Set Help:1995 Fleer Aerial Attack

 

1995 Fleer Aerial Attack HAVES
1,3,6 

THIS IS A MUST COMPLETE, ONLY THREE LEFT!!

Episode 17:Giving Me The Edge

Today marks the 17th episode of this blog and the finale of my trade with @card_a_holic

Today I am showing off some really sweet Collectors Edge inserts I saved for this trade finale.

First up, some EdgeTech green. There were 37 cards in the set and in a variety of different 1995 Collectors Edge products to find them.

Pretty simple design, a green bulls eye background with a player in the forefront

There were also super sick parallels of these to find as well. Doesn't seem the odds really are any different then finding the base version but I prefer these much more.

They have a Prism shine foil to them

Three great players as well.

I know I always talk about building sets of these and the parallels would be awesome to, but 37 cards is pretty deep. I may have to think about it first. They look great though.

Thanks for the trade Brian. I look forward to next time!

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!

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Topps Goes To Camp

 

Back in 1987, I can't believe it was that long ago, the movie Ernest Goes To Camp came out. If that doesn't make you feel old, I don't know what will.

I didn't get into Ernest, a slapstick character acted by the late Jim Varney, until the early 90's but I loved every film and so didn't my mother. It was one of those things we both enjoyed to watch together and could time and time again.

One of the first Ernest films I watched a ton of was Ernest Goes To Camp. It stars the key character Ernest P. Worrell, who works as a maintenance man at Kamp Kikakee but hopes to become a counselor. He finally gains enough respect and was given a chance to try out as Counselor. Of course being the goofball he is, they weren't just going to give him just any group of kids. They gave him a small group of juvenile delinquents, the Second Chancers who take advantage of Ernest in a variety of ways.

Meanwhile, a mining corporation run by Sherman Krader wants to mine the petrocite at Kikakee, but Chief St. Cloud who owns the camp refuses to sell. Upon realizing that the Chief doesn't even understand English, Krader manipulates Ernest into obtaining the Chief's signature under false pretenses. Ernest, thought he was helping the Chief sign an anti-pollution petition, instead unknowingly convinces the Chief to sign the land away.Which in return would close the camp and gives Krader everything he wanted.

But, things don't quite go as Krader intended. Ernest realized his mistake and he joins forces with the Second Chancers, who grew to like him as the movie progressed, to take down Krader's operation. I won't go much more into further detail as I assume most of you have seen the film but don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't.

Watching this film again recently somehow brought me back to 1996 and a product called Topps Gilt Edge. I think it has a lot to do with the background of them as they appear to me as Tiki Totems heads.

Topps Gilt Edge was issued in one series and had a 90-card standard-size set.

The set features the 84 members of the 1996 Pro Bowl roster, plus five players who had Pro Bowl-caliber seasons and one checklist card. The NFC Pro Bowlers were set with a water blue background.

While the AFC had this fiery background.

Each card featured Topps' new "gilt-edge" technology, placing gold foil edging around every card. The cards came in nine-card packs with a suggested retail price of $3.50 which included seven regular cards, a platinum card as well as a definitive edge card. There were no rookie cards in the set and it was a one and done deal for it.

I honestly was 50/50 on the set when it first came out. I only bought one pack and misplaced the final two cards in it. As an adult though, I love this set and need to collect it.

I only have these five cards of the 90 card set, but a long ways to go. Any set help is appreciated!

It's a shame that Jim Varney's life ended so soon. I could picture a few new Ernest movies today being made even though the last few he did were horrible honestly. I will talk about a few more of the movies on here before I am done including my favorite one. Feel free to guess that one in comments.

I always like writing flashback posts like today's. Nostalgia is such a driving force for me and who doesn't like to talk about movies and 90's cards? knowwhatImean Vern?

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 19

Let's talk about sets babyLet'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 (Summitt)
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.

Today's sets talk is from my trade with @card_a_holic who I said caught my attention from having set needs for me.

So let's check out the sauciness today.

A mix of two different sets I needed help with.

1995 Fleer Aerial Assault was a great looking set. With most Fleer inserts falling 1 per pack back then, these on the other hand fell one per box. I bought TONS of 1995 Fleer and only ever pulled one with Sterling Sharpe.

Now I have a Tim Brown which is now two out six.

Then came 1995 Fleer Ultra which had the best one per pack parallels you could ever ask for. Gold Medallions completely covered the card in gold foil. But, with two series to collect, there are a lot of card needs here. Brian helped with a few.

Shannon Sharpe

Randy Simmons

Junior Seau

Well, this marks the end of the trade. A big thanks goes out for all of the set help. Hope we can do this again Brian!

More Sets Talk ahead!

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:A Chip Off The Old Block

Some people may say "I am a chip off the 'ole block" when it comes to what I am into compared to my father.

First off, we both are MASSIVE NY Giants fans. We stay in contact every Sunday during the games texting each other about the defeats, the big plays and the stupid ones.

Secondly, we both like the NY Yankees. We show our #PinstripePride ever since the 90's.

Third, we both collect sport cards and collect them pretty comparably. We both like our rookie cards, we both sort and organize the same (something I taught him back in my youth), and we both can't turn down Topps Chrome. It's like a super collecting hero weakness.

