Group Break Results - 1993 Bowman football, 1993/94 NBA Hoops Series 2, 2020/21 Upper Deck MVP hockey

 

This week's edition of my Affordable Group Break was a little different than in the past. For starters no baseball (blasphemous!) and we opened 3 boxes. I can tell you however this is will not be the new norm as my mouth was parched after talking so much. Combine that with the time it's taken to sort the cards and create this post...yeah, I'm going back to just one or two boxes max!

3 boxes, 3 different sports. We'll start with the box of 1993 Bowman football. I grabbed this box awhile back when I visited an eclectic candy store about an hour from my home. I wished it had been a baseball box, but I still thought the football box could be fun...and I was right.

Each pack contained a "special engraved foil" card and most of them turned out to be some good players, though there were a few players included that were busts.

Bowman is known for rookies and the box did yield a few such as this pair of Jerome Bettis and Natrone Means.

Not to be overshadowed by the young guys, we pulled some good veterans / HOFers as well. Overall this was a fun box and a nice change of pace from the newer, flashier cards.

Next up was the first basketball card box to be featured in one of my breaks. 1993/94 Hoops Series II may not have been the best pick, but finding reasonably priced sealed basketball boxes from any year can be a tough challenge right now so I had to go with what I could find.

Hoops may not be known for their photography, but these Scoops cards featured some nice under the basket shots.

The rookie crop this season wasn't too bad with the likes of Toni Kukoc, Chris Webber, Jamal Mashburn, Allen Houston among others. Many duplicates were pulled in this box.

Speaking of rookies, anyone need a Penny? We got plenty...even the 5th Anniversary Gold parallel.

Here is a selection of the one per pack 5th Anniversary Gold parallels. I personally like that Sam Cassell RC.

On the insert front we pulled 3 of the Admiral's Choice...and they were all Kenny Anderson...and they all suffered damage from being stuck to the one per pack 5th Anniversary parallel. Bummer.

I believe these inserts are just "one shots". Simple, effective, cool. My personal favorite was the "reprint" of David Robinson's Hoops RC.

Magic's All-Rookie Team inserts fell roughly one per box and we got Chris Webber (with a Shawn Kemp cameo!). I remember these inserts being a big deal back then.

While the Hoops box may not have been as exciting as I hoped that it be, it was a fun walk down memory lane at least for me as I was big into collecting basketball cards during this time period.

The third and final box of the night was another first for me, hockey! After hosting a hockey mini break a few weeks earlier I thought I'd try my hand at a full box and I just happened to get this hobby box of 2020/21 Upper Deck MVP for a good price. Plus I remember MVP being a fun baseball product.

During the break we figured out that the teal colored cards were the SPs, half were veterans with the other half being the RCs. The cards with the silver signature facsimile appear to be the Silver Script parallels.

I still haven't quite figured out what these inserts are called. Feel free to educate me in the comments.

Net Crashers were one of the insert sets we were chasing. These feature a holofoil front with a "black & white" photo in the background. Much more beautiful in hand than scanned.

Much like the Net Crashers, these Mirror Mirror inserts also feature the same holofoil front.

Colors and Contours was probably my favorite of the inserts pulled...and I'm not just saying that because the card pulled was a Hurricanes player (my chosen team). Beautiful, bright orange shiny foil, slightly die-cut and serially numbered to 250.

Yet again I'm impressed by the whole package Upper Deck manages to do w/ their hockey sets. If enough people keep asking for hockey I'll keep looking for affordable boxes to feature in future breaks from time to time.

This may not have been the most riveting break I've hosted in awhile, but it served it's purpose...to put some "new" cards in the hands of collectors without having to spend a lot of dough. Thanks for everyone's support...we'll see everyone next week!