Top 100 Cards of My Collection - #93 92-93 Upper Deck Shaquille O'Neal RC

[Chris P]

My first bout with any kind of mania was Shaq-Mania back in 1992. Shaquille O'Neal was one of the most heavily coveted college players to come out of college since Patrick Ewing back in 1985. The NBA was salivating for the next big thing and Shaq fit that description to a T. In the hobby, collectors anxiously waited for a chance to pick up Shaq's rookie cards. In a strange twist though, Classic, a college sports card manufacturer signed Shaq to an exclusive contract that prohibited other licensees to produce Shaq cards. All other companies had to wait until their Series II products to include Shaq in their sets. This made collectors just want Shaq's cards even more, and 92-93 Series II products sold like hot cakes and were hard to find. I, personally tried my best to buy any and every product I could with the limited funds I had, for a chance to acquire any kind of Shaq rookie. The only two I was ever able to pull were his low end Topps and Fleer rookies. There were two rookie cards that were considered to cream of the crop, his Stadium Club rookie and the card that is #93 on this countdown, his Upper Deck Rookie. Now, Upper Deck used a loophole (as did Hoops) by
issuing a trade redemption card of Shaq in their Series I products,
redeemable for a Shaq Trade Card. It looks exactly like the rookie card
pictured here, but instead of the #1 Draft Pick gold lettering and it says Trade
Card. I love the triple shot of Shaq about to throw down a monstrous dunk
and not to mention that this rookie is a short print so it's not as easy to find as
his other rookie counterparts. It took me years to acquire, but this was the first
card I hunted for, when I started working and had some extra money to spend
on cards. Shaq definitely more than lived up to the hype as he is a sure fire Hall
of Famer and one of the greatest of all time. It sure is fun though, to look back and
remember when collectors were still wondering just how great Shaq would be. Well
now, we all know.


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