[jplarson]

Finally got the FTP going again. Previous post has been updated with a fixed link. Also, big add:



I went through and finally fixed up my Gold Refractor page - Gold Refractors. Only 41 to go!

[savagenate]

Wow, what a great add! Tim Couch was amazing! :p Nice manning! That must have been a tough one!

[jplarson]

Wow, what a great add! Tim Couch was amazing! :p Nice manning! That must have been a tough one!

The Couch came from a donor card, early 2000's Upper Deck SP. Always wanted to try and move a sticker auto.

The Manning is nuts. I remember years ago a seller had 5 different auctions up all for the same Gold Refractor (different serials of course). I bid on several but missed on all of them. Through the years I saw them get graded and listed for crazy prices. Nice to actually snag one again, though there is a BGS 9 out there now which I figure will end cheaper. Pity cause BGS always grades Finest cards with the coating harshly on the surface. Busting it from it's holder, peeling the card, and it's lock and load a 9.5.

[jplarson]

Had 5 holdouts but completed the 2014 Finest Refractor set. Brady, Garoppolo, Carr, Mack, and Donald were the last ones to fall.

Take a gander - http://jplarson.com/finest/2014/refractors/index.html

That marks the following refractor sets complete:

1999
2010
2013
2014

[savagenate]

That's a lot of flash! Congrats on the completion!

[jaderock]

those are some beautiful sets!

[rjcj2017]

The Couch came from a donor card, early 2000's Upper Deck SP. Always wanted to try and move a sticker auto.

The Manning is nuts. I remember years ago a seller had 5 different auctions up all for the same Gold Refractor (different serials of course). I bid on several but missed on all of them. Through the years I saw them get graded and listed for crazy prices. Nice to actually snag one again, though there is a BGS 9 out there now which I figure will end cheaper. Pity cause BGS always grades Finest cards with the coating harshly on the surface. Busting it from it's holder, peeling the card, and it's lock and load a 9.5.

It cracks me up that someone can actually peel a factory issued coating off a card and it somehow "improves" the condition.

[jplarson]

I've only got 2 gold base cards to go before I've completed the 1996 Finest base set. Warning - extremely image heavy! This is the largest base set Finest ever put out.

Set sizes for the Finest brand run:

1992 - 42 (distributed as a complete preview set)
1994 - 220
1995 - 275
1996 - 359
1997 - 350
1998 - 270
1999 - 175
2000 - 205
2001 - 140
2002 - 136
2003 - 150
2004 - 134
2005 - 184
2006 - 186
2007 - 150
2008 - 151
2009 - 124
2010 - 125
2011 - 125
2012 - 150
2013 - 150
2014 - 150
2015 - 150

Also added some nifty oddball items:

Here's a marketing brochure that came from a sales packet sent out to dealers back in 1996. It's weird stuff like this I get a major kick out of!



The claim of "fewer" than 150 rare Refractors for each player is interesting. Let's get mathy!!!!

Facts:
There are 25 "rare" non-parallel cards in the set.
Any one player's rare Refractor card has no more than 150 and possibly fewer.
A Refractor rare card comes in 1:288 packs.
24 packs to a box.
6 boxes to a case.

This means there are 25*150 = 3,750 total possible rare Refractors.

Thus: 1/288 = 3750/X. Solve for X.

Using some good old fashioned cross multiply and divide we get 1,080,000.

So, if 1 rare refractor is found in 288 packs, then to find 3,750 rare refractors we would have to open 1,080,000 packs.

1,080,000 / 24 = 45,000 boxes
45,000 / 6 = 7,500 cases

There's an order form that I have too where a dealer purchased 1 case for $415. That means if Topps sold out of all their cases, they stood to gross $3,112,500 for their Finest series 1 product. Who knows what production costs are but if one was to assume a net margin of 10%, that's over $300k in profit.

Wasn't that fun? Tune in next week when I use this to determine what the serial numbers would be of all refractors, gold, silver, and bronze cards.

[savagenate]

Cool!

[jplarson]

More additions of the.... Finest... quality!











Let's talk through the mail autographs:








Getting back to the Gold Refractors for a moment. How great of a parallel are those? You get fun die-cutting which is immediately obvious when you open a pack of cards and look at the edges. It's not boring border color change, the whole front is golden with rainbow refractor tech underneath.



Gorgeous cards. For all my ragging on Panini's exclusive deal with the NFLPA, Topps wasn't the best their last 5-6 years printing football either. Their best stuff came when there were multiple competitors in the marketplace, vying for our money. When Collector's Edge, Donruss, Playoff, Score, Upper Deck all exited and the Panini conglomerate was left, it wasn't the same.

While 1999 doesn't represent the best draft class in that era ('98 Manning-Moss-Woodsen, '00 Brady-Urlacher-Alexander, and '01 Brees-Tomlinson-Vick were all better), some of the best set designs and ideas were hatched around this time.

Anyways, as always thanks for looking and keep your card collections the finest!