The 18-card 1993 Upper Deck Then & Now insert set, a beautifully designed hologram series, is one that many, myself included, still consider one of the best “hits” any manufacturer has ever produced.
Inserted one in every 27 foil packs—cards 1–9 came in Series I, and 10–18 were part of Series II. Then & Now paired portraits of legendary players with holographic action shots, contrasting their early rookie-year selves with their present-day personas. It not just about nostalgia; it’s a visual reminder of how much the game and its stars had evolved.
The checklist reads like a roll call of greatness: Boggs, Brett, Henderson, Ripken, Ryan, Sandberg, Smith, Winfield, and that’s just the first half. Series II added even more firepower, including Mantle, Mays, and Reggie Jackson, alongside other ‘90s favorites. With only about one card per box, they weren’t easy pulls.
Despite the perceived scarcity, you can find complete sets on eBay today for around $30 because it was the junk wax era; after all, Upper Deck printed a lot of cards. PSA has even slabbed nearly a thousand of them if you want to put a graded set together.
There’s also something special about seeing these players in throwback uniforms. And, there are no traditional stats on the card backs, but rather, interesting write-ups that further cement this set as a small yet overlooked masterpiece.
Eighteen cards. Holograms. History. Then & Now was a hit in every sense of the word, and it still is.
Happy collecting!
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