The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Trying To Be A Hot Shot

Back in 1996, I never considered myself a "Hot Shot". You know, one of those kids that can come into a classroom and the room brightens and everyone bows down to them. I could picture them bursting into the room like Molly Shannon and yelling out "Supastarrr!"

When I came into the classroom with my Giants Starter Jacket, blue sweatpants and my dad's old winter hat, I felt the class turned into Jerry Seinfeld and looked at me with a dark glance, "Hello Newman."

I was okay with that though. I was a bright spot in other ways that many didn't recognize except the adults. I helped those who needed help with schoolwork, I made friends with those kids who didn't have any, I picked up and helped the teacher in the classroom. I didn't feel like I had to be the popular hot shot of the class. I wanted to be who my grandmother molded me to be, a good person.

I think I did well with that even to today. I always put others before myself. I pride myself on that and know my grandmother is smiling down on me from heaven where I will be with her someday. Just hopefully not for awhile. Sorry, gram, love life too much right now.

Anyways, also back in 1996 I have mentioned on here before how I started digging deeper into collecting baseball cards. Up to 1996, it was pretty much mostly football with a few other sports sprinkled in, but after that 1996 World Series I was all on board with baseball. I even was such a fan that I was find picking up some older baseball stuff which at that point was 1993.

One of my coolest yard sale finds in 1993 was 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack Hot Shots cards. This product was targeted for children with it's 225 card base set that was full of, well, fun. Creative subsets and a child catchy design.

The 1993 Fun Pack cards were available in hobby and retail. The base set was broken down into many subsets which started out the set and featured Stars of Tomorrow cards 1-9, Hot Shots cards 10-21, Kid Stars cards 22-27, Upper Deck Heroes cards 28-36, 37-209 were base in teams alphabetical order, then All-Star Advice cards 210-215, All-Star Fold Outs cards 216-220, and Checklists finished up the set with cards 221-225.

The Hot Shot subset cards which I found at this yard sale were only available in retail packs or through a mail-in redemption promotion available in hobby packs. I happened to find one of the promo cards in the batch. It seems when looking on eBay there are stamped and un-stamped versions of this card. I assume stamped means it was redeemed and non-stamp means it wasn't.

 

On the back of this card it tells you that you will receive three random Hot Shots "heat activated" cards in the mail if you exchange this card in for them. Hence the name Trade Upper Deck or as we call it an Upper Deck Trade Card.

Along with the the Trade Card, I also found a Griffey Jr (in 1996 I hadn't started to PC him yet so he was just another player) and this Will Clark.

 

The design has a 90's feel, features a player with a dark background. The dark background is the fun part. As I mentioned above, these cards are heat sensitive. So just leave your thumb on the card and it reveals some 90's vibes....

Then put your whole hand all over the card and warm it up to reveal this. Looks like a sweater that Uncle Phil would wear in the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air

These cards were the closest to a Hot Shot I was ever in school. Including High School. Even now I will say.

Upper Deck put out some great products for kids in the 90's and always found ways to catch their interest with unique innovations to the hobby such as this. I know after finding these they had my attention. But, other great child based products like Collectors Choice and the Upper Deck flagship kept me excited as well. I think some days we need to go back to the simple things in the hobby like this to help bring the kids back. Or at least like for me, keep the child alive.