. Either way it deserves better than this. I feel like Upper Deck is making fun of us Griffey fans. This card is them saying “There are so many great Griffey photos out there we’re just gonna splooge ‘em all over the place with zero regard for your ability to enjoy them.”
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| 1993 Upper Deck #525 Checklist Gold Hologram |
And of course, there’s the expensive version.
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| 1993 Upper Deck #55 Teammates (w/ Jay Buhner & Kevin Mitchell) |
There is so much going on with this one, I doubt we’ll even get to it all. First and foremost, it’s a gum bubble card. I know several of you guys who collect those. Second it’s a Buhner bromance card which is a sub-collection of my own. Third, it's a subset called "Teammates," but that is nowhere on the front of the card. Instead it just says "Pacific Sock Exchange" like it's a term we're all supposed to recognize. It's even got its own logo and everything. Don't get me wrong - I am beyond curious as to the origins of that term, but at face value it sounds kind of nasty.
And finally, it’s a story card. I wasn’t following baseball when Kevin Mitchell played with the M’s – frankly this was news to me. His time there was short-lived, and he was traded to the Reds where he would continue to be productive when healthy. This card is more a telling of what might have been, but I see why they sprung for this great group photo.
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| 1993 Upper Deck #55 Teammates (w/ Jay Buhner & Kevin Mitchell) Gold Hologram |
Yep.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Jay Buhner #224 (cameo) |
Now this – THIS – is a base card. All you other brands take note – this is how it’s done. They don’t all have to be swing-away shots or base slides or any of that common baseball stuff we get from nearly every brand. It can be just two dudes hanging out, sideways-cappin’ it, chompin’ some seeds and pallin’ around. This card is awesome.
I guess I’ll show it, but only because I also have to show this one:
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| 1993 Upper Deck Jay Buhner #224 (cameo) Gold Hologram |
Okay then.
So 1993 Upper Deck had a whole lot of inserts as well as a ton of retail oddities in varying sizes, but it was only a hint of the complication still to come in the mid-to-late ‘90’s. Let’s start with the inserts:
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| 1993 Upper Deck Five-Year Anniversary 1989 Reprint #A1 |
This thing is enjoying a newfound appreciation given the sudden performance of the original card in the market. The card looks great in black, all done up in gold foil. Collectors have caught on to the fact that it is both condition-sensitive and has black borders, a combo that grants high slab grades a massive premium.
I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t on the lookout for a condition upgrade for mine, but at this point I would expect to have to pay out the ear for it, so it’s not as high on the priority list as it used to be. Also at 1:9 hobby packs there are plenty of these things out there. I expect I’ll track down a better copy someday.
Check out Upper Deck tooting their own horn here. Three words in and they’re all, “Check us out.” I mean, they’re not wrong. Good lookin’ out, guys. You called it.
These 5x7 versions showed up in retail repacks and were numbered out of only 10,000, a tiny run for any card in the overproduction era. The fronts are identical, so I'm only showing the back which includes the serial-numbering.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Five-Year Anniversary 1989 Reprint #A1 Super Jumbo #/5000 |
This monster came with its own case (thank goodness) and was serial-numbered out of only 5000. I think the white borders on either side affect the value a bit as I’ve seen these go for less than the regular jumbo of which there were twice as many produced.
These were sold directly by Upper Deck years later via their Authenticated Memorabilia program, but I'm including it here with the '93 set because where else would I put it? There's also one for the Future Heroes insert numbered out of 1500 that I try not to think about.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Future Heroes #59 |
Ever the pioneer, Upper Deck began Heroes which would become one of the first multi-year inserts. With each base series they devoted a 10-card chunk of the continuous checklist to one player beginning in 1990 with a 10-card Reggie Jackson Heroes insert. 1993 Series 1 featured 10-cards devoted to Willie Mays, but for Series 2 they pivoted that insert to include multiple players who were destined to become heroes. This was probably a smart move in terms of attracting young collectors to the brand which did appear to be a focus of Upper Deck around this time (see: Fun Pack).
The design was a huge leap forward: full-bleed, full-gloss, and sporting a wicked-cool foil signature that would become a hallmark of Upper Deck, particularly in the forthcoming Collector’s Choice brand. The cards were not even very rare, falling at an average of four per hobby box. Everybody got a taste.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Future Heroes #63 Checklist (w/ Thomas, Alomar, Bonds, Puckett, Gonzalez, Clemens, McGwire) |
They seem to have been proud of the change as they also included this amazing, hand-drawn multi-player checklist card. So having seen all the “Future Heroes” at once, were they right? Personally, I spot a handful of anti-heroes on this card.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Home Run Heroes #HR9 |
They also expounded on the Heroes idea with this Home Run Heroes insert. They featured a very simple but extremely cool bat barrel nameplate and a serious knockout of a photo (on Griffey’s, at least). And the back is another example of a great photo intentionally made less visible, albeit by text describing how awesome Griffey is. Bittersweet.
