Monday, November 03, 2014

1991 Topps Desert Storm 2nd Series (Victory Series)

In 1991 I was a junior in high school in Berlin, Germany.  My father was in the army and stationed at Berlin Base.  It was a great time in life to be living in Germany. I got there just after the wall fell and was there for reunification.  I remember when Iraq invaded Kuwait  and of course the whole Desert Storm/Desert Shield conflict.  I remember coming to school to see the driveways barricaded with trucks and armed soldiers at the door.  I also remember the flood of Desert Storm and military sets that flooded the market around the same time.

We have here a pack of 1991 Topps Desert Storm Series 2, or the 2nd Series, or Victory Series.  Topps put out three series of Desert Storm cards.  Series 1 was cards 1 - 88 and stickers 1-22, Series 2 had cards 89 - 176 and stickers 23 - 33, and Series 3, the Homecoming Series, had cards 177 - 266 and stickers 34 - 44.   I'm not sure if the 2 later series were planned or if the success of the first series prompted the creation of two more issues.

Regardless I was able to pick a box of each of the 3 series for ten cents a pack from Don's big sale a while back and as a collector who loves history couldn't resist cheap militaria cards.  Let's see what I got.







I really like all the plane and tank cards in this set.










All the stickers in this set feature flags of countries involved in the conflict and most of those are allies flags.  I got Saudi Arabia.

One great thing about this pack, no gum.  And the sticker was on the bottom, so no wax backs to the cards.  I'm not sure why Topps didn't figure something like this out on it's sports issues back in the 50's.

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