Rodney's Cardboard:1995 Collectors Edge Excalibur Sword And Stone Diamond Parallel

 We are still rolling in the Rodney's, and I still have more to show.

I am really lost with this year of Collectors Edge sets. There are so many parallels, so many inserts and they all sound and sometimes look the same. The easiest way for me to do these, is just look up to make sure I don't have it. That's my only tell-tale.

I do know though, that the diamond parallel is the hardest one to chase in the series. I have one for the base and now have one for assumingly is an insert.

 

Card back.

I do have a few parallels of this chase for Rodney and at some point I will round them all up and show them off.

Thanks again to Wes for sending this one along.

Comments are always welcomed below!

Marauders

In the last part of my Dave Brown pickups from the 90's, today we are tackling one my first 1997 Collectors Edge Marauders.

This was one of those inserts I had hoped to find in packs but no such luck.

When I got this card in from Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace, where I saved 10% off by using code 15Burbank, I didn't know what to expect since I had never seen one before.

It was actually a really nice surprise.

The card is super thick and features a motion background that gives out a 3D vibe. 

There are two players on the card, one on each side, that I don't know what the connection is yet to them. Maybe there isn't one.

There are 25 cards in this set falling 1:20 in the Super Premium Packs only.

I am not sure if this would be a fun set to collect or not, but since I liked this one so much, who knows what I may do. But, for now, I plan to focus on grabbing some more 90's Giants inserts.

Rodney's Cardboard:1995 Collectors Edge Sword And Stone Rainbow

The 90's didn't have the 26 parallel rainbow like today's hobby culture, it did have it's form of rainbows though. And some of those cards to find would probably equal a 1/1 chase you would do today.

Like today's set for me.

Which was complicated at first for me to figure out but now I have.

On the back of these cards says master set. So I couldn't figure out for the life of me what these were until I saw a big gap on my want list that said, Excalibur Sword And Stone.

Overall there is four parallels to the set.

Gold

Diamond

Bronze

Silver

All of them together.

I am not sure what the odds are on each as I assume they were probably just stuck in randomly. But, I would assume one was harder than the others to get. It took me five years to find them all.

I have more tough find Rodney's to come!

Kerry's Cardboard:1997 Excalibur Castles Die Cut

As 90's sports cards got competitive with multiple companies around, it drove them to be more creative and think outside the box.

Which is why the 90's were the best decade of card collecting and always will be. Especially from 1995-1999, where a lot of my collecting focus is.

And when it comes to adding new cards for Kerry Collins or Rodney Hampton, that's where a lot of my focus goes for sure.

My latest addition to the Kerry Collins family hails from 1997 and the Collectors Edge product, Excalibur.

Castles was a 25 card retail insert that fell 1:20 packs. It's die cut shaped like a, well, castle. It's also supposedly a parallel to the Overlords insert found in hobby despite the two not looking the same at least on the front of the card.

 

The backs were the same for Overlords. The Castles inserts were numbered to 250 and probably not the easiest finds despite the short odds. I find any insert numbered in the late 90's is not an easy chase.

I think I won the auction for this Kerry for a few measly bucks which I will take especially since I haven't seen another of it's kind out there.

I still need the Overlords version of this card, but at least I have a start for the 1997 Excalibur.

Collecting Hampton

I found out recently that I was a bonus winner in Collecting Cutch's 200th Home Run for Cutch contest. The prize was going to be some Rodney Hampton needs off of my want list you can find, HERE.

It was only the second time this year I was able to knock some off from that list due to finances. So I was pretty stoked.

I was even more stoked when the mail day arrived as Cutch's selections from my want list were perfect.

Up first, a couple 1997 Pinnacle Certified needs with this Mirror Red

And Certified Red parallels.

The next needs were from 1995 Excalibur which I have a ton of needs from.

Sword And Stone Brozne

22K Silver Prism.

The silvers are numbered to 750. Which doesn't mean diddly today but back then was a lot.

Next up another needed parallel, 22K Prism Gold Both of these cards look so good in person.

The gold is much, much tougher with being numbered to 250.

Crown Royale looked so much better in the 90's than it does today. This is a gold foil parallel. So shiny! I am still missing a few of these as well.

Speaking of shiny, this 1996 Playoff Illusions parallel is downright trippy!

