Cracking Open Some 1991 FLEER

Recently my kids have become more interested in the NBA due to the fact that we watched a lot of the playoffs this year. I grew up in NJ and I am a Nets fan. This year they made it to game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, which is the furthest they've made it since they went to back to back NBA Finals in the early 2000's. Needless to say, there were more games on the TV than in years past. I wanted to do something for the kids to help their budding interest in the sport, so I went to a local card store to pick them up some packs of cards. The prices on the new stuff was outrageous!

But, I was able to get a box of 1991 FLEER for about $20. I brought it home and the kids were excited. We are a busy family, so we had to wait a few days to bust some packs and when we did I was transported back to when I was 10 years old looking for cards of Drazen Petrovic, Derrick Coleman and my favorite Net...Chris Morris! As we began the opening, I told the kids to be on the lookout for the randomly inserted "ProVisions" cards. These were a big deal back in the day and we got 4 of the 6 cards in the set. We only missed out on Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley. I also told them to keep their eyes peeled for Michael Jordan cards. Of course they know Michael from Space Jam, but I kept giving them nuggets of info on him and the other players we were unwrapping as the day went on. 

We got some good stuff in this box. A few NJ Nets cards, some Hall of Famers and of course Michael "Air" Jordan. Here is a look at the MJ cards we now have in the collection.

In addition to the 1991 FLEER box, I picked up a pack of 1989 NBA Hoops. That was the last pack we opened and lo and behold, there was a Jordan in the pack!

I love the look of the cards and like I said earlier, it was a nice blast of nostalgia and I had a blast opening packs with my kids. I may have to go back to the card shop soon and pick up a few more boxes. The was a Donruss box from the 90's that may be fun and if we're lucky maybe we can score some Bo Jackson cards!

Jordan in your Undies

I know this is not the typical post you would see here at 20 Years Before 2000, but hear me out. I went shopping for some undies last week and was looking around in the men's clothing section at Target when I noticed some of the Hanes packages were different than the others. On further examination the specially tagged briefs and boxers contained...

Packs of Michael Jordan Anniversary FLEER trading cards! These specially produced cards were made to celebrate 30 years of Michael Jordan endorsing Hanes underwear. They already had me hooked there, but throw in the chance to unwrap an autographed card and I wanted to take home every single one of these bonus packs! I got in the car and tore open the wrapper to find some pretty cool looking cards inside.

The cards feature Michael Jordan in a myriad of poses from his many Hanes commercials. The bottom 2 cards in the above picture actually have red foil backgrounds on them.

The backs of each cards feature facts about Jordan's Hall-of-Fame basketball career and a "brief" synopsis about the Hanes commercial on the front of each card. The overall design of each card is a tweaked version of the 1986-87 FLEER design which happened to be the set that included MJ's rookie card.

In addition to the base set and red foil parallel cards, there were also some All-Star hologram cards randomly inserted into these packs. I was able to pull this one from my pack. Once again the design is a revamped retro FLEER design and I really like it! It's clean, has a holographic background and it's colorful. the above scan really doesn't do this card justice. So if you are in the need of some clean undies and are a Michael Jordan fan, be on the lookout for these specially marked packages of Hanes underwear. You won't regret grabbing one or maybe even a pair!