Lessons Learned in Opening a Box of 1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice

If you've visited my blog at all in the past two weeks, chances are you have seen at least one or two of my 1995 Upper Deck pack opening posts.  Now that I've finally finished off the 36 pack box, I'm able to figure out exactly what I still need in terms of completing the set (you can see my full want list here for all the cards I'm looking for).

As I sorted the cards, I found something quite interesting in terms of how the cards were distributed in my box.

Here's what I didn't get in terms of base cards from the set (i.e. the cards I still need):
6, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323, 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494, 495, 496, 497, 498, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528

While that list might simply look like a bunch of card numbers, if you take a closer look you'll notice some strange things.

For instance:
I didn't get card #6, but I did get every other card in the first 34 cards in the set.  Then there's a huge chunk of missing cards - then a huge chunk of cards I got - then another chunk of missing cards - and this pattern repeats.  In fact, my want list could be a lot more succinct if I wrote it like this:
Needs:  6, 35-59, 91-147, 184-205, 242-223, 271-421, 488-528

That's six large chunks of missing cards (plus the one early card missing which seems like maybe it was a packing error on Upper Deck's part (maybe one of my packs was short a card)?  This weird distribution is made even more unfortunate by the fact that Upper Deck sorted their base set by team.  That means there's entire teams that I didn't get a single regular base card for in the box!  This did allow for one fun fact - this is the first box that I think I've ever opened where I didn't pull a Yankees regular base card!!  (The Yankees slot in the final chunk of cards that was missing.)  I also lucked out in the sense that I did pull the Reds in the set (which made this a spectacular gift box for me!

I don't have anything earth shattering to share here other than "Beware" if you plan on buying a box of this stuff for yourself.  You might end up with the full team set of your favorite team...or you might get shut out completely.  It seems Upper Deck didn't employ any sort of randomization withing the packs - though that didn't stop them for including 25 different base duplicates...

Anyhow, the set is now officially added to my want list - and I still have quite a few silver signature parallels available for trade.  I hope to mail out the ones that were claimed throughout the pack opening process - I have at least one parallel waiting for the Daily Dimwit, Arpsmith, and Night Owl.  If I missed anyone else - or if you'd like a parallel that hasn't been claimed yet, let me know!  Only the Reds cards are staying with me!