Rodney's Cardboard:1995 Topps Mystery Refractor With Rare Peel

Happy Sunday to you all!

Who wants to check out the latest Rodney Hampton card addition to my super PC?

You do!! Well, that's good because here it is!

Today's card is a bit of a rare one. You don't find these too often if not at all.

In 1995, Topps included Mystery Finest and Mystery Finest Refractors in their flagship product. With these being a Mystery card, you didn't normally get to see the card or player until you peel off the black covering.

However, my latest Rodney find, it doesn't have the usual black peeling you would find on those cards. Instead, it has the usual Finest Do Not Peel covering. It's a rare unique card and I have no intention of peeling it off. 

 

The back of the card is the same along with the front image and refractor. It's just got the Do Not Peel instead of the black covering which makes this one a one of a kind.

This may be one of the most unique and nicest looking oddballs in my Rodney collection and I am not sure if there will ever be another oddball that will top it.

This card arrived to me at Christmas time thanks to my friend Wes, formally of Area40 blog who found it.

Let me know your thoughts on the card in comments and if you have ever seen one before.

Hope you have had a great day!

Nick Strikes Again

Once again I have been caught off guard by @NickKorora who follows my 90's Twitter account @90SportCardBlog.

We have been exchanging mail days the last few years and I never know when or what Nick will be sending. It just arrives! Which to me is a lot of fun.

This latest round of cards are some he found at his LCS. This is the first time I have had any Kerry Collins in the mail since December.

Even though all three are duplicates, they will not be going anywhere as they fall into my 90's insert category.  Especially this Epix insert. I never, ever, get sick of seeing these in the mail.

 

Same goes for this Flair card. This to me was by far the best Flair design in the history of the product.

Thanks goes out to Nick again for the wonderful surprise and I hope to hit you back soon.

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Its A Mystery!

Earlier on this year, my best friend Brian texted me and asked if I wanted to be in his wedding as his Best Man in August. Without much hesitation, I took the invitation and accepted.

Even though our friendship has changed over the years as we have gotten older and live further apart, we still always check in on each other through texting. Especially when we play our favorite video game, Madden. We keep each other updated on our wins, defeats and stats. Sounds dorky, but we enjoy it.

The wedding was being held at his house where I knew nostalgia would be crazy. I spent so much time there when I was a kid. We spent countless hours outside playing baseball, basketball and football and other imaginary fun games. We also spent the time helping his father doing chores- I will touch base on a unique payment for one of our jobs later on-and we also played the occasional Nintendo games. I didn't have any gaming units at my house so this was an extra treat for me.

It had been 20 years since I have visited this house and property that extends many acres. He lives four hours away so when we do meet up, it's usually at my house and it's sadly only been averaging once a year. So I had no reason really to drive to our old stomping grounds.

When I pulled into the long driveway, instant nostalgia hit. That was the driveway we played football on. I could remember getting many touchdowns on that field while also avoiding tackling our friend Aaron when he came out to play. He was quite the built dude and at that time I was quite the stick.

I parked into a spot where we once used to play baseball and got out of the car and looked around. The property had changed so much over the years and not just because of the added tents for the wedding. Trees had grown in where we once used to play baseball on my "home field", the barn we used to play in was torn down, the shed we used as our clubhouse to store our Mountain Dew and Beef Jerky was collapsing. The basketball hoop we once played on wasn't there anymore and there were some fences and landscaping that had been done since.

There was a pile of brush in the other football field we occasionally used that later on turned into this cool fire they used to roast corn on. As that fire grew bigger, all I could picture was "the other Brian", who came over to play with Brian and I, and we had done a small campfire until he decided it wasn't big enough and threw half a container of gasoline into the fire while standing next to it. Let's just say he probably wouldn't do that again as every hair on his body was burned off and you could smell it. Luckily for him, he wasn't badly hurt. His choice of decision to do such a moronic thing was probably led on from the containers of vanilla frosting we had been eating and chugging Mountain Dew down to wash it down with. That's quite the sugar high by the way.

