Random Cardboard Of The Day:1997 Fleer Metal Marvel Metal Universe Marshall Faulk

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 58:Grounded Again.

 

Let's Talk About Sets baby, let's collect some sets with me. Let's talk about these back in ninety-five-eee, let's talk about sets!

This is my third year of chasing 1995 Summit Ground Zero football. I have been chipping away the 200 card set and have really made progress recently thanks to some pickups from Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace  and saved 10% by using code 15Burbank at checkout.

With these 13 down, I am well under 100 left to go. I have picked up a good portion of the bigger players, but still have a couple of good rookies left. I am hoping in the next year or so I can finally finish this bad boy up.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 47: Man 2 Man

Let's have a talk about sets, Man 2 Man.

Back in 1995 Sportflix released an insert set called Man 2 Man that fell roughly 1:8 packs. At the time, I pulled the Dan Marino/Troy Aikman version which had a book value of $25 and was one of the biggest cards in my collection.

Since then, we know the story of how values fell, and I am simply looking just to chase the set down and every year find myself inching ever so closely to doing so.

With these 2 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank), I am only 4 away from having the set.

The lentincular appeal is what catches my eye. It has a 3D look to it as opposed to other Sportflix cards that move when you flip them, these do not. Which makes them stand out.

I hope to complete this set by years end but have a lot of set updating on here before doing so. 

There will be other posts coming up soon in this series as I can't get enough sets.

As I always say, the more sets, the better.

Set Help:1995 Summit Backfield Stars

 

1995 Summitt Backfield Stars HAVES
1,2,17,19

Set Help:1995 Fleer Ultra Award Winner

 

1995 Fleer Ultra Award Winner HAVES
1,2,3,5

Have any to help me out or willing to pick some up to trade to me? Let me know!

Breakin' Wax:1998 UD3 Football Pack

Nothing is better than breaking some memories.

On one of my $25 A Week challenges, I told you about a couple of packs of 1998 UD3 football I got for cheap that I would be breaking a pack of later on, well, it's time to break it open. Remember, I am only opening one of these packs, not both. I plan on keeping the other sealed for fun.

UD3 returns for it's second season after a successful 1997 in which I bought a ton of. I don't remember how much 1998 I was able to find but I did break some.

A look at the overall base set is pretty deep. The 270 card base set is broken down into so many subsets,
Future Shock-Embossed (1-30), Next Wave-Embossed (31-60), Upper Realm-Embossed (61-90), Future Shock-Light F/X (91-120), Next Wave-Light F/X (121-150), Upper Realm-Light F/X (151-180), Future Shock-Rainbow (181-210), Next Wave-Rainbow (211-240), and Upper Realm-Rainbow (241-270)

Obviously being 1998, my hope was to land Randy Moss or Peyton Manning. I knew my odds were against me, but you never know.

The seller actually even tossed in one of the base cards which is actually the toughest pull at 1:125 odds. This is an Upper Realm embossed.

Now time to bust the pack.

Inside this is what you find. Cards are protected by two pieces of cardboard.

John Elway Upper Realm Light FX 1:6 packs.

Future Shock rainbow, great looking card up close, only falls 1:1.3 packs. Too bad it wasn't the rookies I had hoped for but solid card to have regardless just because of design.

Next Wave embossed falls 1:4 packs.

Keep in mind, these are just base cards at different levels of severity. I think it's a fun concept and makes it challenging to build a base set which is what a set collector like myself enjoys. Also helps give it added value so you want to chase it.

There are also multiple levels of die cut parallels and since I didn't pull any, I am not even going to touch that project.

Let's see how long I can hold onto the second pack without opening it. Because who knows what treasure could be hiding in there....

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 43:1996 Zenith Z-Team

I pulled my first Z-Team card in 1996 and always remembered doing so.

Fast forward 24 years later, here I am chasing that set.

The 1996 Zenith Z-Team were not easy pulls. They fell at a rate of 1:72 packs which translates to 1:3 boxes. I still have no idea how I had the luck I did to land one and to have that one be Emmitt Smith.