One other thing we know, is putting in a good hard days work.

I grew up on a dairy farm pretty much my entire youth life. Back when I was really young, my father worked on his friends farm who were an older couple. I treated them like they were my grandparents.

Ray, was very old fashioned and believed kids needed to work so I remember staying overnight and him waking me up at 4:30 in the morning to gather the cows to the barn. I wasn't sure how I felt about that then, other than being tired, but it's something I can appreciate now. He would also displine you by grabbing onto your ear and making you sit. Let's just say, I didn't get into too much trouble on his farm after the first few times.

Erma, Ray's wife, was the typical nice old lady. The one you would hear about baking cookies and a delicous meal. The housewife. Sometimes when I wasn't busy on the farm helping out, I would take a grocery and errand run with her and was able to pick myself out a treat while we were out. Despite the glares that Ray would sometimes give when we returned. He valued every dollar.

If only he valued his health as much. The dude would literally take a stick of butter, dip it in ketchup, and would eat it with his supper. This is not a joke either, it was disgusting. On top of that, he would butter everything else. He would also have us save the pickle juice from pickle jars and chug it. As you would expect after hearing this, yes, Ray did pass away years ago from a heart attack behind the wheel. I felt a piece of my childhood rip away hearing that news. Erma lived a few more years after that but in a nursing home where I never got to see her again. I may not have been able to say goodbye, but I do have the memories.

After a ten years of working on Ray's farm, my father decided it was too much on him and changed careers to work at a cheese factory. He was the supervisor of his line and broke some company records for getting his employees to box up the cheese the fastest. It was pretty cool but you could tell he wanted to be back outside again. Back to his life roots of farming.

So we ended up moving after 5 years in the factory to another farm. He got to do what he loved best. On this farm, the owner was a bit younger, probably in his 40's, so the expectations for me weren't as high. In the summertime, I actually helped with haying which means 90 degree days out in the field picking up bales and putting them away. But, that's okay. He actually paid me $10 an hour for doing so.

During my downtime however, I would walk past these guys-and say hi of course-

 

 

  

and play basketball in the empty silo, his was a rocked in area, where the farmer set up a hoop for me. So I always chipped in to help him when I could.

In 1997, Playoff chipped in the hobby with their innovate Chip Shots sets. They put these one-per-pack finds in both their 1997 Absolute Football and the 1997 Playoff First and Ten football. The only difference between the two sets is the color schemes. First and Ten has green, red, and yellow base chip featuring a striped pattern of one white stripe within two stripes of either red, green, or blue. While the Absolute has green, red, and yellow base and the edges of the coins feature a striped pattern of two silver stripes around a single stripe of either red or blue. None of the colors were tougher than the other in terms of finding them.Sounds more complicated than it is.

The First and Ten set also had 250 chips in the set with the first 200 chips in hobby and the last 50 found in retail. The Absolute version had 200 total.

Here are a few samplings I got from my mail day from The Collector, I have many long before these I held onto since youth. I think I bought almost a box worth of retail at one point and was given chip shots over the years. And if you are reading this and have some, please check for Rodney Hamptons. I am missing a few still.

Let's take a look at these miniature collectibles. I think innovations like this are so cool and it's what we lack today.

Zach Thomas a beast linebacker for the Phins'

I always felt Tim Brown didn't get enough respect for what he did on the field, playing for the Raiders didn't help.

Yancey was just a fun name to say and he also had some talent too.

Detmer was apart of the pre-99 draft QB where they were terrible.

Vinny played for a million teams, but none of their uniforms looked as good as the classic Ravens one. I think their original logo and jerseys look better than today's.

And Michael Irvin, household name in the 90's and a winner. Sadly he also made a lot of plays against my Giants.

Chip Shots only lasted one year so I am glad to have held onto what I do have. It's hard to think this was over 20 years ago that these were released. Feeling old now? I am.

Just like Chip Shots, my father's farming career is all done as well. Age has played a factor in that especially after doing it for a combined 20+ years. He now does a bunch of oddball jobs but keeps himself busy. I moved out from the farm in 2000 and haven't lived on one since but I always remember the moments I had on them especially when I drive by them. It's sort of like when I pull out these Chip Shots, I remember the creativity this great hobby once had.

BASEically Awesome Part 9: 1996 Action Packed Football

You wanna know what's awesome????

When you can combine embossing with action packed photography.

And there is one hard hitting product that did provide that, Action Packed.

One of my favorites came from 1996. The design led to crystal clear photography, the players on the field really stood out and not just because of the embossing, but because the background was a rough texture while the player was full gloss. Made for a beautiful combo.

All 115 base cards captured great photography like this....

and this....

and this...

and this.

The final 11 cards in the base set took a different approach with a subset called Eyeing The Storm. Which took a unique perspective showcasing an up close photo of the player in the background, then a full picture of them in the front.

 

I keep my fingers crossed every day that Panini will revive the product. So far the closest they have come was an insert set that wasn't embossed in Rookies and Stars. That was disappointing. But maybe it's a start. I even put a word in.

Thoughts on today's BASEically Awesome product is welcomed in comments.