The wedding itself was done next to his parent's house and oversaw the pond we once played in. Sorry for the sideways photo for some reason it wouldn't turn the right way. Some of my buddies from graded school also showed up and we chit-chatted about the good ole days. Which also turned the nostalgia way up. All of us are in our mid 30's sounding like we are in our mid 60's with the bumps and bruises we have experienced over the years..

The one thing that hit me hard after the wedding was over was the fact that all of us are so different now. Old friends and his family weren't the same. Not even Brian was. At times I felt out of place there and wanted to leave, but I stayed for the duration. The place I once spent as my second home wasn't the same either.

Things were not the same and never will be.

I also know this is hobby wise as well.

Gone are the days of creativity and being excited to find a card like this,

Yes, a black plastic coated card from 1998 Topps known as 1998 Topps Mystery Finest Interleague Match-Up that fell 1:36 packs or one per box back then. These cards use the Finest technology  but when you pulled the cards, the fronts have a black coating covering up the front of the card and the Finest part of the card. Not to mention the player under it.

There are 4 players on the back from 2 teams who played in interleague play in 1997, I liked interleague play more back then as it was unique to see the lineups for a stretch of the year instead of now when it's all year long.  One of those 4 guys featured on the back is one of the guys you will find on the front of the card once you reveal the mystery!

Back in 1997, I only ever personally pulled one of these cards, I peeled it and it was Greg Maddux. Since then then however, I bought a 6 card lot with the cards still unpeeled which I thought was super cool. And since then I have kept them that way for the mystery.

I have two of each of all of these. Could it be Sammy Sosa? Frank Thomas? Mark Grace? Albert Belle? Ooooo the possibilities!

Some days I am temped to unpeel the mystery but other days I want to keep things the way they are. I wished that could have been the case for this hobby with some of the unique cool creations I got to enjoy in the 90's. I also wished that could have been same at that wedding being around everyone. But, it wasn't and won't ever be and same goes for collecting.

I guess as we all get older and grow apart and the times change, so doesn't life and everything around it. It's how we all adapt to all of the change is the most important part. And I know when it comes to the hobby, I have adapted the best I can but it doesn't mean I don't like to take a step back in time and enjoy what once was. That's the great thing about card collecting and the nostalgia it brings.

Sunday's With Rodney:1995 Mystery Finest Iridescent Laminate Proof

Like I said a week or two ago, I got an eBay gift card for Christmas and wanted to put it to good use. One of those uses was to pad my Rodney Hampton Collection more. But, not just pad it with base even though there are still plenty of needs, but pad it with unique one of a kind cards which this is exactly what today's card is.

It not only doesn't appear on my checklist, but it's something I hadn't even heard of before. I found a unique seller on eBay who had a bunch of cool cards like this. I picked this one up along with a few other unique ones.

Here in his words is what this card is..

" This is an extremely rare proof card. It is from the 1995 Topps Mystery Finest insert set. But it is just the top plastic (laminate) layer of the card and is see through. I have pics of both the front and back below so you can see.

I used the term "iridescent" as it isn't a regular, clear plastic, but not quite a refractor finish either. Somewhere in between. It's similar in appearance to the Fan Favorites inserts, but with a green hue, not a pink one. But that style is similar to the reflective surface of these proof cards. They are standard card size."

 

 

It came exactly as he described and because I picked up four different ones, I was able to make an offer in which he accepted gladly. 

This card is one of the cooler ones in my Hampton collection now and marks Hampton #437.

So what do you guys think of today's card? Pretty cool?

Baseball Card Mystery Finest Theater: Part 1

The joy of Mystery Finest. Who is that player hiding behind this sheet of black? Is the best player featured on out of the four on the back of the card or the worse? The only way to tell is to peel and here on Baseball Card Mystery Finest Theater I will do just that.

