1996-97 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey

 

1996-97 was the first year of Upper Deck's Black Diamond product for hockey. It was a time when short prints, inserts, and parallels were fairly new to the hobby, and I do remember quite a lot of collectors being excited about the chance to pull some very rare cardboard from their packs. 

A specific rundown for the 180-card set is interesting, and goes like this:

 

Cards 1–90 are single blank diamonds

Cards 91–150 are double black diamonds (1:4 packs)

Cards 151–180 are triple black diamonds (1:30 packs)

 

Then there's the parallel "gold" set:

Single black diamond gold (1:15 packs)

Double black diamond gold (1:46 packs)

Triple black diamond gold (only 50 of each card available) 

 

The biggest rookie card in this set features Joe Thornton. He's card #160, which means it's a triple black diamond. So it's highly unlikely that I'll find one in this pack. And with only 6 cards per pack, it's also unlikely I'll find any insert at all. But someone's got to find one, right? Let's find out! 

 

Note: The "Light FX" treatment on these cards shows up better in photographs than it does in scans, so you'll be seeing photographs below. 

 

 

Keith Jones leads it off. He was a tough player who could also score, especially around the time this card was released. (Career-high 25 goals in 1996-97.) After his playing days ended, Jones was a solid TV analyst for almost 20 years. Currently he's President of Hockey Operations for the Philadelphia Flyers. 

 

 

 

A young Bill Ranford did so well in leading the Oilers to a Stanley Cup victory in 1989-90 that he was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy at the end of it (playoff MVP). Ranford racked up a lot of wins for the team through the 1995-96 season. After that, he bounced around from Boston to Washington to Tampa Bay to Detroit (and then finally back to Edmonton). All in all, he tallied 240 wins across 15 NHL seasons. 

 

 

 

Rem Murray had a couple of 20-goal seasons across his 9-year NHL career, and just missed 100 career goals by a few (94). He played mostly for Edmonton, but also had a couple of years in the Big Apple with the Rangers, and another couple with the Nashville Predators. 

 

 

 

Mike Richter will be forever popular among Rangers fans for helping the team to its memorable Stanley Cup victory in 1994. He squeaked past the 300-win mark for his career (301), which was spent entirely with the Rangers. His hockey mask featuring the Statue of Liberty was pretty iconic, too. 

 

 

 

Denis Savard was a speedy, shifty skater who was famous for the "spin-o-rama" move. The Hall-of-Famer and 1992-93 Stanley Cup winner (with Montreal) was at the very end of his career by the time this card was printed, but it's still a nice one. 

 

 

 

And lastly, we've got Sergei Zubov. The talented defenseman was one of the first Russian players to have his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup (1993-94 New York Rangers; the other three were Sergei Nemchinov, Alexei Kovalev, and Alexander Karpovtsev). About 5 years later, Zubov helped the Dallas Stars to their first Cup victory. He put up great offensive numbers throughout his career, and logged more than 1,000 total games. He's a member of the NHL Hall of Fame. 

 

 

 

Now here's an example of a card back. Typical for Upper Deck at the time, it lists only the most recent few years of stats, and uses some of the extra room for a nice color photo. Solid write-up, too. On the negative side, the card number is tiny. (It's in the top-left corner, if you zoom in and look really hard.) This was also typical for Upper Deck at the time, and it's still hard to understand why they'd do such a thing.

In any case, that's that. For the first time on APTBNL, a pack of 1996-97 Upper Deck Black Diamond hockey cards. No superstars or multi-diamond short prints. No gold parallels. But it was still fun to rip this pack. Thanks for reading along.

Anyone else remember the excitement that surrounded the Black Diamond brand when it first hit the shelves back then?

1988 Topps

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well and had some fun over the Thanksgiving weekend.

While my eldest son is awaiting the results of his 12 (!) college applications, my youngest son has only recently begun thinking of his post-high school life.  I'm not worried; he for sure isn't applying to 12 colleges!

The Wifey took him to New York City back in October to see a school there; when they came back, they had baseball cards for me and the eldest.  They visited a candy store and there were packs there, so they picked up several packs for the 2 of us to split.  

Yeah it was 2 bucks.  It's the thought that counts!

