The Final pages from 1996

We are closing out the 96s today. Scans 41-51.

Four nice cards from Summit.

Three more from Summit.

That Hobby Masters card is really super sweet. Scan doesn't do the card justice.

Some shiny cards from Topps Chrome.

I'm not a huge fan of the over-use of foil on cards, but I think the tribute to 40K yards would have been better with in foil or at least in a colored text, so that it stands out.

The Predictor is the best card of these four by far.

A rainbow, including the rainbow parallel. Which was the hardest to obtain.

Upper right card really shows the action, makes you want to get out and go play some backyard football. Also shows John doing what he done very well, scramble.

That completes the scanned cards I own of Elway from 1996. 

Leading off with some OOPSs.

I wanted to throw out a few cards that were laying in the wrong box and thus should have already been shown.

Stanford pocket schedule.

JUMBO!

Phone card and another JUMBO!

Sorry we missed these cards in their proper year.

1996 Elway Collection continues. HINT and a contest NOTE

We are up to scans 31-40. Thus far the 1996 cards especially those first 20 scans were some of the most creative and not so much overdone in terms of too much that we have seen. Rest assured though by the time we make our way through to 2014 there will be many more contenders. Why is that important. I think that I will hold a contest. being that this run of posts is going to take quite awhile to get through, anyone following and on the very last post which will be stated as the last one of this long running series, I will ask which card do you think was the best overall? (leave in the comments, once a card is picked it is off the market so to speak) I will then decide who I agree with and they will get a surprise package of Elway cards from me. Just to make it a bit exciting, if I still have double of the card picked I will be putting it in there too!  Enough of that tease for now as we are no wheres close to the end game. So let's look at some cards.

A very much football like card. Good job Score!

That Prime Cut is super awesome.

Great parallels! Select certified was totally on their A game in 1996.

I put a sticky on the top right card as it is different from one in my doubles box. I have to see if I still have that one to figure out what the differences are. Fingers crossed.

I like the upper right, and of course if yopu have to have a "Ruby" parallel.

The top card comes real close to too much, but stays just short of it. The other two die cuts are cool, especially the gold, lol. SP and SPx are high end for a reason.

They use premium card stock, photography is usually spot on, and design is pretty much great. They do tend to use too many holo-graphics.

Many are Stadium club fans, I for one am not. They were back in the day Topps' high end set. I will say that TSC definitely had some good photography especially action shots.

Look we made it to Topps, lol. That is a wrap for today. There is one last post for the 1996 card run.

1996 3rd SET OF SCANS 21-30

So far we have seen so mighty nice cards from many of the card manufacturers, and they didn't stop there. They awesome cards continue all throughout 1996.

Parallels are always great, at least as most sets were done back in the 90s, excluding Collector's Edge which was the fore runner to Topps of modern days. Today, it is near impossible for a "player collector" or even a team collector, let alone set builders. A set isn't a set unless you have EVERY card in the set. Of course today's set builder's usually stick to the base set without all of the parallels and in many cases without the SP's. I say again.. a set isn't a set unless is is 100% complete. Enough I my venting, back to the Elway cards.

I am huge fan of Playoff cards, however these four in my opinion were not their best work.

Neither were these four. I apologize for the removable sticker on the front side of the upper right, it must have come off of the card stored in front of it in the storage box. Which reminds me, my goal is to one day pull all of my Elways' from the top loaders and place them into binders. I believe it will make it easier to flip through my collection, not to mention gets rid of the sometimes scratched up or dingy plastic holders which shows up horrible in the scans. It should also "lighten the load" of the collection too.

Speaking of a dingy top loader, LOL.  The upper two cards are more in line with my idea of Playoff, although the mini looks sort of plain I like it. Pro Line III breaks into the line-up with a nice die-cut.

I definitely like the two phone cards, unused and of course expired, lol.

Score isn't known for the base set, but this and the two parallels shown are very nice.  the 6 pack of HOfers isn't a bad card front for a checklist either.

Ditto! Oops, I left in a slip of paper that should have been removed a decade ago.

The Dream Team insert is totally awesome!

Wrapping today with the three Settle the score inserts above.

1996: Scans 11-20

Picking right up where we left off, with some more amazing cards.

The Laser View is okay, and I like the blurred images in the Fleer card, but not much thus the .40 BV (not many of Elways' card book that low). The Eye on the Prize is a $20 card.

There are plenty of collector's out there that like the Topps Finest cards, I myself enjoyed the first couple of years (remember the green cards) but not since.  I still to this day, have problems with the peel-able protective coating. My point is there is the protection, but is also takes away from the card photo. Secondly, there are some issues where a card was issued with and without the protector and no way to tell them apart if you remove the coating. Just an UGH moment. That is the Silver version of the Finest card and books around $15.00 I don't get it, especially the refractor version that books at $90, crazy I tell you.

HMMM. The scan couldn't have come out better.  Not pictured in this spot would be the Kenner SLU card that I have, but it is still inside the package with the figure.

I love parallel cards when there are only a few. The American All-Star card also fits nicely into a binder collection I have that is Patriotic/Flag themed (mostly baseball cards in it). Great card, wish I had rotated it, oops!

A pair of motion cards and a nice insert, plain but I like it.

One of these goes for $50.... lol.

I've always been a fan of the Pacific brands, however I will admit they tend to use way too much foil.

The bottom two parallel cards are pretty sweet.

But these four are even sweeter!

Overall Pacific definitely put creativity into their designs. Topps should take some lessons, just watch the overuse of foil.

Yes, I keep those coins with the cards. And now for the last two cards today.

Not a bad pair to end with.