Recently, I picked up a five card unpeeled lot of Mystery Finest cards on eBay for less than $10. I thought it would make a fun series to unpeel them one at a time and have you guys join in on the fun.

Here is how this is going to work. In the next few weeks or so, maybe before, I will put up a card like this:

Then put up the back of the card which is this:

I want you guys to tell me for fun which player I will unpeel. A few days later, I will unpeel it and reveal who it was on the blog to see if you are right. I hope there will be a lot of participation as I think it will be fun to see your guesses.

Other offerings from these five cards will be....

Make sure you come back for your guesses and each unveil!

Breakin Wax:1995-1996 Topps Basketball Series 2, 2 Box Break (BIG HITS/MJ Heavy)

Well, well, well. Here we are finally. The last break from my auction lot back in May. Of course I stuck with the number one rule, you save the best for last. So here we go!

In every box of 1995-1996 Topps basketball is packed with 36 packs with 10 cards per pack. There are lots of shiny inserts and most importantly, Michael Jordan in the base and inserts.

The base cards design for 95-96 isn't too bad. There are some great action shots and the border is thin leaving the base card with a full photograph. The player's name may be a bit too big, but the gold foil it's done in makes it look nice.

Back of base card.

Rookie cards. They say draft pick on the side.

 

Rattle and Roll inserts look really cool. Very 90's look!

Spark Plugs! I finished an entire set in two boxes. You will find many, many of them as I had many doubles except of the one that's worth the most, you guessed it, MJ.

Mystery Finest. These fell at one-per-box or 1:36. Another MJ sighting! Woo hoo!

And finally, awesome looking Power Boosters. These fall one-per-box as well or 1:36. The next one I pulled from the VERY FIRST pack of the VERY FIRST box. Check that out......

BOOM MJ! Best first pack I have ever opened!

Overall, WOWZERS! This was probably the most impressive basketball break I have had for some time. After busting the first box, I couldn't wait to rip the second.

Now for the breakdown. I took the inserts, star players from the base and rookies,the sets (3 of them) and got a rough Beckett Book Value for it:

Here is what I paid: $4 per box, so $8
Here is what I roughly got in Beckett Book Value from it: $210

This was amazing break and value. No doubt my best break of the entire auction.

The Mystery Of Finest....Is it Galarraga? Johnson? Griffey Jr? Walker?

Take a look at this newest pickup off from eBay...

At first you are thinking...did he forget to post a pic? I can immediately tell you no I didn't. That is what the front of the card looks like. Here is the back....

If you still don't know what this card is, I am going to tell you. It's a 1998 Topps Mystery Finest Card. The mystery of course being which player is on the front of the card. The sleek black peel on the top of the card made you ask yourself, should I or shouldn't I? Who is under there? Maybe I should just take a peek..(of course if you even lifted the black up you might as well peel it all off). It was extremely hard not to want to unpeel it and I never found one time where I didn't, of course I only pulled maybe two in my lifetime. That's the reason why I did a search for an unpeeled one as I wanted to add it to my 90's PC. I think it's a cool piece and I was pretty impressed to had found one unpeeled, and no, I don't plan on unpeeling it.

I believe that Mystery Finest was one of the cooler inserts in the 1990's and something I wished Topps would bring back. I think the concept would work great and make their inserts interesting once again. At the time, these fell 1:36 packs which I think would work now too helping make the card more valuable. These also had refractor parallels that fell at a much harder rate of 1:144. Imagine the refractor parallels Topps could make with these if they brought them back. However, I think if these were ever brought back especially with parallels, they shouldn't put the word refractor on the back of the card letting you know what's on the other side. I don't want to know without peeling it. That would add many fun collecting possibilities and a new fun way to collect.

Will Topps ever make a move like this? Probably not. If they did, it may help drive my interest back to collecting baseball cards more especially their flagship product that seems to have taken a dive over the last few years. Hopefully Topps will read this.