Scans of my 1996 SPX Baseball box break are now available in my Photobucket account. I apologize for the quality — some look better than the others. My scanner needs to be worked on, I have a line that runs through the platen glass. Boo. Anyway, if you missed the break, you can watch it here.
Archive for SPX
1996 SPX baseball scans available
Posted in Newspaperman with tags baseball, baseball cards, box break, sports, SPX on October 24, 2009 by Cardboard IconsVIDEO Box Break: 1996 SPX Baseball
Posted in Box / Pack Break with tags baseball, box break, Ken Griffey Jr., old school, sports, SPX, Upper Deck on October 21, 2009 by Cardboard IconsAbout a week ago I wrote about my love for the original SPX cards. Not the junk that UD passes off these days as SPX or simply X, but the original stuff: the die-cut cards with the holoview technology, the one-card per pack, hit-or-miss product that collectors loved back in the mid 90s. Well, no less than two days after writing about it, I bought a box of 1996 baseball on ebay for about $36. I decided to do my first ever video break. I’ll scan the cards and post them later this week when I’ve got more time.
A little background about the video. I’m using a Web site called Qik. Some of you may be familiar with it, but some media-type folks like myself are using this site for multimedia stuff because you can stream video … live. No editing and uploading to YouTube. I mean L-I-V-E, as if you can watch me rip packs or break a box as I do it. Baring a few seconds lag time, the site is pretty good for a low-budget multimedia video. In the future I’ll try to give advance notice here, but if you’re on Twitter, it’s even easier to get the word out that way. That is what I did on Wednesday when this box arrived. You can follow me at www.twitter.com/cardboardicons. Also, my future videos will be posted at HERE.
Check out Qik if you’re interested. Basically you can use your smart phone (I’m using a Samsung BlackJack II) to all this stuff, no need for high-quality video cameras unless your shooting other types of movies. Oh, and the site is free. Enjoy.
Upper Deck SPX used to be the gamble of a lifetime
Posted in Newspaperman with tags baseball, football, Michael Jordan, Rick Mirer, SPX, Upper Deck on October 16, 2009 by Cardboard Icons
When I was a teenager, I spent lots of money at card shops. I used to purposely eat less food during lunch so that I had more money to spend on cardboard to feed my hobby hunger. Back then I used to collect three sports, and every once in a while dabble in hockey and NASCAR, so I was technically a five-sport guy.
In 1995, Upper Deck introduced us to SPX, the uber-premium card set that features one holographic card per pack. These packs usually cost about $4 each, which nowadays is the equivalent of paying $10 for a pack that contained a single card — and for the most part there were no hits to be had. (Note: some SPX sets later had autographs) The chase was for the super stars: Ken Griffey Jr., Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Jeff Gordon, Joe Montana, etc. For a teenage kid, SPX was the gamble of a lifetime because one card per pack means you’re either going to love your pull, or feel like you just had you lunch money stolen. Nonetheless, one thing was clear before you even opened the pack, whatever came out of the wrapper was not for trade.
Well, for me, the packs were a little bit of heaven and hell. The very first SPX pack I opened was of football and it contained this Rick Mirer card. 
Even back in 1995, it was clear that Mirer was a bust and this card was not going to be worth squat. Nonetheless, the card was mine and not for trade. A few days — and a couple less lunches later — I managed to pull one of the Joe Montana Tribute inserts from the football brand, which at the time were some of the hottest cards on the market, particularly in the region of the country I am from. (I eventually moved the my insert purging years)
Later that year, when the basketball SPX line hit the market, I tried my hand again, praying for a Michael Jordan card. Well, in the very first pack guess what I pulled? That’s right, Michael F’n Jordan. I was the envy of my little circle of card collecting friends.
Over the years I stopped collecting all of those sports except for baseball, which saw its first SPX release in 1996 — I purchased none. But while I have bartered and sold damn near every basketball, football, hockey and NASCAR card I’ve owned, there have been two cards from those sports that have remained with me: the Mirer and Jordan, which you see pictured here.
