The Joy of Junk Wax - 1991 Upper Deck

You know how the older you get the more you come to appreciate certain things? This is how I feel about some early 90's baseball cards sets. I was new to collecting cards when many of these junk wax sets were released. While I knew of a handful of players, I wasn't watching baseball on TV or following the sport as closely as I do now. In my youthful excitement of opening cards, I would gloss over many of the cards. I didn't appreciate the photography featured on the cards like I do now.

I recently purchased a jumbo box of 1991 Upper Deck. I chose this set for several reasons.

1) I have always loved the base design of the cards
2) It represents a time when first started collecting cards
3) Upper Deck always had some of the best photography
4) Ths jumbo packs contained a Silver Slugger card in every pack
5) "Find the Hank" Baseball Heroes set

As I opened the box the other night, I just started taking pictures of random cards that stood out to me in some way. For this post I decided to try and group them together into different themes. Enjoy.

Rest In Peace

Hall of Famers

Young Talent

Is that a young Sammy Sosa sitting on the bench beside Frank in the background?

I'm Seeing Three

Photography

I love "aerial" action photography.

Card Back Photography

Action in the dirt.

While I don't care for Sosa, I love the Angels players sitting in the bullpen in the background.

Cal kickin' up some dirt sliding into home. General goofiness from Jose Lind w/ Mike LeValliere.

Play at the plate cards are always cool, even if the picture is on the back of the card.

Just Because...

David Justice was the first player that I had poster of on my wall as a kid. There was just something about him that I was drawn too. I have always found this card of his to be iconic in a way. Hershiser was one of my late father's favorite pitchers. Anything that reminds me of my dad is aways special. 

Julio is one of my Player Collections and I don't believe I had this card before the other day. Not sure how Bip showed up...

Team Cards

I could have taken pictures of many more of these as the artwork on many of them are beautiful, but this card of the Tigers bomber, Cecil Fielder was one of the better ones.

Hank Aaron Baseball Heroes

Does this card above not look like Al Roker from The Today Show?! When I was a kid, I thought these Baseball Heroes insert cards were awesome. I still find myself drawn to these and now I can't wait to complete this set for Hank Aaron.

I still have not taken the time to collate the cards and put together a want list. The big stack you see in the bottom right corner is my stack of 700 cards. At first I thought the collation was just really bad (and it was), then I realized the box I bought was a combination of the low and hi series. I may end up buy box of the low series to see if I can round out the set some more...or I may not. Regardless of what I end up doing, it was a blast sitting at the kitchen table opening the packs and looking over each card. Am I the only one that gets a kick out of opening junk wax?