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!