I double-checked the APTBNL roster and was very surprised that a wax pack of 1988 Topps has yet to be opened.  I'll wait while you check!

Here's the wax pack all opened up:

Say no to drugs and be a true superstar, kids!

15 cards and a 37 year old piece of gum per pack.  Here's what my son got:

#729 - Blue Jays Leaders

#713 - Willie Hernandez

#197 - Lance McCullers

I remember being stunned to see the player breakthrough the border on this set.  It was only my second year collecting but I guess I just assumed the shot of the player would stay within the borders.  

#155 - Bruce Sutter

#391 - Kirby Puckett (All Star)

#205 - Nelson Liriano

#52 - Don Robinson

Those All Star subset cards were fun.

Hey, it's an ad for Topps Collector's Edition cards!  Anyone out there get one of these sets?

#240 - Lee Smith

#34 - Ricky Horton

#561 - Rick Cerone

#691 - Dan Pasqua

Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter in the same pack, not bad!

#198 - Franklin Stubbs

#652 - Bruce Benedict

#256 - Ken Schrom

#350 - Will Clark

Ken Schrom's sunset card!

Here are the backs because gum stains:

Since the gum would be in the front of the pack and not the back, I assume Will The Thrill was on the front, and the kid moved him and all the other cards with the backs facing the front to the back of the pack.  No biggie.

Here's my pack, with the cards for sure in right order:

#263 - Glenn Braggs

#397 - Jack Clark (All Star)

#431 - Casey Candaele

#191 - John Cerutti

Candaele with the Topps All Star Rookie Cup for Second Base.  

#564 - Frank Lucchesi (MGR)

#170 - Rich Gossage

#325 - Glenn Hubbard

#103 - Curt Young

Lucchesi managed the last 25 games of the season for the Cubs, replacing Gene Michael.  The team went 8-17, and the Cubs brought in Don Zimmer for the 1988 season.  

#371 - Joe Hesketh

#387 - Willie Randolph (All Star)

#276 - Luis Salazar

There's 792 cards in the set.  Here's the checklist if you need it.

#351 - Cardinals Leaders
#697 - Steve Lombardozzi

#404 - Benito Santiago (All Star)

#424 - Dwayne Murphy

Red Schoendienst making the appearance on the Cardinals Leaders card.  Since they didn't mention this anywhere on the card, young me looked at the card and went "who's this guy?"

Here's the backs because moar gum stains:

Braggs didn't get it as bad as The Thrill.

Anyway, those are the packs.  Not bad at the time, right?

We'll see if I get another post up before the end of the year, but in case I don't, I hope everyone has a great holiday season.  Be safe and happy, and I hope you all get what you wish for this year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...and thanks for reading!

1993 Classic '93 Hockey Draft

  

If you remember the Classic baseball cards (and game) from the late-1980s, this pack of hockey cards will seem familiar.

 

 

 

  

And by the time the early 1990s rolled around, the Classic brand was all-in on the rookie craze—or more specifically, the "pre-rookie" craze. 

 

Have a hockey prospect at your local college? We'll give him a card! Know a minor-league player who's ready to break into the NHL? We'll give him a card, too! 

 

And that's where we find ourselves with the Classic '93 Hockey Draft set. It tops out at 150 cards, and includes plenty of up-and-coming talent, along with some established pros. There's also a chance to pull some fun inserts and autographs. Let's see which 10 cards we found in this particular pack. 

 

Well, it's three sad trombone sounds to start off. O'Sullivan made it to the AHL level, Savoie played professionally in France and Switzerland for a few years, and Guerard played 2 games for the Ottawa Senators in 1994-95 before going back to the AHL, and then to Europe for a couple of years.

 

 

 

Great action on that Shtalenkov card! The Russian goalie had a solid 9-year NHL career, suiting up for Anaheim, Edmonton, and Phoenix. Grant Marshall would have an even better pro career, winning Stanley Cups with Dallas in 1998-99 and New Jersey in 2002-03. As for Vesa Viitakoski, he had a few cups of coffee with the Calgary Flames from 1993 through 1996, but played most of his career in the Finnish professional leagues and seemed to be a pretty solid point-scorer.

