Mail Day Saturday: Every Time I Look At This I Don't Go Blind

Today is the final part of my latest trade mail day with 90's Niche Football Card Blog. One I have been extremely excited about showing off.

As you have seen on here, I have busted a couple boxes of 2014 Panini Country Music hoping to find myself a Darius Rucker autograph and never had any luck in doing so.

Rucker, for those of you who may not remember, was the lead singer of one of my favorite groups of the 90's in Hootie And The Blowfish before deciding he wanted to crossover to country music. Honestly, with my dislike of country music, I haven't even heard one of his country songs so I am not sure if he is even any good at it.

In my mind, he is and always will be Hootie.

When 90's Niche Football Card Blog and I discussed the possibility of helping me acquire an autograph of his, we were looking at doing his basic auto from the product, but when a autograph silhouette came up for cheaper, he helped snag it for me and we made a deal for it.

I was beyond excited to add this one to the PC. Maybe I will even still bust some of the 2014 Country Music because it is so cheap just to see if I can land the other autograph of his from the product.

A big thanks goes out to 90's Niche Football card blog for the overall trade. With his help, I got the Rucker auto, I got my Psych set complete and was able to add some cool Giants cards. Another big trade complete for us and from what I can tell, another one will more than likely build up down the road.

Thoughts on today's pickup are welcomed in comments!

90's Flashback:1999-2000 Upper Deck Powerdeck Gordie Howe

Upper Deck was a new innovative idea from Upper Deck that brought together both the computer and sports cards. It was a genius start of things if you think about it today. The thing I liked about this idea better than today's interactive cards is that you got this physical one as well (product had a paper card along with a CD one). Today's are just cards stuck on your phone or other mobile devices.

These also offered much more. Each CD-ROM has game clips, sounds, photos and career highlights of the featured players and can be played on almost any computer.

90's Flashback:1998-1999 Crown Royale Martin Brodeur

Crown Royale was one of my favorites in the 90's and just like yesterday, it was another top notch release done by Pacific. They seemed to know how to make cards and especially great base cards. If only they could have survived. I think great things would have come from them in today's market.

I have always been a fan of the crown die cut no matter how they positioned it. I am happy that Panini revived the product.

I acquired this Brodeur via trade with my father like some of the other hockey ones in the 90's I have recently been posting about. I still have more to go.

I must also note, that 90's Flashback will go away for a bit as I transition to a new way to display 90's cards. I am far behind on shout outs and stuff to show off so will have a new post that will be featured on Saturday's. When I am caught up,this form will return unless the other form is more popular.

90's Flashback:1998-1999 Aurora Paul Kariya

Aurora, another great Pacific brand, was always a fun product. This specific year had some great looking base cards with 3/4ths being full color and the last 1/4th of the card being a bronze foil photo double.

Once again, you can't appreciate a card like this until you see it up-close.

90's Flashback:1999-2000 Topps Season's Best Ice Futures Milan Hejduk

Back in the 90's I was a die-hard hockey collector and fan. I watched every game they televised and even though I am a Rangers fan, I always had a thing for the Avs. Milan Hejduk was apart of the teams I watched. So trading for this card from my dad to me was a no brainer.

I now wished I could had kept the Sp Authentic pack pulled rookie card I had of him.

The one thing surprising about this card is Season's Best is usually a shiny bold colored design, this one is laid back with just a foil touch. Probably not the best of the designs for Season's Best, but I do like the font they used.

90's Flashback:1995 Fleer Ultra Rodney Hampton

What I consider the second best design in Ultra history, 97 is tops to me, the 95 Fleer Ultra design here showcases one of my all-time favorite Giants players in Rodney Hampton. It's not only the front of the card I love, the back is impressive as well. Ultra to me was a solid product for base cards front and back.

90's Flashback:1999-2000 Upper Deck Century Legends Jaromir Jagr

Upper Deck pounded out a ton of excellent products as we headed into the 2000's. One of the most popular was Upper Deck Legends/Century Legends. The product packed fun inserts and top notch autographs.

I acquired this card from my father when we did a trade last spring.

I like the design, but gotta say that Jaromir doesn't appear to. Look at that face!

90's Flashback:1996 Upper Deck Sp Focus On The Future Eddie George

Film cells in trading cards. What may have seemed like new thing to some in the 2000's, actually began in the mid to late 90's. I don't know about you, but I really like em!

Today's Flashback card is a tough pull (1:30) as well as a very nice looking die-cut card. I got this card from a huge 90's lot, I haven't even begun to share the sweet 90's cards I got from Tim Yount and 90's Niche Blog, I picked up last winter on eBay for $7. But, it was this very Eddie George card that tempted me to take a chance on the lot as the BV of this card alone is $30.

90's Flashback:1995 Fleer Emmitt Smith

One of the NFL's greatest RB's and one of my most hated and respected as a Giants fan is being featured in today's 90's Flashback.

