Let's Talk About Sets Volume 45:Noteworthy Adds

Let's talk about sets baby, let's talk about them with me, let's talk about all the good adds that can be, let's talk about sets.

This segment is back and we are getting down and dirty with some set adds. This time my latest help for my 1996 Zenith Noteworthy insert set.

Falling at 1:12, these Noteworthy cards note key stats from the 1995 season. There are 18 in the set to collect in all.

 

With these 7 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank), I am only 5 away from having the set.

What stands out to me, is the rainbow foil at the top and then a sepia foil set in at the bottom. It makes these cards not only shine, but the offset in colors makes them really stand out. 

1996 Zenith was full of great looking inserts and the base set as well. I completed the Z-Team chase but still have the football base, the 5 Noteworthy, and most of the Rookie Rising still to chase from the product before I am happy with it.

Plenty of Sets to come. You can chase sets at any age.

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Chromes Everything I Want

Somewhere there's chroming
It's already releasing
Oh and it's rising at the back of your mind
You never could get it
Unless you could afford it

Now you're here at the gas station and you do know why

In 1999 came out the red hot single Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon. It was a catchy song that had you jamming. Well, had me at least jamming in my freshman year of high school. I think by then I may had upgraded to a CD player or had at least borrowed one from a buddy of mine and one of the first CD's I bought was this one.

 

Everything You Want was just one of a few songs that hit the radio waves including You're A God and Best I Ever Had. Any one of these hit singles I could have used for today's post when it comes to one of my favorite product lines that still exists today.

But hands full of the packages
Past the places til you get to home
You howl in excitement
Listen and wait for the
Echoes of wrappers that you won't return

What product am I talking about, well, it's one that has Everything You Want.

To follow up it's red hot single, 1996 Topps Chrome football came 1997 Topps Chrome football. Totally Rad!

I was able to grab a pack off from eBay at Christmas time to bring back those memories for just a few bucks. Out of all of the Topps Chrome lines over the years, this one was my favorite.

Each pack of 1997 Topps Chrome football came with 4 cards. The cards once again were simple, they were chromed versions of the base Topps cards. However, much more popular especially when it came to the rookie cards.

1997 was probably the first year I bought so much chrome I was able to have a base set and able to have some extra rookies on the side I traded off to friends. However, over the years, that set got sold off when I moved out of my parents and here I am chasing it down all over again. One card that I want the most with this product is that super cool Jake Plummer rookie card, where he is pictured with a snake for his nickname "Jake The Snake". That was by far my favorite card I remember from the set but there were other great ones as well.

Here's hoping this pack has it and that my search for it could be quickly over.

Let er rip!

First card is O.J. McDuffie. He played with the Dolphins for 8 seasons.

Marcus Allen. Hall Of Famer who ran for over 12,000 yards and had over 5,000 receiving yards in his career.

Michael Jackson was known for such hits as....well...wrong one. This Michael Jackson was drafted in the 6th round of the 1991 draft by the Cleveland Browns and played for the Browns and the Ravens when they turned into them. He led the league in recieving touchdowns in 1996. He lasted in the league for 7 years and sadly was killed two years ago in a motorcycle accident.

Now the final card...come on Jake.....It's Everything I want!

No Jake, but really cool 1:12 refractor pull! So shiny and one of my favorite parallels! Don Beebe played most of his career for the Buffalo Bills but also played a year for the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers where he won a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl 31.

 

Other than the obvious shine, you can see the R next to the number as opposed to a non refractor here to help you. I wished they defined today's parallels especially for Panini Select and Prizm since there are so many. Would be nice to know what i have.

As I said earlier, I am building this set and here are my current needs (other than really wanting this Jake Plummer rookie) HERE.

I am on a roll and 2 for 2 so far when it comes to 90's chrome with an insert find in 1996 and a refractor score in 1997. If only I had that luck back then.

Chromes everything you want
Chromes everything you need
Chromes got everything inside of it
That you wish you could get
Chrome has all the right things
When you open it all the time
But Chrome is everything to you
And you always know why

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Mad About You

In the 90's there were many girls a boy like me could crush on. We had Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Alyssa Milano, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amy Jo Johnson (already mentioned her), Christina Applegate, Danika McKellar, Britney Spears, and Danielle Fishel to name a few.

