Upper Deck retro was a compact 110-card set that, in addition to contemporary stars and rookies, also included NBA legends from the past. You’re looking at the final card in the set, card #110, a Lamar Odom rookie card. I have mixed feelings about this set. I’m a fan of cards that look back deep into basketball history. There’s still something fun about pulling a Wilt Chamberlain from a pack even if it is more contemporary and not as valuable. But, as you know from watching my channel, I stopped collecting actively around the year 2000 because I wasn’t a fan of the quantity of cards and sets. As much as I like Retro, knowing that this season also included the regular Upper set, Black Diamond, Gold Reserve, Encore, Hardcourt, HoloGrFx, Ionix, Legends, MVP, Ovation, Victory and Ultimate Victory….well, I kind of just decided to give up and leave this type of collecting to the next generation. You might also know if you watch my videos, that we were taking a tour of Lamar Odom rookie cards from this time to explore the abundance of sets. We’ve looked at a lot…the regular Upper Deck, Topps Chrome and Gold Label, Skybox E-X and Impact, Bowman’s Best and Ultra. Here is the Upper Deck Retro rookie.
But let’s talk about how “Retro” Retro actually is… I appreciate the thick stock and matte finish from a quality perspective, but it doesn’t give a “Retro” feel The use of small letters in large size isn’t retro, the offset player image and team name within their borders isn’t retro. And then there’s Dr. Basketball’s appearance on the back. How many of you remember him from 1994-95 Collector’s choice? Not retro, at least to those in my age group!
To me, the “Retro” feel comes from the back. No photographs of the player takes us back to pre-’90’s collecting. No finish over the cardboard here. And, although it doesn’t apply to rookies like this Lamar Odom, the back presented full statistics like earlier sets. And the information below the stats takes us back to when companies were trying to be as informative as possible. Great information here, great specifics! The impressive stats from his first game against TCU. And, of course, the buzzer-beater over Temple in the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship. If you never saw that, watch it here! This focus on specific info reminds me of 1972-73 Topps, the set with the famous Dr. J rookie. In that card, two specific games were also mentioned. And instead of Dr. Basketball, there was a caricature of a basketball player where a piece of brief trivia would be displayed.
Another “Retro” idea was selling these six-card packs from one of eleven different lunch boxes full of 24 packs of cards. I’d have bought those lunchboxes growing up…Michael Jordan, Dr. J and Larry Bird!
There are parallels, gold numbered to 250 and platinum numbered to 1. I’m not a fan of severely limited sets like this. When there’s no chance of completing it, I think it prevents many collectors from pursuing them at all. And as far as I know, it seems like these parallels are just the original cards with a basic serial number stamped on it. No other changes. The Inkredibles cards were a notable insert set though. What a great way to get on-card autographs from legendary hall-of-famers!
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