1993 Triple Play Cheap Box Rip

I’m pretty sure that I did not buy one pack of 1993 Triple Play back in the 90’s, or ever best I can remember. In ‘93 I was more focused on Upper Deck, my sights set on building the massive set (which is just about all gone now except for the Angels and a handful of stragglers). Also, at the time, I didn’t like the black framing of the Triple Play design. I was heavy in collecting autographs then and the dark design did not lend itself well to autographs, I was afraid the black would swallow up the signatures.

Fast forward to now, and I love this design. I love the black with the silver block font player names at the top. Part of that is because I don’t do autographs much anymore, and those autographs I do pursue revolve around several autograph sets I’m working: 1983 Topps, 1991 Upper Deck, 1991 Line Drive AA/AAA, 1992 Stadium Club, 2005 Fleer Tradition. Funny how interests change.

The backs of the cards are simple with a player portrait, basic statistics, and a quote or a trivia question associated with the player pictured. I like the trivia question on Pat Listach's card, because the following season negated the answer in that Tim Salmon became the first Angel to win the AL Rookie of the Year award.

Another reason I like the set, and why I wanted to bust a box of it, was to pull as many of the scratch-off inserts as possible, a sub-set I was working on prior to taking more interest in the design. At one-per-pack, and 30 in the set, I figured I had a good chance to get most of the scratch-off set. But this is 90’s product and we all know that 90’s era collation was horrendous.

So, I busted a cheapo box of 1993 Triple Play, and I do mean cheap, like $2.49 cheap, plus reasonable shipping.

At 36 packs and 12 cards per pack I should get most of the set out of this one box.

Here's the contents of a typical pack:

Okay maybe not a typical pack since there were so many superstars in that one. But you get the idea: 12 cards and a scratch-off contest card.

Out of 36 scratch-offs pulled from the box, there were only 10 different, meaning I got at least triples of the 10 cards pulled. See? Horrendous.

The only insert cards beside the scratch-off, came in a 10-card set of Player Nicknames. I managed to pull 4 different cards from the box. Not bad. I don’t think I’ll be pursuing this sub-set though.

All in all, it was a fun break, I managed to pull 202 of the 264-card set. Pretty good. And as always, any help finishing it off will be returned likewise.