90's Card Of The Week:1997 Fleer Game Breakers Drew Bledsoe

Breakin' Wax:1996 Scoreboard NFL Lasers

My latest box break made possible by Shane over at Project Pedro Blog, features "Lasers". Something that Dr.Evil and myself can get behind.

Well, they aren't real lasers, but a fun product that could produce some decent pulls. Like the box says, insert quality on every card and even the wrappers are collectible!

Inside of every box of 1996 NFL Lasers, there is 24 packs of 6 cards. There are long hard odds of finding autographs but there's a chance. Fingers crossed.

The base set featured 100 cards including veterans and top rookies like Eddie George and Marvin Harrison. Not too mention Amani Toomer. The base design was a foil etching and basically focused on the main player. There was also a faded background

I didn't complete my full base set chase in this box, so will need some help to get me there. I have those needs listed under football card needs.

Now here's the moment of truth, did I pull one of the 1:150 odds autograph....

Laser Images that fell 1:7 packs. Great looking insert. The black rainbow foil really makes these stand out.

 

Sunday's Heroes fell 1:22 packs

And my autograph...sorry there wasn't one. However, Shane got this box as well and found a Drew Bledsoe auto in his. Luck of the pick I guess.

This was a pretty fun break and took me back to when I picked up a few packs of the product when it released. I don't believe there was another release of this product again. I keep waiting for Panini to rename one of their many products this, just give it time.

Did you ever bust any of this?

Breakin' Wax:1995 Pro Line Classic Series 2

Pro Line was a great 90's product that had autographs and top notch photography.

One of my favorite products of 1995, there are many, was their Series 1 Pro Line Classic.

So when I saw a Pro Line Classic Series 2, I was pretty excited.

However, it was a much different product. Instead of autographs, it focused on Phone Cards. Collectible Phone Cards was where it was at in 1995.

So let's check out my next box break thanks to via Shane over at Project Pedro Blog

Every box of 1995 Pro Line Classic was numbered, cause you don't want over production. Every box had 18 packs with 6 cards per pack. Each pack came with one of those "money makers" Prepaid Phone Cards.

The base set looked much different in Series 2 than 1. The photography was still there, but the bottom of the had an added shine to it. The cards were also more susceptible to damage.

Here's a few of my favorite base cards from the 100 card set,

Dave probably throwing to the other team here

Love the background of the Giants endzone

Bretts down and dirty!

Dan busting a move

There was some fun inserts however in this product.

Images Preview Card fell 1:18 packs. Back in the 90's you would sometimes find an insert as a preview of an upcoming product. That Images product was pretty cool by the way with it's etched aweomeness.

Printers Proof on a hot top rookie!! Well, back in 1995. No odds given.

Phone Cards. These fall one per pack for the $1 ones. Odds get tougher the more they are worth.

$2 phone cards fell 1:6 packs

And this $5 one fell 1:18 packs. Not too shabby of a player either

And it's also numbered to 3577. Kind of an odd number to be numbered to, but I will take it.

Gary Vee also had a 90's magazine,

 

Sorry, that was a Gary Vee joke if he had a magazine in the 90's. This is what I was saying earlier about how hot Phone Cards were and why Pro Line was pushing them so hard.

This was a fun break, not very costly either. I was hoping to land a couple of the cool inserts but no such luck here. It is what it is but the Emmitt Smith was a good find.

Any of you collect Phone Cards in the 90's?

Truly Madly Deeply Pinnacle

They'll Be Your Dream, They'll Be Your Wish, They'll Be Your Fantasy.....

Those words come to mind when I break a box of any Pinnacle product. Pinnacle simply knew how to get to my heart and had some of the most creative minds in the industry other than Upper Deck at the time.

They created some unique parallels, inserts, ways of packaging and products nobody else would have thought about trying. One of their biggest things was their connection with the NFL's Quarterback club.

Other than being a fun Super Nintendo video game, though I have always preferred Madden more, the NFL QB club featured some of the best player in the NFL at the time. Pinnacle used those players in fun subsets, inserts and even created a product on them.

I want to stand with you on the Pinnacle of a mountain

1995 Pinnacle QB Club Collection was a product that only featured players from the NFL QB Club. Each box came with 24 packs and each pack was loaded with 12 cards. There was also multiple inserts to chase as well. Boxes can be found pretty cheap right now with this one running at $12.

The basics of the product is a 261-card base set with members of the NFL Quarterback Club having nine cards each. NINE CARDS EACH. Which if you do the math, which I just had to on my calculator, that means the base set is basically 29 players.

I remember opening some of these packs as a kid. At the time, it was fun to find some of your favorite players in every pack and trading your dupes with your friends on recess. Which I honestly did. I remember trading a few Troy Aikmans for some Dave Browns, what a time to be alive that was.

However, it was a much different feeling opening this product as an adult. How dull was it finding the same players pack after pack. The only thing that kept me excited was seeing the great photography Pinnacle used as they did an excellent job of using creative photos for this set.

