CamaroDMD
Insert Cool Title
So, as I dive more and more into this hobby...I find myself focusing on sets I loved as a kid. Many are sets (or parallels of sets) that I collected in my youth but were typically beyond my price range.
The peak of my collecting years was 1994-95, but sets on both sides of that time also fell into my interest. One such set was 1996 Topps Finest football.
One thing I really thought was cool about this set (and at the time, somewhat unique) was the fact that it had SPs in the base set. Although this is somewhat commonplace today...at the time, it really set this set apart.
The way they did this was the set was broken down into colors...bronze, silver and gold. These were not parallels...a given card only came in one color. To make it even more simplified, the bronze cards literally said "common" on the back while the silvers and golds said "uncommon" and "rare" respectively. This set consisted of 359 cards with 220 being bronze, 91 silver and 48 gold. Just as an example, card #1 is Kordell Stewart and it's a gold...card #1 only comes in gold so it's an SP. For the time, it was an innovative set. I remember, as an 11 year old this was an expensive product. The packs were $5 and you got 6 cards. Silvers were inserted at a rate of 1:4 and golds at a rate of 1:24 packs.
This was a set I really liked as a kid...but it was beyond my ability to assemble a set at that time. Today, that's not the case so I want to put one together. But, I want to do it one step further.
There is also a parallel set which makes it that much more difficult. As far as I remember, Finest was the first product to have refractor parallels. There is a refractor parallel of each card in the set. Even today, those are a much more challenging find. Their insert rate was 1:12 for bronze, 1:48 for silver, and 1:288 for gold. According to Beckett...the were reportedly less than 150 examples of each gold refractor printed. So, the refractor set would be hard. But, I think it's a worthwhile project and if I can complete it...it will be a beautiful set.
Another thing about this set too...this was the second year that Topps put a protective peel off cover on all its Finest cards. This clear peel off plastic had the words "Topps Finest Protector Peel and Remove Coating" printed in back and it was on the front of the cards. I prefer to have my cards as issued, which means they must have that coating intact. So, I will seek out only cards that have the coating intact. Fortunately, most cards I see from this set for sale tend to have it intact.
I think it will be a fun project.
The peak of my collecting years was 1994-95, but sets on both sides of that time also fell into my interest. One such set was 1996 Topps Finest football.
One thing I really thought was cool about this set (and at the time, somewhat unique) was the fact that it had SPs in the base set. Although this is somewhat commonplace today...at the time, it really set this set apart.
The way they did this was the set was broken down into colors...bronze, silver and gold. These were not parallels...a given card only came in one color. To make it even more simplified, the bronze cards literally said "common" on the back while the silvers and golds said "uncommon" and "rare" respectively. This set consisted of 359 cards with 220 being bronze, 91 silver and 48 gold. Just as an example, card #1 is Kordell Stewart and it's a gold...card #1 only comes in gold so it's an SP. For the time, it was an innovative set. I remember, as an 11 year old this was an expensive product. The packs were $5 and you got 6 cards. Silvers were inserted at a rate of 1:4 and golds at a rate of 1:24 packs.
This was a set I really liked as a kid...but it was beyond my ability to assemble a set at that time. Today, that's not the case so I want to put one together. But, I want to do it one step further.
There is also a parallel set which makes it that much more difficult. As far as I remember, Finest was the first product to have refractor parallels. There is a refractor parallel of each card in the set. Even today, those are a much more challenging find. Their insert rate was 1:12 for bronze, 1:48 for silver, and 1:288 for gold. According to Beckett...the were reportedly less than 150 examples of each gold refractor printed. So, the refractor set would be hard. But, I think it's a worthwhile project and if I can complete it...it will be a beautiful set.
Another thing about this set too...this was the second year that Topps put a protective peel off cover on all its Finest cards. This clear peel off plastic had the words "Topps Finest Protector Peel and Remove Coating" printed in back and it was on the front of the cards. I prefer to have my cards as issued, which means they must have that coating intact. So, I will seek out only cards that have the coating intact. Fortunately, most cards I see from this set for sale tend to have it intact.
I think it will be a fun project.