I always enjoyed this Select design and remember busting many packs. However, I was never fortunate enough to pull an Artist Proof so this is a first on two levels for me.

Acetate plus bold design, that's what Pacific Invincible brought to the table. Pacific really put out some good creative stuff. Wished they were still around. This is a blue parallel. I still have others to chase.

1994 UD Collector's Choice Crash The Game Gold winner card. Still lacking a few of these as well.

One of my favorite designed base products in the late 90's 1996 Playoff Trophy Contenders. This was the Playoff Zone insert.

And my final card, which turned out to be a double because a lot of people don't list these correctly, is this 1996 Playoff Contenders Leather. I am okay with this being a double as I was a big fan of cards printed on everything but cardboard. This is actually my third one of these because I bought another one myself that was listed wrong as well.

The one I am looking and missing falls 1:200+ packs and has the words, Accents printed on the back which I think is a lazy parallel.

 

A HUGE thanks goes out to Collecting Cutch for this amazing mail day. If you haven't checked out his BLOG and his amazing collection of Cutch's, you are missing out. Seriously. Also another thing you are missing out on are his Breast Cancer Awareness posts for October which features....well...you will have to check them out.

If any of you are looking to trade or just wanna mail me a gift, checking out my Rodney Hampton needs is one place to look. Once again, you can locate that, HERE. I always have this up to date just like the rest of my want lists.

REVIEW:2015-2016 Excalibur Basketball

Panini is reeling a 90's revival streak. Excalibur is one of those brands I used to collect back then. Of course with any revival like that, there comes many changes to the original.

Last year, this product was simply just a target exclusive, this year Panini changed things up a bit and made it an hobby exclusive and the gravity feed and blasters remaining just Target exclusives. Wondering if this change will help drive up sales on the product instead of limiting it to just Target.

Let's take a look at my thoughts on the product

In every box of 2015-2016 Excalibur basketball, there are 6 Packs Per Box with 10 Cards Per Pack. You will find Six Rookies and Three Crusade Cards along with Three Autographs or Memorabilia Cards. Each box will run you roughly $95 per box.

The base cards are much different than the football ones I used to collect. No more of the plastic feeling base and more of thinner cardboard approach.The design is a bit funky in the back, but it has the feeling of Excalibur times. There is bronze foil for the players name and brand at the bottom of the card. The team name is a bit out of place in the top left corner and is barely noticeable.

The rookies have the same design as the base except the added blue color at the bottom. The funky design in the back is also different.

Now onto the inserts.

There are simple to define parallels. This is a silver vs a base card. Only difference, name and word Excalibur written in silver and the card is numbered to 70.

Same goes for this Jamfest insert. Regular in bronze, parallel in silver. It appears to me that all of the inserts have numbered parallels. You should find two parallels overall per box.

The theme and simple designs stay true throughout most of the inserts....

except from one of my favorite inserts ever, Crusades which obviously fit the theme but also stand out above the other inserts. These SUPER chromed cards glisten gold in your eyes. You should find three per box with possible parallels. I pulled a red one in my box. There are other parallel chases to Crusade as well.

Now onto the hits.

My first one was a Memorable Memorabilia of Carmelo Anthony. I like the design and layout of the card.

My next pull was a Treasured Ink of Goran Dragic. This is numbered to 249 and still continues the feel of the rest of the product. This card will be in a future giveaway as well.

And my final hit of the box was a Rookie Rampage jersey/auto of Celtics Terry Rozier. These come with a good size swatch. However, autograph placement for me doesn't work here. It needs to be set at the bottom of the card. Looks weird going up. I also couldn't find any numbering on the card either.

There are prime offerings also to be found of these.

Overall, a tough break. Excalibur does have a lot of positives to it, it's just too bad this box couldn't showcase them all. Like I always say, any product is a gamble. Some pay off, some don't. Simply put.

However, one thing that will definitely pay off in a break of this is pulling a Kaboom insert. Those bad boys are rare with only one falling per case and the value of those hold steady over time. Not to mention they are very eye catchy too.

You can see those Kaboom inserts for yourself on this link on the Panini's Knights Lance blog, HERE..

Random Card On My Desk:1995 Collectors Edge Excalibur Emmitt Smith