Oh can you see it baby?

I also enjoyed the design of the base set with full bleed photography and gold foil touch with names. I do wished they had used the full name on the front of the base set. The subsets were also themed and designed well.

Not sure who Jerry is calling, maybe he is getting a call from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Junior had the look and fierce play of one of the greatest Linebackers ever

This reminds me of the Giants defense trying to tackle the past few years. Something tells me Barry broke out of this.

Sweat...baby sweat...baby...

He is checking in with Ace!

The true meaning of "talk to the hand"

This base card could have gone either way, whether it was Jerry or Steve

One thing I always found kinda odd but cool that Pinnacle did, was catch players not at their greatest moments. Dan is obviously being sacked here and this isn't the first time I have seen Pinnacle use images like that. Not a big play for Dan, but still makes him the center point of this card.

 

Pro Bowl. Back when the game meant a little more than flag football. There is even a Cleveland Brown in it. Definitely a different time of football. Sorry Browns fans.

 

X and O's was one of the subsets in the product. The chalkboard look is always fun to see.

Look at the photography on these Defining Moment subset cards especially the Michael Irvin one. Absolutely stunning.

You don't have to close your eyes
'Cause it's standing right before you.

My first insert find was this Arms Race of Randall Cunning ham. Kinda boring design. These fell 1:18 packs

 

FINALLY! Some Pinnacle Dufex! I am not sure why they didn't make Trophy Collection parallels to the base set to spice it up some. These Aerial Assaults fell 1:36 packs.

 

And my final hit was a Pin Redemption of Randall Cunningham which felt more like a piece of paper. These fall 1:24 packs and are redemption cards for Pins of the featured player.

 

According to this paper insert you found in every pack, I am 24 years short of being able to get my Cunningham pin.

Honestly, I would have kept the redemption card most likely. I am sure I actually did back in those days because I was young and probably didn't know any better.

I want to open these forever.
Until the sky falls down on me

(today's lyric re-writes come based off the song Truly Madly Deeply which was released by Savage Garden in 1997. Go give it a listen)

I Play On Team Pinnacle

I bought a ton of 1995 Pinnacle football and never ONCE, NOT ONCE ever pulled a Team Pinnacle from a pack in 1995. And when I say bought a ton, you could probably fill a bathtub of wrappers. That's how hard it was to pull one.

However....

 

Flash forward to last year, and boom, the 1:90 pack pull sat right in my hands after breaking a 36 pack lot. It was definitely worth the wait and finding two of the top QB's in the 90's wasn't a bad thing either.

These were the toughest cards to pull in 1995 Pinnacle football and I think baseball as well.

Just like with many of the projects I start, I feel connected to them. Same went for 1995 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle and the word set gets thrown around quite often by me. So what did I do, I went set chasing.

Two of the rookie RB's from the 1995 draft

Two rookie QB's from the 1995 draft. Collins is a double PC card

 

Who can go wrong with these two on a card??

The fronts of these cards are full on dufex effect and the backs are foil. I have read somewhere recently that there is a double dufex parallel to these that I don't know about. Would be interesting to actually see one.

I haven't gotten too far with this 10 card set as you see above and as always any hobby friend help is appreciated. I know some of you can find things at card shows, sportlots, etc that I don't have access to.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 8

Let's talk about sets baby
Let's talk about it with me
Let's talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be
Let's talk about sets (1995)
Let's talk about sets (Sportflix)
Let's talk about sets (Uh huh)
Let's talk about sets....

1991 song by Salt-N-Pepa was about a much different topic than I am turning it into. You see, I am staying on topic with cards. Not,well, what they were talking about. This newest segment about the 90's will focus on my set chases (the ones I have already used for a Origins Post or don't plan on using) and new additions to them along with updates on how far I have gotten.

It's time for us to sit down and have that discussion between your parents and you that you tried to avoid. You know, that conversation you have with them about the Flairs and the Pinnacles. Kids, it's time to Talk About Sets.

And today we go down and dirty with Sportflix and their insert Man2Man. (by the way today marks the 4400 post published on this blog)

One of my best pulls in the product ever was a Man2Man of Dan Marino and Troy Aikman. I believe at the time it had a book value of $20 at the time but with the power of eBay, the values have dropped over the years. But, not my love of the insert.

So far I only have 5 of the set, I need to check that number  as I think it's 7 with today's latest adds. Still have a few to go before I can complete it including some of the bigger named players. Once again, I can't do sets by myself and will need help from you guys.

But, here is a look at the two new ones I picked up over at Burbank Sportcards:

Jerry Rice and JJ Stokes

 

Drew Bledsoe and my favorite Kerry Collins, his rookie year

Great, affordable additions towards my set chase.

Thanks for taking a minute out to see how I got down and dirty this time. Next time, sets may get even better.