 

 

 

Ted Drury (brother of Chris) had a good NHL career, playing for the Flames, Whalers, Senators, Ducks, Islanders, and Blue Jackets across his 8-year career. In the middle there, Alexandre Daigle was hyped up as the next big star back then, as he dominated the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League during the 1992-93 season. (He has 6 different cards in this set!) Although he didn't live up to the hype, he had a serviceable 10-year NHL career and was a 20-goal scorer twice. On the right, Antti Aalto spent 4 seasons with Anaheim before finishing his pro career in the Finnish Elite league.

 

And the last card in the pack?

 

 

 

Pavel Bure!

 

"The Russian Rocket" had been in the NHL for a couple of years at this point, but Classic managed to fit him into their set in his Russian uniform. (It's part of a "flashback" subset that includes other greats in their early days, like Mike Bossy, Chris Chelios, and Jari Kurri.)

 

Now here's an example of a card back. 

 

 

 

It's a little basic, but a rather large full-color image takes up most of the space!

 

And that's that. For the first time on APTBNL, a pack of 1993 Classic '93 Hockey Draft. 

 

No inserts or autographs found, but it was a fun look back at a unique time in the hobby. 

 

2025-26 Topps Basketball Rack Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  How about that World Series?  I didn't have a dog in the race, but it was exciting overall and you can't go wrong with a Game 7.  With my work schedule, I was fortunate to see most of that 18 inning marathon as well as those final outs. 

With playoff baseball done for the year, it's time to turn our attention to the other Leagues.  The NBA started up it's season recently, with a familiar logo adorning one of the first new card sets of the season:

Topps has released it's first licensed NBA set since 2009, with The Association joining forces with Fanatics and dumping Panini.  I welcomed the news, but part of me still wanted Panini involved, for the sake of competition, as we all have said recent card releases of any sport have lacked creativity at one point or another.  

Seven bucks for 36 cards.  Let's see what I got:

#123 - Anfernee Simons

#2 - Jaylen Brown

#112 - Mike Conley

A Trailblazer is my first new Topps basketball card in 16 years.  

The immediate first impression is they're using the baseball design.  The legendary Night Owl made a post a few months ago, commenting on the design overlap between Topps' baseball and football releases.  If you don't collect baseball, then the design's not bad, but it's a bummer for those who collect both, especially if you were expecting Topps to put a little effort into it's return to the sport.

As a quick aside, Topps regains the NFL license in April; could their design next year be used across all 3 leagues?

#292 - James Harden - Los Angeles Clippers Combo

#60 - Tyler Smith

There's 300 cards in the set.  Cards 1-200 are for the veterans.  Rookies take cards 201-245 and Legends are on cards 251 to 270.  The last 30 cards are checklist cards, one for each team.  

The player checklist is organized by team, with some last minute transaction exceptions, so all the Bulls cards will be in sequential order.  The issue, as you'll see when you see the card backs (spoiler!), is that the Combo card may not be the same team as the players listed on the back.  I certainly found it confusing at first.

#170 - Klay Thompson 

#73 - Tyler Herro

#183 - Jaylen Wells

#77 - Andrew Wiggins

Jaylen's card is showing off the All Rookie Team logo.  While it's an actual award, I don't know if Topps is using it as the equivalent to baseball's trophy cup. 

#187 - Santi Aldama

#93 - Tristan da Silva

#185 - Desmond Bane 

#121 - Isaiah Joe

I was hoping that the set would be less Panini-like, with just pictures of the player and the ball.  Other than the occasional cameo in the background, it seems the status-quo.

#173 - P.J. Washington Jr.

#205 - Ace Bailey (RC)

#233 - Sion James (RC)

#244 - Jamir Watkins (RC)

Cooper Flagg is the main rookie everyone's looking for.  My kid got him after a couple of packs; I have yet to come across him, but I did get a couple of his inserts in a hanger box.

#255 - Magic Johnson

#106 - Peyton Watson

#17 - Miles McBride

#232 - Noah Penda (RC)

That's a nice Magic card.

#63 - Clint Capela (Gold Holo Foil Parallel, #20/50)

#80BK-72 - Ben Saraf (RC) (1980-81 Topps Basketball)

I'm not sure the odds of pulling the (what I think) Gold Holo Foil parallel was, but the 45th Anniversary tribute set falls 1 in 3 rack packs.

