An SP I Have Been Looking For For A Long Time

CamaroDMD

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When I was a kid, I collected a bunch of different football sets. Being a big college football fan, I discovered 1997 Press Pass and I really enjoyed that set. I remember opening a ton of packs and trying to build the base set as well as the inserts. The base set seemed simple enough, only 50 cards. Along with that was 2 parallel sets, "Red Zone" which featured red foil writing on the front and "Blue Torquers" which featured blue foil writing on the front (instead of the base gold). Looking back, it was an OK set...but as a 12 year old I really enjoyed it.

However, 1 card always seemed to allude me and I didn't really know why at the time. That card was #48. Now, I know the person featured on this card is today considered a subject of scorn or worse. I'm not going to get into that discussion because this isn't the place. However, despite who is on it...this was a card that I had wanted since I was a child and even though his popularity has severely declined in the last few years, that desire didn't change. The card is the 1997 Press Pass Joe Paterno.

I didn't know it at the time (but it was known) that the Paterno card in this set was a short print. According to a late 1990s Beckett reference I have...there were "licensing issues" with the Paterno card and it was pulled early in production. However, a "small number" made it into packs. The base is quite scarce and the two parallel versions are even scarcer. I have been wanting to pick up the 3 Paterno cards from this set...but they have always been more than I was willing to pay at the time. Looking at ebay completed sales...the base version has been selling in the $20-$35 range and the parallels quite a bit higher. Right now, somebody is asking $149 BIN for the Blue Torquers parallel card (which seems insane to me). These scales prices have declined significantly since the Penn State scandal.

A few days ago, I was browsing a card site online and I came across one of these cards and I couldn't believe the price. It was a Blue Torquers version and they were asking about $3.50 for it. IMHO, that was a steal for this card and I jumped all over it. I still need the base and the red zone versions...but I now have one of them.

 
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