1996 Select: Box Review (Hobby)

The 1996 Select set was a hobby-only release from Score.  The set contains 200 base cards (no short prints), one parallel set (Artist's Proof), and a mere three inserts (Team Nucleus, En Fuego, and Claim to Fame).  This particular set could easily be the poster child for the differences between collecting in the early/mid-90s and collecting today...a hobby-only release in 2022 with one parallel and only three inserts (and nary an autograph or relic to be found) would never fly!  

I, for one, like the relative simplicity of the Select set so let's dive into our box.  Each box of 1996 Select contains 24 packs with 10 cards per pack.  As mentioned already, the base set is only 200 cards deep so you can be quite certain you'll get a fairly large amount of duplicates - but you should get the entire base set as well if collation isn't a problem.

So, how'd we do in our box?

Well, we pulled 186/200 base cards plus 53 duplicates.  Our missing base cards were:  #2, 60, 61, 82, 105, 120, 130, 141, 150, 161, 164, 177, 185, and 194.  Seeing as how we pulled 53 duplicates, there's no excuse for a hobby box to not include a full base set (there'd still be a bunch of duplicates but that's acceptable when you get the full base set out of a single box).  As it stands though with 1996 Select, 53 doubles isn't acceptable at all.

Before I show off the inserts, I have to show off this little slip of paper that was our "box topper" when I opened the box:

What the heck?  Is there a big problem with cards made in Great Britain (or is that a special draw for such a thing)?!  Inquiring minds would like to know.

Unfortunately, we didn't pull any of the 1:48 pack En Fuego cards (nor did we find one of the 1:72 pack Claim to Fame cards).  We did, however, find a pair of 1:18 Team Nucleus inserts!

These are awesome cards printed on acetate.  There's one card for each of the 28 teams (at the time) and I definitely need to track down a copy of the Reds card for my Barry Larkin Collection.  These are gorgeous cards for sure!

Finally, we also pulled a single Artist's Proof card (seeded 1:35 packs).  

The Artist's Proofs have an estimate print run of 432 copies per card - and while I was happy to land a Red here I can't lie and say I wasn't a little bummed that it wasn't the Red I actually collect...pulling the Barry Larkin Artist's Proof card would have been amazing since I still need that one!  As it stands, maybe I'll be able to trade away this Sanders for the Larkin?  

Overall, I give the 1996 Select (hobby) box the following rating:

Set Design:  C

Collation:  F

Opening Thrill:  D

Overall:  D

For as much as I do like the fact that this is a relatively simple, no-frills sort of set, I can't overlook the fact that collation was horrendous.  That, compounded with the fact that the base design is okay but nothing overly great makes this a rather tough box to recommend ripping for oneself.  Even worse, the cards were mostly "bricked" together which means there's a fair bit of chipping and flaking on most of the cards.  Not cool!  On the other hand, it is a great box for a group break scenario because of the rare inserts/parallels plus you know you'll get a bunch of cards for your team...even if some of those come in duplicate (which could be a good thing given the amount of chipping/flaking on some of the base cards)!