#PP-12 - Nikola Jokić (Power Players)

#8B-32 - Dylan Harper (RC) (8-Bit Ballers)

Even the inserts are from 2025 Topps baseball!  The odds on the Power Players inserts are 1 in 3 rack packs, while the odds for the Ballers are 1 in 2 rack packs.

#194 - Jordan Hawkins

#97 - Bub Carrington

#277 - Josh Giddey - Chicago Bulls Combo

Not sure how Topps decided on which player is named on the Combo cards.  

#107 - Jalen Pickett

#287 - Anthony Edwards - Minnesota Timberwolves Combo

#8 - D'Angelo Russell

#118 - Chet Holmgren

A little off-center on Chet's card.

#298 - Ja Morant - Memphis Grizzlies Combo

#15 - OG Anunoby

OG's card was what was I expecting for the set.  I want to see other players on the cards!  I enjoy the almost 3-D effect of the shot, with the shoe and backboard breaking through the border.

#125 - Deni Avdija

#29 - Jonathan Mogbo

Here are the backs.  Prepare to be disappointed:

Wow.  The big thing I was looking forward to when I heard Topps was getting basketball back was the opportunity to see full stats on the back, so I was pretty bummed out when I flipped over Anfernee's card and only saw 2 lines of stats.  Not only that, but it appears to be a minimal amount of stats on the back.  Where's OG's totals?  Why do I just see averages?  I only see Magic's rookie year averages and not all 13 years?  I really wanted to see LeBron's career stats on a card, and at least this year, that's not gonna happen.

And there's the checklist on the back of the Bulls Combo card.  As you can see, no Bulls on the back.

Anyway, that's the pack.  I would have preferred to welcome Topps back to the NBA with open arms, but there's too many negatives, incomplete stats and reusing their MLB design and inserts chief among them.  Instead of open arms, it's just a fist bump; hopefully Topps will do better next year.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone (be kind to those retail workers), and thanks for reading!

1996 Collect-A-Card The Adventures of Ronald McDonald: The McDonaldland 500

Greetings!

Hope everyone's doing well.  Yesterday was the 14th anniversary of my first post here on APTBNL and as per tradition, I go with a non-sports pack.  During a visit a while back to the Localish Card Shop, I came across something sport-like in the big green tub, and after a site check to confirm it hasn't been posted yet, I added it to the stack:

The interwebs surprisingly doesn't have a whole lot of information on this set.  The pack itself doesn't mention that Collect-A-Card produced it, and apparently buying a pack back in 1996 set you back $0.79.

Here's the back of the pack since I was sorta impressed by it.  Usually it's legalese, but here they set up the premise of the card set!  I also like how they present the pack odds...it's certainly better than Panini!

You get 7 cards and puzzle card in a pack.  Let's see what I got:

#32 - Raising the Odds

#41 - Warning Signal

So it appears Ronald and the gang are getting ready for The McDonaldland 500.  I didn't think there were enough characters in the McDonald roster for a competitive race, but sure why not.  Hey, Hamburglar's cheating!

No # - McDonaldland Racing Team Sticker

#6 - Unexpected Invitation

I lucked out getting one of the inserts; it's not Bill Elliott but a sticker that comes 1 in 5 packs is alright.  There's 3 stickers to look out for.

I'm not sure if that shadowy figures is supposed to be Bill Elliott, but he certainly has Ronald's and Hamburglar's attention.

Also, would The McDonaldland 500 be open for anyone to join, or just the residents of McDonaldland? 

No # - Puzzle Piece

#19 - Good Advice

You get a puzzle piece in every back.  Here's what the completed puzzle looks like, including what the 3 stickers look like:

Wait, Grimace isn't a driver?  Bummer.

There's only 50 cards in the set.  If you're curious what the checklist looks like, here you go.

#22 - Wobble - Wobble

#30 - Smoke Signals

It's unfortunate that 3 cards in the pack look essentially the same.  There's only 50 cards in the set, so having at least 3 of the 50 look almost identical is a little disappointing.

Here's some backs because anniversary:

Dad jokes for the win!

Anyway, that's the pack.  I personally don't think this was worth the eighty cents back in 1996, but I'm sure there was a market for these cards.  Happy blogiversary to Ol' Jafronius, and thanks for reading for 14 years!