Pack Sampling: 1995 Collector's Edge

Wow! That was some game yesterday, huh?

Actually, full disclosure here, the game is probably still going on as of this writing (Sunday 6:13pm). As mentioned in Saturday's post, I'm not watching it, or listening to it. In fact I haven't watched a Super Bowl since whichever one was the Cardinals v. Steelers, and honestly can't imagine a scenario where I'd ever find myself watching another one. That being said, I hope that if you dear reader did watch it, that the outcome was desirable -- or if it wasn't, that you at least enjoyed some of those famous Super Bowl commercials that everyone's always going on about.

I may not have much interest in the NFL's current product, but I'm still very much interested in the product of decades past -- although that should already be fairly obvious given just how many football related posts I've been churning out as of late, and good news, I've got another one for today, this time in the form of one of my $1 packs that I got at last September's card show.

I've already said it many times before, but I had stopped collecting football cards before this, and all of the other great products from the mid to late 90's came out, so I missed out on all of it , and in recent years feel like I'm trying a little too hard to make up for lost time. Although in this instance, it would've been pretty hard not to buy this pack, which unfortunately was the only one of it's kind for sale that day.

Like all Collector's Edge products from '95 and on, there are many fun inserts and parallels to be had, as well as base cards that are individually serial numbered -- not sure if this was the first set to do that, but if not, it certainly was one of the earliest. Oh, and the whole plastic stock things was unique for the time as well. I don't know how much packs originally cost, but with only six cards in there, a dollar is about as much as I would pay for one.

Alright, enough talking, let's get to some poorly scanned cards, shall we?

Getting a sunset year of Ronnie Lott was a pretty good way to start the pack. I can't call it a sunset card, because he's got like 60 something card from 1995 alone, half of which are seemingly from this release. Ronnie had a solid year for the Jets in '94, in fact he started all 15 games he played, and if an injury that ultimately led to his retirement hadn't occurred during the following year's spring training, he probably would've done the same in 1995.

Willie Davis? I don't remember him, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of available info out there on him either. Spent eight seasons in the NFL, and finished with 306 receptions, for 4745 yards, and 34 TD's.

Despite the grainy scans saying otherwise, these cards have a very smooth, and clean finish, and I like it!

Uh-oh! Sound the SICK HIT alarm! Not quite the sickest of HITZ, but it is one of those 1:4 packs rookies, which is a good thing, I guess?

Fun fact: Tom's wife is the daughter of "Mr. Patriot" Gino Cappalletti.

Growing up in Oregon, I never had much cause to watch the University of Tennessee play. Since moving to the state though, I've gotten multiple Vols football tapes from thrift stores, and Reggie Cobb is always featured somewhere among each video's team highlights. Drugs cut his college career short, but he put up some incredible numbers during the time that he did play.

Despite there being only one keeper (Lott), that was a really fun pack! As per usual, if anyone wants the other five cards, don't be shy about saying so (and Matt already has the Kerry Collins, so it to is available).

****************Boring bonus content*****************

Looking at the serial numbered backs put a terrible idea into my head, one that I haven't been able to shake, and have already started to act on.

The idea? Trying to build the base set with the lowest possible serial numbers that can be found, preferably under 100. That's crazy stupid, right? Don't answer that, because it is, unfortunately I've already picked up three off of COMC though -- two of which are under 100, and the other was like 000,277 (it was really cheap). I have no idea how high the numbering goes, but I've just seen one that was around 125,000, which sort of makes trying to find them in the double digits just that much more appealing, at least to me.

I don't exactly know how I'm gonna go about looking for them yet, I mean these cards are everywhere, but COMC is the only place where you can see the backs. I can't imagine too many sellers on Sportlots responding to inquiries about which number is on the back of their cards. So the only other way to find them would be in person, and this isn't a set that I ever come across singles from...

As I said, it's a terrible idea, but now that the seed has been planted, I feel compelled to pursue it. But don't worry though, I'm not going to bore everyone to death by showing every single future acquisition, maybe just the bigger names?


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.