These were seeded one per jumbo pack, so if you didn’t buy those you might have not even been aware they existed. I remember these going for a pretty penny at some point, but they’re solid dollar cards now, and a heck of a value at that. An excellent early insert.
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| 1993 Upper Deck On Deck With... #D13 |
There’s that foil autograph again. This is the kind of insert you might expect from Studio in that we get an intimate portrait as well as a little bit of personal advice from our favorite players. The teal script over the dark blue boxes on the back test your eyesight a bit, but the advice is sound and the card is a real gem. This is the kind of insert I would have built were I not so focused on Griffeys.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Reggie Jackson’s Clutch Performers #R11 |
Remember in the late-90’s when everybody referred to just about anything good or worthwhile as “clutch?” It was a whole thing that came and went at roughly the same time as Big Johnson shirts and Creed fans. Anyway, it turns out that it’s a real word.
One neat characteristic of this one is that they let Reggie pick the checklist (allegedly), and as Junior was a huge fan of the guy I’m willing to bet he was excited to be among the chosen. Then again, of course he was chosen. He’s Ken Griffey freakin' Junior. I mean, come on. Who else is Reggie gonna pick? Ron Kittle?
The card itself sports yet another foil signature, but this time it’s Reggie’s, and it’s on every card. We finally got a fielding shot on the front, but the photo on the back was just a peek at the backwards-cap Junior that would dominate several upcoming Home Run Derbies. Get ready, America.
Also the space after the opening quotes is only on Junior's card, and it always bothered me. I think it's there to keep them from smooshing together with the sub-quotes around "The Kid," but I've done the quotes/sub-quotes combo numerous times. "'The Kid' is the brightest star..." See? That's not so bad.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Season Highlights #HI9 |
I don’t see many of these out in the wild, and I’ve always wondered why. How rare could they be? Let's go to BBCP:
“This 20-card insert set captures great moments of the 1992 Major League Baseball season. The cards were exclusively distributed in specially marked Series Two packs that were available only to dealers who set up at Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Card Shows. Each dealer was entitled to purchase a maximum of two, 20-box cases. The odds of finding a Season Highlight card is 1:9 packs.”
So if your local dealer was one of those that met the requirements to buy said specially-marked cases, you would have to buy a minimum of five of his boxes to pull a full set, thereby guaranteeing a Griffey pull. One in nine doesn't sound bad, but it seems the opportunity to buy the packs is what was scarce. That explains the price tags on these.
The card is fully deserving of its price, too. It’s a great write-up of Junior’s ASG MVP honors with a blurb-specific photo to match. And I love the simple, gold foil UD logo on the front. It’s the little things.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Triple Crown Contenders #TC4 |
Nobody had won the Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski did it in 1967, and someone at Upper Deck (you know, the one that called Junior’s impending stardom) decided to go out on a limb and predict one of the rarest feats in baseball. Don’t get me wrong – this is a great checklist. It’s maybe even a little surprising that none of them did it.
Junior came closest in 1997 when he led the AL in home runs and both leagues in RBI, but his .304 average just didn’t cut it. I like to think had everybody not been chasing the Maris record around that time his focus might have shifted more to simply getting on base. Which suggests that had all these guys not been juicing to get to 61, Junior may not have felt compelled to also get to 61, thus sacrificing average for power while still maintaining a home run lead naturally. You heard it here first: were it not for the widespread juicing in the majors in the late-90's Griffey would have won the Triple Crown.
Maybe it's a stretch, but is it really?
I’m delighted to see Will Clark in this checklist, btw.
We would finally get a Triple Crown winner in 2012 with Miguel Cabrera who was 9 years old when this card came out. If you had to make this insert today, who would you include in the checklist? I hope it’s someone whose rookie cards I’ve been hoarding…
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| 1993 Upper Deck Walter Iooss Collection #WI13 |
UD took the we-are-super-all-about-photography thing to the next level by giving an entire insert to their photographer-in-residence Walter Iooss whose name I have grown to accept I will never know how to pronounce. I mean, is it eyeousse? Yousse? Ee-ouse? It’s an unpronounceable word, like xkcd.
