After being disappointed with my Series 1 break of 1992-93 Stadium Club, I’m not exactly eager to rip this box.
The sealed box containing 36 poly packs
A poly pack containing 15 cards
Description
This is Series 2 of Topps’ inaugural Stadium Club issue in basketball
Cost
This box cost $28.99 ($19.00 bid + $9.99 s/h). Series 2 runs higher than Series 1 because of the coveted Beam Team inserts found in Series 2.
Possible cards, inserts, and parallels
Base set – 200 cards
Beam Team insert – 21 cards (1:18 packs?)
Base cards
210 – Members Choice Michael Jordan (front and back)
227 – James Edwards (front and back)
247 – Shaquille O’Neal (front and back)
345 – Isaiah Morris (front only)
360 – Charles Barkley (front and back)
361 – David Robinson (front and back)
Inserts
Beam Team – 5 – Scottie Pippen (front and back)
Beam Team – 12 – Kevin Johnson (front and back)
Summary
- contents
Like Series 1, Series 2 is a big box with 36 packs of 15 cards each. This box gave one complete set, but I didn’t get two sets like I did in the Series 1 box. - base cards
I didn’t like the photography in the Series 1 cards. I thought that the images all looked a bit yellow. To my untrained eye, I think that the images in Series 2 look better with better color balance. - card backs 1 – player ratings
I have already noted that the player rating system on the card backs looks like a 0-5 point system, but nobody gets less than a 3.0 in any category. Some players get 3.0 ratings, but almost nobody gets a 5.0. David Robinson (pictured above) is an exception because he got a 5.0 in two different categories. The Admiral indeed! - card backs 2 – first Topps card image
Each base card has a picture of the player’s first Topps card on the back. Since Topps didn’t issue a single basketball card from the end of the 1981-82 NBA season until the 1992-93 season, most players’ first Topps cards are either from the 1992-93 Topps or 1992-93 Stadium Club sets. What was a really nice feature in the baseball, football, and hockey Stadium Sets looks a bit silly in the basketball set. I show the card of James Edwards above. His first Topps card was from the 1980-81 set. - horizontal poses
I didn’t notice any horizontal shots in Series 1. Series 2 has just a few (less than 10). A horizontal pose of Isaiah Morris is shown above. About half of the horizontal poses are just like that of Morris – pre-game stretching. The other half are in-game action shots. - Beam Team inserts
I opened a 1992-93 Topps Series 2 box some weeks ago and didn’t get any Beam Team inserts. I was not happy. Fortunately, this box was more generous, and I pulled two of the Stadium Club version of the Beam Team cards. The Beam Team cards were named after a traveling NBA half time laser show. A page over on Beckett gives a nice summary. Topps liked the idea so much that the Beam Team inserts later became synonymous with all the different sports covered by Stadium Club. - condition
Old cards tend to stick together after around 20 years in a tight wrapper. These cards just barely stuck to one another – not bad at all. Just don’t be too disappointed or shocked if the cards in your 90s sealed backs are fused into a single block of cardboard. - conclusion
I was disappointed with the Series 1 break. I’m more impressed after ripping the Series 2 box. The photography seems better, and getting the inserts is always a bonus.
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