But one name that is forgotten among those names is someone who was a tad older, but to me was attractive in my youth and that lovely lady was Helen Hunt.

I first fell in mad crush with Helen watching her on Mad About You. The comedy featured Hunt and Paul Reiser sharing their lives and showing how to grow and mature into a long relationship and marriage. The show lasted from 1992-1999 and was how Hunt rose to fame with winning three Golden Globe awards and four Prime Time Emmy Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series.

From there she went on to be in many movies including one of my favorite ones from the 90's, Twister which came out in 1996. I was always fascinated by weather systems, especially tornadoes. Where I live the odds of a tornado being seen was probably the same odds as winning the Powerball jackpot or back in the 90's it was Megabucks for my parents. So it's not a thing.

Watching those storm chasers in that movie and how tornadoes just rip everything apart in their path had me on the edge of my seat. I can't remember how many times my mother and I watched that movie over and over again when we rented the VHS from the local video store. It never got tiring. It was also one of the very few movies my mother watched that wasn't horror. I will get to the other ones another time on here.

We had seen that movie so much that we would always say when we left someone's house or the grocery store, "I gotta go, we got cows!"

 

I still watch the flick occasionally on VHS, need to get a DVD version, but it comes on TV so often that it's not needed right now. Luckily my wife enjoys the film as much as I do.

My Mad About you crush on Helen lasted for many years til I got into my 20's. Another thing I have noticed as you age, your preferences on women change as well. I always wondered if it was that way for women for guys as well.

But, it wasn't just girls you could be Mad About. There were sport card products you could as well and my very first cardboard Mad About You moment was on Topps Chrome. That still lasts to this day.

Recently I was able to take a trip back to 1996, the birth year of Topps Chrome, and give a pack a rip thanks to a Christmas eBay gift card I finally used. I can't remember where I picked up my first pack, but this one came from eBay.

Each pack of 1996 Topps Chrome football contained 4 cards. I believe packs at the time ran for $2.99 retail which is what I would have found locally. I don't think the product lasted very long around here as my father and I only got to open a couple packs total before it disappeared. Sort of like those Topps Chrome Update boxes in today's collecting world at Target.

Some of the targets at the time in these packs were the refractor cards that fell 1:12 packs, which meant only two per box. Imagine that! Chromium 40th Anniversary cards and Chromium Tide Turners.

The base set in just like today's chrome world, took the base card design and chromed it. Except in 1996 this one added like a wavy background not found on the base.

Back then I never pulled anything but a couple of rookies. I know this because I still have those 8 cards.

Here is what I found in this pack I just busted,

Jessie Tuggle who was middle linebacker for the Falcons. He played his entire career in Atlanta from 1987-2002 and was a five time Pro Bowler.

Falcons WR Terance Mathis. Guess it's an Atlanta pack. He is a Pro Bowl WR who spent most of his career in Atlanta. Remember a time when players played with their teams and not changed them every few seasons?

At the time, in the 90's and well now as well, I really wanted an Eddie George rookie card. I didn't get one back then and didn't now either. My buddy Rickey Dudley who I pulled a lot of in the 90's still haunts me today. He played nine seasons in the NFL under three teams and even got a ring when the Bucs won the Super Bowl during his two years there.

 

So far disappointment had settled until this popped up! Boom! 1:8 pack pull of a Chromium 40th Anniversary card of the great Marcus Allen. Hall Of Famer who ran for over 12,000 yards and had over 5,000 receiving yards in his career.

For a pack under $5 I was pretty happy with the results. So happy that I want more.

Speaking of wanting more, this base set is on my want list and I will be adding it with what I need soon. There is a ton of wants here that I would be Mad About owning.

 

There was a lot to be Mad About in love with in 1996. Topps Chrome, Twister and this scene of Helen avoiding the tornado to run Madly to me. Sorry, just had to think that she was at the time.

After all of these years later and the changes that have taken place to the product including the addition of autographs and parallels up the yin-yang, Topps Chrome, I am still Mad About You. Sorry Helen, we didn't survive the test of time.

BASEically Awesome Part 6:1996 Pinnacle Zenith Football

There is no other product, except maybe Spx, in the 90's that brings me back more memories than 1996 Zenith football.

