Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 1992 Upper Deck Series 2 Football
Upper Deck jumped into the trading card business with their famous 1989 baseball set. Obviously that set is known for the Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie Card. Upper Deck didn’t kick off their football line until 1991. Over the years, the stable of football sets grew from just the single release in 1991, but their flagship set was a hobby tradition. The next time there wasn’t a base Upper Deck Football release? 2010.
1992 Upper Deck Football is split into two series. The base card design stayed the same throughout, but the insert options differed. Football Heroes mirrors what Upper Deck was doing with the Baseball Heroes inserts in their baseball releases. While the baseball sets initially highlighted retired legends like Ted Williams and Willie Mays, and legends closing out their careers, such as Nolan Ryan, 1992 Upper Deck Series 2 Football highlights Dan Marino in the midst of his career.
Series 2 also features Fanimation inserts that are illustrations of players reimagined as superheroes.
The final insert set in Series 2 is Game Breakers, a set featuring cards with full hologram fronts.
1992 Upper Deck Series 2 Football Box Break
Cards per pack: 15
Packs per box: 36
Price paid: $21
Shop for 1992 Upper Deck Series 2 Football boxes on eBay.
Pack 1 highlights:
Morten Andersen. Kicker cards are always fun. Remember when kickers wore helmets with almost no face mask whatsoever?
Pack 2:
Dan Marino, Randall Cunningham & Thurman Thomas
Pack 3:
Bernie Kosar & John Elway
Pack 4:
Herschel Walker, Boomer Esiason & Drew Hill Game Breakers Hologram (1:30 packs). How cool were hologram cards back in the early ’90s? I still love them!
Pack 5:
Jerry Rice, Shannon Sharpe & Mike Singletary
Pack 6:
Warren Moon & Ricky Proehl
Pack 7:
Warren Moon, Troy Aikman & Carl Pickens
Pack 8:
Jerry Rice
Pack 9:
Eric Dickerson, Bruce Smith & Thurman Thomas
Pack 10:
Deion Sanders. Sometimes I forget about Prime Time’s time with the Falcons.
Pack 11:
Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, John Elway & Dan Marino/Jim Kelly Fanimation (1:9 packs)
Pack 12:
Jim “Shotgun” Kelly Fanimation (1:9 packs). Players as made-up superheroes? Count me in.
Pack 13:
Jerry Rice, Randall Cunningham & Jeff George
Pack 14:
Phil Simms, Ronnie Lott & Carl Pickens
Pack 15:
Phil Simms, Charles Haley & Barry Sanders
Pack 16:
Jeff George, Jim Kelly & Dan Marino Football Heroes (1:9 packs)
Pack 17:
Joe Montana, Phil Simms & Barry Sanders
Pack 18:
Morten Andersen. Andersen was the NFL career scoring leader until Adam Vinatieri passed him in 2018.
Pack 19:
Herschel Walker & Dan Marino Football Heroes (1:9 packs)
Pack 20:
Eric Dickerson x2 & Emmitt Smith
Pack 21:
Joe Montana & Shannon Sharpe
Pack 22:
Jerry “Goldfinger” Rice. Goldfinger’s weapon of choice? Apparently, his Gold-Spray Lazer hands.
Pack 23:
Andre Rison & Dan Marino Football Heroes (1:9 packs)
Pack 24:
Junior Seau, Bernie Kosar & Howie Long
Pack 25:
Brett Favre & Shannon Sharpe
Pack 26:
Ricky Watters & Dan Marino Football Heroes (1:9 packs)
Pack 27:
Steve Atwater. The eight-time Pro Bowler was inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.
Pack 28:
Carl Pickens & Courtney Hawkins
Pack 29:
Alvin Harper
Pack 30:
James Lofton & Dan Marino. Great illustration of Marino and Snowflake!
Pack 31:
Barry Sanders & Steve Young
Pack 32:
Bruce Smith dupes, Junior Seau & Brett Favre
Pack 33:
Bruce Smith, Eric Dickerson, Andre Reed & Howie Long
Pack 34:
Ricky Watters, Phil Simms & Dan Marino Football Heroes (1:9 packs)
Pack 35:
Lawrence Taylor, Barry Sanders & James Lofton
Pack 36:
Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly & Jeff George
Lastly, a Jim Kelly card back. Pretty standard Upper Deck back. Career stat lines and an additional player photo.
Though the base design isn’t very exciting (it was 1992, after all) there are some fun inserts to chase in this one. My Game Breakers Hologram, Drew Hill, isn’t exactly a household name but the checklist does also feature Andre Reed, Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin. Those are some singles I may have to track down to add to the collection. The Fanimation cards are fun, and the checklist is loaded with stars of the time. Lastly, though an odd choice to me, I can appreciate the Marino Football Heroes cards. I can’t complain about adding more Hall of Fame quarterbacks to my binders.
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Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