I am slowly creeping towards this set as prices are still not cheap this many years later for this tough insert. Fortunately, I was able to grab three more affordable pieces.

Marshall Faulk

Michael Irvin

 

And a Jerry Rice that normally lists for $20 and I made an offer and landed one for $4

All that remains now is,

1,8,10,12,14,15

Taking them down one by one and hopefully by years end will have this set complete by years end. That's a goal!

If you like the 90's check this out,

Truly Madly Deeply Pinnacle

My Experience On TCDB

In the past couple of weeks after seeing many bloggers hype up Trading Card Database, I decided it was time I really pushed to get an account on there and check it out.

I kept seeing post after post about successful trades, RAK's and other bloggers telling me I needed to get on there since there could be Hamptons and Collins I may need.

So I finally set up an acct as SCC which is obviously Sport Card Collectors short.

I then began exploring the forums where I figured I would spend a lot of my time especially in the trading ones. I found a guy who I think had a Rodney Hampton I needed and messaged him. No response. Messaged again nicely, no response. Gave up.

Started a thread about how I collected Rodney Hampton, Kerry Collins and Eli Manning. First response, "Is This Some Kind Of Joke?"

I wasn't feeling the warm welcome as I expected and heard about.

Then I had a few, "you have no trade bait or want lists", then a couple of great people who backed me for trades in Billy and Jasonongerman9, thanks to Billy's backing got three messages where I thought trades were going to begin but instead two backed out, then some more lecturing on my thread on how I should be using the site.

Okay, my thoughts from my thread.

1. Yes, I agree, the site is pretty cool how it's set up and keeps a database of your cards. For someone who has the time to do it right it would be a useful tool
2. I have my own database of needs already. Having to redo all of that hard work just seems like a waste of my time when it's already done. I don't get much time for the hobby so I would rather utilize my time doing other things such as sorting, blogging, etc.
3. I have soooooooooooooo much trade bait I couldn't ever get it all posted on there in my lifetime. I am much easier to work with when you tell me what you collect and I can tell you what I have
4. I felt a few of the responses were a tad rude,but others were nice. I guess it's another one of those forums like Blowout where it's hard to start out as the "new guy"
5. I was fortunate enough to find a member in sgtpppr84 who was the third one to message me and we struck a trade. 

sgtpppr84 was fine just looking at my want lists and put together a nice solid trade lot of set needs for me.

18 new 1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallions

Fleer Ultra inserts

1995 Summit Backfield Stars Marshall Faulk

Cris Carter hologram Pro Bowl

Sp Holoview Rod Woodson

Stadium Club Metalists

1995 Stadium Club Power Surge. Great looking foil card

1995 Topps Air Raid. Now I have two of them out of 10.

Thanks to sgtpppr84 for taking a chance on me and for being a really easy trade partner. I am hoping this is a start of future trades for us. I also hope you enjoy the return I sent you as I may have sent along a few extras :)

In the end, I don't plan on using the site to its full extent or possibly at all. If someone wants to trade with me the way I want to, I will. However, I won't be spending my extra time putting in the same info I already have done. Hopefully sgtpppr84 will do some more trades with me as well. If any of you who actually use the site to its full extent want to do some trading for me, I will trade with you to get the things I need. So if you see Hamptons or Collins or Eli's I need, just make the trade and tell me you did so we can work out a deal. I am sure I have something for you.

My plan is to start initiating more blogger trades again. Those are much more fun and less complicated. If you are a blogger and we haven't traded yet, just drop me an email!

Now I gotta know, how has been your experience with trading on the site gone?

Check out NEW POSTS on a NEW BLOG that's not Caption This posts. The future is about to change on here so add this blog to your blogrolls

https://diaryofcollector.blogspot.com/

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 23:1995 Skybox Premium

Skybox Premium always brought their A game when it came to making a really solid base set design. Especially from 1995 and up.

But, none of them caught my eye more than 1995 that I bought a ton of back then.

I enjoyed the many layers it presents.

The regular base design. Yup, that nostalgia is kicking in

A newspaper add...so cool.

And one of the best, well, the best looking subset of all time. Nothing tops this. This card even looks better than today's inserts.