Fleer put out a pretty interesting base card set in 1995 that featured 6 different designs which is pretty odd for base set. But, I really enjoyed the uniqueness of the base set and the designs it brought.

Here is just one of the six. More of them could be featured in this segment in the future.

90's Flashback:1994 Fleer Ultra League Leader Kenny Lofton

Did you just see that dust? Yup, that was Kenny Lofton stealing second. Now third.

Fleer Ultra came out with some pretty impressive looking inserts in the 90's for baseball, basketball and football. This one is dulled down a bit compared to most, but still fits in my 90's PC and is cool looking to an extent.

I acquired this card from my buddy Tim Y on Twitter. I am still catching up on cards he mailed me from the 90's along with a few others I have picked up myself and some from 90's Niche Football blog. In order to do this and share my passion of 90's collecting, there will be a new segment after a few more of these 90's Flashback cards that will help. Stay tuned!

90's Flashback:1999-2000 Pacific Paramount Holo Silver Parallel Benoit Bruneet

What can I say.....I love Pacific!

Pacific always put out some tremendous products in the 90's and early 2000's. I can only imagine what they could put out now-a-days. It also makes me very sad at the same time.

This particular card I acquired in a trade with my father who was looking to move some 90's hockey inserts, more to come, for some newer day rookies.

90's Flashback:1993 Fleer Ultra Jerome Bettis (RC)

"The Bus" was always entertaining to watch. Especially later in his career for the Steelers. The guy could plow over just about anyone including some Seahawks that helped lead the Steelers to a Super Bowl victory before he retired. There are not many running backs like him and not any in today's game that I can see.

Glad that I found his rookie amongst a stack that I picked up a few months ago. I like the Fleer photography as well.

90's Flashback:1999 Topps Late Bloomers Trevor Hoffman

If you don't appreciate your love of late 90's inserts on cardboard, you must get yourself checked into a hobby clinic. Cause honestly, there must be something wrong with you.

Topps produced some fun stuff in the late 90's and made some really sought after inserts, sadly it's not like that anymore, but they used a lot of fun colors, swirls and more. Late Bloomers is just one of the many inserts they added this kind of amazing looks too. Season's Best was another that I will share soon too.

In the meantime, enjoy this cards beauty!

90's Flashback:1997-1998 Pinnacle Mint Card+Coin Jaromir Jagr

Card and Coin. Coin and Card. A match in heaven when you can combine two hobbies into one.

I couldn't ever figure out if I wanted to insert my coins into the card fearing it would damage the card, but when I traded my dad for this one, it was already in there. I think this was one of the greater innovations and ideas in the 90's. And yes, there were coin parallels like Gold, Silver and more. So there was a chase involved as well. This one is just a common coin.

90's Flashback:1994-1995 Topps Finest Refractor Anthony Mason

One of my favorite Knicks of the 90's, Anthony Mason passed away at the end of February at the really young age of 48.

I had meant to post this card back then in remembrance and a thank you but couldn't find it. But here it is now:

 

Not only do I like the player on the card, but the card itself is pretty cool. Iconic design, the refractor shine is amazing and it reminds you how great cards were in the 90's. Makes for a great PC piece. It's not always about the glitter and glam of memorabilia cards, something as simple as this is so much more exciting.

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What are your thoughts on the card? What about Mason? Let's hear it!

90's Flashback:1995 Fleer Gridiron Leader Steve Young

When 1995 Fleer football came out, I fell in love. Why? The base card design was a bit unique but more unique was the cool designed inserts in product. One of them was Gridiron Leader. These had little squares that matched team colors and makes the player appear like they are on a dance floor.

The card has a 3D appeal also because of this design. It's pretty cool.

90's Flashback:1996 Score Big Bats Kenny Lofton

When I think Big Bats, Kenny Loften doesn't come to mind but to Score in 1996, he did.

Yes, Kenny was a great hitter with incredible speed, but when I think Big Bat, I am thinking Mark McGwire home run crushing type of player.

Despite their player judgement for this particular card, it's not a bad looking card overall with foil and baseball bats in a "fan" formation. They definitely got the message right with the design.

90's Flashback: 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection David Palmer

There was something to be said about the dufex technology of the 90's. I know it was one of my favorite parallels.

90's Flashback:1996 Sp Holoview Drew Bledsoe

I would question you as a collector if you were not attracted to this card.

Upper Deck always put out nicely done hologram cards especially as inserts in the 90's. In my opinion, other than the Spx products of the late 90's, the 1996 Holoview insert was the most impressive of the hologram family. Once again it's something I wished Upper Deck would bring back. Of course they would need an NFL license (or MLB and NBA) first and that is something that all of us can only dream about for now.

But, while we are dreaming of Upper Deck and NFL again, Upper Deck already put these out for our enjoyment. Go pick yourself up one, you will not regret it.

90's Flashback:1998 Upper Deck Collectors Choice StarQuest One Star Pedro Martinez

For a low end product, I think StarQuests were some of the more fun inserts in the 90's. Some years looked better than others, but still, they all were fun to collect.