Hella Mega Ultra Post!

Instead of writing several medium-length posts this week I decided to write one Hella Mega Post.

I've done enough recaps of early '90s sports card sets to consider it an unofficial series. Here's a post about 1992-93 McDonald's basketball, here's one for 1993 Leaf baseball, and here's one for 1993 SP baseball. There are a lot of reasons why I'm still so nostalgic for the sports cards of that time. I was in junior high, heading into my teen years obsessed with all four major sports. I had enough money to collect lots of different cards and nearly every company was producing innovative new sets. 

One card set that was initially out of my price range was Fleer Ultra.

The Fleer Ultra brand debuted in 1991 but the gray-bordered cards were barely an improvement on their blinding yellow flagship design. A year later Fleer stepped up their game with a set that I would argue was even better than Topps Stadium Club.

I hadn't yet turned 12 when these cards hit stores (at $3 per pack IIRC) The gold foil stamp and strip were a big deal back then, and I was fascinated with the card backs:

Yeah they're just squares but they felt so futuristic to me. The glossy sheen even had a scent to it. I'd never been able to smell a card before. 

When I first encountered these cards the packs and boxes were way out of my price range. Even star player singles were pricey. Maybe I was just spending my allowance more economically, but I remember going to a card shop on the opposite end of town (not my regular LCS) and picking out singles of semi-stars like Julio Franco so that I didn't have to pay more than 30 cents to add these beauties to my collection. I was always drawn to more colorful teams such as the Royals. The light blue really pops.

At some point I must have either prioritized this set or earned more allowance money because I was able to pick up Ultra cards of the game's greatest superstars. I loved my Ken Griffey, Jr. and Frank Thomas singles so much that I brought them with me to summer camp - in top loaders, of course.

Last October I bought a box of Series II for $9.22 after using my eBay bucks. I now have the entire 600-card set - though I couldn't find any record of buying a Series 1 box on eBay.


Fleer stuck with the same design for their other 1992 releases. I didn't remember much about 1992 Ultra Football and I wanted to have every Ultra set from that year so I added a box to my Kruk cards order in August of 2017 for the low price of $9.74.

Once I finished opening the box it felt like that money could have been better spent elsewhere. Ultra Football didn't feel (or smell) quite as shiny as baseball. Some of the cards had a sandpaper finish and had missing or misprinted foil. And there were a lot of players missing in this 450-card set: Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Lawrence Taylor.. there must have been some licensing issues I wasn't aware of. (Also not included: five of the top six picks in that year's NFL Draft.)

The green grass at the bottom isn't the same shade, either.

In any case I was about 100 cards short of a complete set and didn't see the point of trying to complete it so I traded a good chunk of singles. I now have only half the set. 

One of the insert sets in 1992 Ultra Football gave collectors a sneak peek at 1993 Ultra:

The '93 set is much sharper looking thanks to the black marble border - and all of the big names are included. Perhaps I should have bought a box of this series instead. I only have 10 of the 500 cards.

In December of 2018 I bought some more cheap old wax from Kruk Cards. I thought I had purchased an entire set of 1992-93 Fleer Ultra basketball for $5.99...

..unfortunately the box was mislabeled and I got a (not-quite) complete set of Skybox instead. In January of this year I had quite a lot of eBay bucks burning a hole in my pocket. Eventually I purchased a Warren Spahn autographed 8 x 10 - and this box of 1992-93 Ultra Basketball:

 

Though the Basketball set is smaller than the Football set, Fleer still broke it up into two series. As a result I was able to complete two series 1 sets from this box, trades, and the cards already in my collection. 

Four of the six inserts I pulled were Bulls stars (including Rodman, who was still in Detroit at the time.) 

At one point I considered buying a jumbo box of series 2 but I decided to trade for the singles I needed instead. So far I only have one set of S2 but I might use my S1 traders to try and finish a second set. The rookies in particular bring back a lot of great memories. My friends and I would buy as many packs as we could afford and bring our spoils to the school cafeteria. Sometimes we'd trade duplicates or laugh at all of the obscure stiffs we'd get stuck with while chasing the Shaq RC.

so.. many.. stiffs

I did look into buying a box of 1993-94 Ultra Basketball but they're a lot more expensive (except the series 1 Jumbos for some reason) because of the demand for Michael Jordan inserts. 

I'd be happy to trade for the remaining 30% of the set I need, but ever since GooseWayne ghosted me I've been reluctant to make any more trades on TCDB. 

As much as I enjoyed these sets then and now, the one that really blew me away was 1992-93 Fleer Ultra Hockey.

The NHL was still fairly new to me when these cards came out, and I was gobbling up Topps, Score, and Upper Deck packs. I loved the '92-93 Upper Deck set (it might be their best ever) but the icy blue Ultra cards were on another level. 

Nordiques cards in particular look fantastic in this set. Joe Juneau and Teemu Selanne were the two hot rookies that year; Juneau was in the midst of a 100+ point rookie season but he couldn't sniff the Calder Trophy because Selanne scored 76 goals. I remember pulling a Juneau card from a pack I'd bought at WaWa. Selanne was in series 2 and even though it wasn't his official RC it was still a hot card for a while. Beckett had it listed at $3-5.

I completed this set years ago and double-bagged it in a binder with my wife's set. She has every Fleer Ultra set from their initial NHL run (1992-1997) and nearly all of the non-rare inserts. 

We have three sets of 1993-94 Ultra Hockey. Perhaps this is why I consider it my least favorite of the four '93-94 Ultra issues. Or maybe it's just so hard to top '92-93. 

Let's wrap up this long look at the early years of Ultra with 1993 baseball. This box of series 1 was part of the Kruk Cards order that included 1992 Ultra Football. The Series 2 box is my latest acquisition. I used eBay's 20% off coupon to purchase this box for $9.22.

There were a lot of names I didn't recognize in the base set (Tommy Shields? Mike Mohler?) but the inserts were (mostly) perennial all-stars. Look at that mega-logo on the All-Rookie inserts! I pulled one other insert but it was a dupe...

I now have 649 of the 650 cards in 1993 Ultra Baseball. Somehow #322 Jose Vizcaino eluded me.

As much as I loved the 1992 Ultra Baseball set I have to admit that 1993 was an improvement. The fronts are a little brighter and the fireball logo is a nice touch.

The backs have an actual baseball background instead of the graphing squares.

Since you've read all the way to the end you deserve a reward (I told you this would be a Hella Mega post!) This week's Free Stuff Friday offerings are Ultra-themed. Please choose up to ten of the cards scanned below this paragraph. I'm sending out PWEs to Jeremy and Rod tomorrow so if you'd like me to send your claims this weekend let me know that as well.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!



 
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