I remember my father and I hitting up the LCS and the card show ripping open tons of packs of it. Not only because of the cool looking inserts, I hit a big card at the time in the Z-Team of Emmitt Smith from the card show I had multiple offers immediately for, but because of the base cards.

There was no denying I loved the base card design. It had a high-end gloss and appeal all around. I would almost call this the first version of UD or Panini Black. It combines the same black and gold elements that look outstanding together. The floating Wilson football in the background and full colored player in the forefront was so eye appealing.

The only thing I didn't like about the product was the rookie subsets. One, they weren't rookies. Two, it was off-base a little from the design. It wasn't bad, but I think the "moon" wasn't needed in the background.

 

I at one-point had the base set but since then it was misplaced over the years so I am trying to build it once again. As for the Emmitt I mentioned above, I traded that away soon after the card show. It may be one of my biggest regrets yet. The card isn't worth a ton and obviously I don't like the Cowboys, but the card looked great and it was a memory I wished I still physically had. 

The card is actually in my Top 5 on my overall Wantlist. Doesn't seem the pack version is as easy to find as the promo version which I don't want. If you have a 1996 Zenith Z-Team Emmitt Smith non-promo card and want to pass it along I would definitely make it a good home :) 

Thoughts on today's product are welcomed in comments!

Sunday's With Rodney:1996 Bowman's Best Mirror Image Refractor

Here we are again for another edition of Sunday's With Rodney where I showcase all of my Rodney Hampton Cards.

Today's card is a sequel to last weeks Atomic Refractor Mirror Image. Here is the refractor version, not quite as tough of a pull as an atomic, but still not an easy one.

Once again, Hampton and Phillips on the front.

 

Allen and Faulk on the back.

In order to complete this rainbow, I still need to chase down the base version. For now while they were cheaper than the base, I chose these first. But, with my gift card drained, it may take a bit before I chase down that card.

Thoughts are welcomed below on today's card.

Iconic Childhood Designs Part 2:1995 Pacific Prism Football

This segment takes a look at some of my favorite designs from my early years of collecting. These are designs I will never forget and when I see them, they will take me down memory lane. 

Anyone else remember a department store called Ames? Well, I do and I believe that most of those who live or lived on the east coast in the 90's will as well.

Every time I see the design of today's featured cards it takes me back to that store. A store I bought not only cards but many of my action figures I had including my TMNT and Power Rangers. Man I wished I still had those.

So as most of you know by now, I collected a lot with my father when I was little. Cards were pretty much sold everywhere from gas stations to craft stores to department stores and one of those stores was a local one called Ames.

We were there on a typical necessity run, and no that didn't include cards, and we were going up and down the aisles when I noticed a random pack of 1995 Prism football sitting on a shelf with towels. It was as if the pack was calling to me so I went over and picked it up noticing that someone had already opened it. Two things came to mine, one, I gotta peek as I had never seen the product before and two, I want to look for more. 

So I did take a slow peek, inside was a beautiful rainbow-glowing Joey Galloway Prism rookie. I immediately was drawn in by the design and with the player being Galloway a top pick, I knew it was a hot card at the time so I continued to carry that pack around and proceeded to the card section to see if there was more. Which sadly, there wasn't.

So here I was holding a $5 opened pack of cards. I knew the card inside was at least worth that and after some begging, I was allowed purchase the pack of cards in which the cashier never noticed it had already been opened. It took away some of the excitement from it already being opened, but at least I knew I was buying a worthy card.

I still have that Galloway card but due to my big sorting project I couldn't locate it for this post, however, I did find a few more cards I have from it and they are here. Some pictures never uploaded for some reason but you get the idea of why these were such a draw-in.

I loved the rainbow shine and the split-screen set up.

 

Sadly, that Galloway pack was the only one I ever "opened" until a few years ago when I got some packs from Jammin JD Sports Cards in which I did pull a gold parallel from as well. They were never re-stocked in Ames. 

 

To this day I still can't figure out why that pack was left behind if someone was trying to steal it. Was a good card inside. Maybe it was just my destiny to own it. I will never know but that's the way I will always look at it.

So what do you guys think of these? Cool? Nah? Leave your thoughts in comments!

Random Card On My Desk:1996 Fleer Ultra Sensations Blue Marcus Allen