I really should write about the card at some point here, but I’ve wondered about this for going on 25 years, and I’m keen to get to the bottom of it. Is Upper Deck even spelling it right because those letters do not make sense to me in that order. Maybe there’s a hint in his signature.
His signature appears to read “Skete Loo58h.” That would be one heck of a password, but it’s no help here. Also that really looks like an “h” at the end. Could it be “Yoosh?”
You know what? I’m just going to Google it. Someone else must have asked this question before. Fingers crossed:
Oh my God. A tremendous burden has been lifted from my brain. Who’d have guessed that it was YOSE? Say, I was actually pretty close. Hey, that rhymed.
So anyway, the card is very pretty. I love his quote about working with Griffey – it’s exactly what a fan likes to hear. The guy really is as fun as he seems.
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| 1993 Upper Deck Walter Iooss Collection #WI13 Jumbo #/10000 |
This slightly bigger (3.5 x 5") version was one of the final three cards I needed to finish off the 1996 Beckett Ken Griffey Jr. Tribute Checklist, a project that took me 21 years to complete. So while it is a beautiful card that translates well to a jumbo, I still have some mixed emotions about it.
Speaking of the 1996 Beckett Tribute Checklist project, ALL THREE of the final gets were
So that’s actually it for cards you could pull from 1993 Upper Deck packs and repacks. There is still one more Griffer to talk about, though:
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| 1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery Box Set #13 /123,600 |
There are 123,600 of these. I’m going to take a page out of the Allen & Ginter book and spell this mother out to put this gigantic number into perspective: There are *one hundred and twenty-three *thousand* six hundred* of these things. My God that is just. so. many.
Upper Deck made all those amazing Grand Slam hologram cards for Denny’s, so it makes perfect sense that they would also put out a product like this. I am a big fan of the colorful angles they used along the top and bottom.
The back gives us another taste of those angles as well as a blurb that only young, healthy eyes can read.
And that's all she wrote. Somehow I've been able to track down every Griffey from 1993 Upper Deck, so there's nothing more I need here apart from a condition upgrade for my 5th Anniversary insert. Here for your reference is the complete 1993 Upper Deck Griffey checklist:
1993 Upper Deck #355
1993 Upper Deck #355 Gold Hologram
1993 Upper Deck #55 Teammates (w/ Jay Buhner & Kevin Mitchell)
1993 Upper Deck #55 Teammates Gold Hologram (w/ Jay Buhner & Kevin Mitchell)
1993 Upper Deck #525 Checklist
1993 Upper Deck #525 Checklist Gold Hologram
1993 Upper Deck #224 Jay Buhner (cameo)
1993 Upper Deck #224 Jay Buhner Gold Hologram (cameo)
1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery Box Set #13 /123,600
1993 Upper Deck Five-Year Anniversary #A1
1993 Upper Deck Five-Year Anniversary Jumbo #A1 #/10000
1993 Upper Deck Five-Year Anniversary Super Jumbo 8x10 #A1 #/5000
1993 Upper Deck Future Heroes #59
1993 Upper Deck Future Heroes #63 Checklist (w/ Thomas, Alomar, Bonds, Puckett, Gonzalez, Clemens, McGwire)
1993 Upper Deck Home Run Heroes #HR9
1993 Upper Deck On Deck With #D13
1993 Upper Deck Reggie Jackson Clutch Performers #R11
1993 Upper Deck Season Highlights #HI9
1993 Upper Deck Triple Crown Contenders #TC4
1993 Upper Deck Walter Iooss Collection #WI13
1993 Upper Deck Walter Iooss Collection #WI13 Jumbo #/10000
There's a 5x7 jumbo of the vanilla base card that was released in 1999, too, that is worth getting but not enough to warrant including it here. Also that 5th Anniversary super jumbo was another one that was released years later, but while it's not strictly a 1993 release, I feel like it belongs on the list. Oh, and I threw the Diamond Gallery Box Set card in there as it's dirt cheap, probably because there are 123,600 of them.
I don't know about you guys, but I have exactly one takeaway from putting this post together. I keep picturing a situation at the Upper Deck offices in the early '90's wherein a baseball photographer is needed, like, STAT, and a nervous mustachioed man in a tie and rolled up sleeves who is standing at his desk leans down towards an intercom, presses a button, and says, "Get me Iooss!" And it's YOSE he says. YOSE. Because I know that now! Man, this Google thing is really going to catch on.
