1995 Topps Stadium Club Master Photos Houston Rockets

After a surprise package from The Prowling Cat showed up with the 1994 Houston Rockets version of the Topps Stadium Club Basketball Master Photo set, I got to wondering if there was a 1995 version. They were available by way of a redemption program. Each team had an insert card in the set, and you got certain prizes based on how far they progressed in the playoffs that year. If I remember right, the Master Photo set was the prize for a team that won the Conference Championship series. I found out that they existed for the 1995 set and set off in search of one. As it turned out, the cheapest available option was an auction for three sets. I won the bidding without competition and wound up with three Master Photo sets. Since I had three of them I busted one out of the cellophane wrapping to get a look at all ten cards. They are 5"x7" photos with the regular base card in the middle and a patterned, foiled border around the edges. I wondered how Clyde Drexler would be incorporated into the set, and it turned out that Topps used a Stadium Club College Teammates insert to fit him into the checklist, as the card featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Drexler from their time as college teammates.

I scanned a couple more important members of the Rockets team of that era, Kenny Smith and Sam Cassell. During my basketball-collecting heyday I mostly collected Hakeem Olajuwon cards, but I also collected Houston Rockets in general and built up a decent little collection of cards featuring these guys and all the other players on the roster. It probably amounted to several hundred different Houston Rockets cards by the time it was all said and done.