Out of Ideas

A few months ago I saw a sell sheet for 2023-24 Skybox Metal Universe hockey. I've never been a fan of the Fleer/Skybox Metal Universe sets (though I do have a couple in my collection)... but...

...one of the inserts caught my eye. Can you guess which one? 

Yup, it's that 1990-91 Skybox basketball design - on a hockey card! I couldn't wait for these to hit the market. For those of you who don't collect hockey cards (and therefore haven't bought UD product in over a decade) all you need to know is that they love to recycle.

 

 

You get the idea. Very few Upper Deck products are released without some kind of retro/tribute insert set. But using a basketball card design is a new twist. 

 

I have fond memories of buying 1990-91 Skybox basketball packs (primarily at Walgreens) and made myself an actual note to gobble up these hockey inserts once 2023-24 Skybox Metal Universe hit stores. Which they did, earlier this week - just in time for the start of the 2024-25 season!

And now that they have, I can pretty much guarantee I won't be buying a single one. For two reasons.

One) they're a case hit. $30  per card (unless maybe they hit ePack next year and I can get them for $5)

Two) they look like this:

Umm... no. They took a cool design, turned it into an Uno card, and inserted these cards into an overpriced product at extremely long odds? Hard pass.

  

In other news... I made a trade with my collecting friend in CA. I sent him an SI For Kids card panel:

And I requested these cards that had been sitting in his eBay store:

These will be accompanied by a pile of Packers cards he picked out for me at a recent card show. I'll show those off when they arrive.

Thanks for reading!

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