 

Kerry Collins rookie car. Kinda cool looking and a PC piece.

Once again these new sets adds were added thanks to @cardpocalypseNC.

Here are my remaining needs,

11,13,22,23,32,33,35,36,37,38,39,44,48,49,60,51,52,53,54,55,56,58,59,

64.65.67.70.72,80,88,89,91,92,111,119,120,123,139,141,142,145,146,147,148,150,151,154, 157,158,159,161,162,164,165,167,169,171,174,176,178,181,.182,183,
185,186,188,192,193,194,198,199,200

There's still plenty more sets to be had. Stay tuned!

Episode 14:Going Die Cut

Cool looking die cuts? Yep. Nice inserts? Yup. Not cardboard? Yup.

Collectors Edge was all of the above. They had the edge as I would call it.

In my latest additions from @card_a_holic I was able to add some cool looking inserts from Collectors Edge starting with todays.

These are 1995 Collectors Edge Instant Replay EdgeTech Die Cuts. There is almost a complete set from what he sent but I still have a few more to go.

I don't remember these at all, but I liked the design and thought "hey, why not and why not try to finish the set at this point?"

There were 12 in all to collect. I assume by their value these weren't particularly hard pulls back then.

Tim Brown. The design is simply a helmet die cut that features the team color on the helmet while the rest is blue.

Marshall, Marshall, Marshall

William Floyd

Dan the Man!

Deion

 

Steve Young

Set is a little 49ers heavy, but they had a great team and a Super Bowl winning one the previous year so it makes sense.

Thanks for these Brian!

Episode 2: Needing An Instant Replay

Collectors Edge always brought their A-Game when it came to producing football cards in the 90's, but more-so back in the 1995-1999 range.

They produced top notch looking memorabilia/autograph cards, inserts with creativity and parallels that were second to none.

Today we look at one of those parallels in 1995 Collector's Edge Instant Replay Prisms.

These cards were recent adds thanks to a trade with my new trader friend Brian at @card_a_holic on Twitter.

The 50-card add-on to the standard Collector's Edge set, you know like the update sets for baseball today, had these top notch Prism holofoil parallel that averaged 1:2 packs.

Here are the three that Brian passed along,

 John Elway

 Marshall Faulk

 

Deion Sanders

If you don't think these don't pop or aren't some high quality cardboard, you may need your eyes looked at.

Thanks Brian for trading these away. I didn't have any of these until now and glad I do. Will stand out in a binder. With only 50 to chase in this parallel set maybe I need to add this one to the list I want to chase as well. Why not make it even bigger?

Became A Cardboardholic Part 2

This is part two of my trade with @card_a_holic and there are some great cards to see today. All kicks off with my very first Errict Rhett auto. No worry about fakes back in those days.

A couple of Quick Numbers which came from 1995 Skybox Premium and may now be added to my set chase. I already have a few on hand but these two are new to it.

Out of all of the Summit I bought, I never ONCE pulled a Team Summit. Never. Ever. So I had to finally get one while I had the chance to and now am a happy camper. Of course a set chase is now in question as well.

I always wanted a Metalists card as well but never pulled one. So once again had to pull the trigger on getting one, well two. Once again, wondering if this should be a set chase added.

Dufex. Enough said. It would be nearly impossible probably to set chase these 1995 Pinnacle parallels but hey you never know. I am still working hard on Red Siege, Ground Zero and Gold Medallions first from 1995.

I hadn't ever pulled any of these either til I broke a box a couple of years ago. Now with three more added, I may add them to my set chase.

I have been slowly accumulating Kerry Collins cards as a alternative to Rodney Hampton. If you got any, hit me up! This is one of the coolest ones I have now.

Two more for the Collins collection.

Well, that's it for what I have in-hand right now. I ended up sending Brian extra stuff I had in his pile after he had already sent my big part so we had to work on finishing up the last part of the trade which is why I don't have it yet in hand as of typing of this. I know it will be soon though and I suggest if you haven't yet, go start up  a trade with the guy. Really friendly and easy to trade with.