Back to Base in Upper Deck week

You might be thinking, surely there aren't any Upper Deck base cards Jon hasn't blogged yet? Well, you'd be surprised...

Card Number 825: Upper Deck Collector's Choice, 1998; #480

This card is from the last year of  'Collector's Choice'. It became UD Choice in 1999 before being lost forever. As a swansong, that is a fantastic card photo.

On the back we have Tony reaching up to sign autographs. He was well-known for signing autographs, often staying behind long after his team-mates had disappeared into the changing rooms. Any regular readers of this blog will know the 'Did you know?' factoid. I comment on it a lot! (It's still remarkable.)

Card Number 826: Upper Deck Encore, 1999; #77

Encore was a parallel set that Upper Deck released, with shiny versions of their base cards from that year. (This could have been a Tuesday Twin card.) As is sometimes the case with these random sets, I've already blogged the two much rarer insert cards from this set. It's nice to add the base card!

The front is practically the same as the card from the regular set but has an additional 'Encore' on it. The back has half an additional 'Encore' on it. (At the top!)

Card Number 827: Upper Deck Ovation, 2001; #51

This completes my run of Tony's base cards in the Ovation sets, as I've already blogged the cards from 1999 and 2000. The central motif of these cards was the baseball 'stitching', which was embossed. The stitiching isn't in red on this card, but the embossing marks are quite clear on the back. 

Tony looks disappointed in the photo. Maybe it's because he knew this would be his last year in the Ovation set. The stats box has his figures from the previous two years. It's as if the years before Ovation sets don't count. 

Total: 827 cards

Upper Deck come back for more

My recent eBay purchase alerted me to the existence of an Upper Deck set that I'd not heard of before - Encore. (Not to be confused with the Fleer subset called Encore from a few years earlier.)

Card Number 654: Upper Deck Encore Upper Realm, 1999; #U4

Upper Realm is a bit of a weird name for an insert series. The UR swirling around Tony's legs makes this look a bit messy. 

This card scans very blue due to the foilboard effect, but looks more purple in real life. The back is more obviously purple.

The cardback points out that Tony's career average was the highest among active major leaguers. It's also higher than any major leaguer since Tony retired.

Card Number 655: Upper Deck Encore Strokes of Genius, 1999; #167

This subset was actually very blue.

The graphics on this give it a very sci-fi look; a theme that continued onto the back.

There are three years worth of stats arranged vertically, which makes a nice change. However the really wide kerning on the word 'In' at the start of the write up shows the perils of using justified text in an odd shape. As an aside, I hate justified text. It makes text harder to read and is especially difficult for people with impaired vision. (I consider it one of my best achievements in a previous job when a directive came out saying all our documents had to be in justified text and I successfully got that rescinded by citing good practice guidance from a charity supporting people with sight loss!)

I now have the fun task of trying to find Tony's regular base card from Upper Deck Encore, now that I know the set exists! Still, what is collecting without little challenges?

Total: 655 cards