30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Set Showcase #27: 1992 Upper Deck Pro Bowl

Dufex is diggity dope!

That's something you probably would have heard me say back in the 90's when collectors were clamoring for dufex technology.  If you're not familiar with "dufex", KeyMan Collectibles defines it as a card manufacturing technology patented by Pinnacle Brands that involves a refractive quality to a card with foil coating.

I had always associated "dufex" with Pinnacle, but this morning I was looking at my 1992 Upper Deck Pro Bowl insert set.



The basic card design features two players who share the same position on the front of the card.  One player represents the AFC, while the other is the NFC Pro Bowler.  Between the two players is a dufex rainbow with the Upper Deck logo and the words Pro Bowl.

According to Beckett, Upper Deck used something called "prismatic lithography".  But it sure looks like dufex technology to me.

It's a little more evident on the checklist card:




Anyways... whatever you want to call it, the set is a reminder of my golden years of collecting.  It was an insert set building era.  An era that saw the birth of cool cardboard technologies like "dufex", holograms, refractors, and die cuts.  Most importantly... it was a time when the NFL Pro Bowl still entertained and drew my interest.

After last year's game, I've decided to pass on watching the 2013 Pro Bowl.  I have a ton of things I can do to entertain myself, instead of watching a bunch of superstars play powderpuff football.

But in the spirit of the game, I figured I'd show off my 1992 Upper Deck Pro Bowl set:





These cards were inserted into 1992 Upper Deck Series One football packs.  At the time, they were reasonably tough pulls.  Beckett states that they were inserted into one out of every thirty packs.

These days the set lists for $20, but can sometimes be found on eBay for less than $10.  That's not bad for a set that features the following HOFers:  Michael Irvin, Anthony Munoz, Warren Moon, Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Reggie White, Ronnie Lott, and Rod Woodson.

Okay... it's your turn:


Do you think dufex is diggity dope?

Are you going to watch the Pro Bowl?

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

5 comments:

shoeboxlegends said...

I used to (and still do) love the Pinnacle Rink Collection hockey parallels that used this technology, some of my favorite '90s parallels.

Milwaukee Southpaw said...

Wow, seeing those takes me back!

I've always loved me some Dufex. I have a really cool giant 8x10 card of Griffey in mid-swing that is done Dufex style.

Fuji said...

It's a cool design... just wish they were all action shots.

Fuji said...

Huge fan of their Rink Collection parallels! I remember paying big $$$ for the top players years ago. Now they're pretty affordable.

Fuji said...

Those Zenith dufex cards are pretty awesome... and your Griffey is no exception. I just found it on Google images and it's AMAZING!