[savagenate]

Ok, not gonna lie, the eyes of game insert is one of the dumbest designs I've ever seen lol! Really like the rest though, and those bronze cards are really cool!

[ZSDOne]

Those bronze cards are amazing

[jplarson]

Ok, not gonna lie, the eyes of game insert is one of the dumbest designs I've ever seen lol! Really like the rest though, and those bronze cards are really cool!

Agreed but if you want something worse, check out the Clear Shots insert from the same set.  Except on the back it's all about dem trunks!

[jplarson]

How's about some SOLID bronze action?  Back in 1995, Topps offered the Landmark series.  The first group was a set of 4 and each subsequent offering was for a pair of cards.  16 cards in all make up the set, 6 down and 10 to go.













Here's a shot of the back:



One of the coolest adds was an original letter that came with the set of 4.



I've really been getting into oddball stuff lately for Finest.  You can follow the latest progress for my 1995 set here - http://jplarson.com/finest1995.html.  As always thanks for checking these out!

[jplarson]

Recently I spent the most I ever have on a single in my life.  I was able to do so thanks to these three cards:







As a lot of folks know, the sports card market has been EXPLODING for guys like Mahomes, Jackson, Brady, and what feels like pretty much everything.  As we've heard from RJ, retail is no exception.

I sat on those cards for a long while, disbelieving that a 2018 Prizm BASE card of Mahomes could be selling for what it is.  And my goodness, yes they are!  For those of you with an OPG, the book value increased by 4,000%!  Yes, four thousand percent! 










At any rate, with a war chest of funds secured from the sale of those 3 cards, I was able to nab this guy!







And still have some leftovers for a few minor odds and ends.  It's simply incredible what the market is doing right now.  While I prefer to trade I essentially did just that with Paypal fees built in.  When I set out to try and collect all the base sets for Finest, I knew 1996/98 would be hard because of the uncommon silvers and rare golds.  I figured 2000, 2001, and 2008 would be hard because of short print serial numbered rookies.  2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2009 I thought would be IMPOSSIBLE because autographs, jersey cards, or auto/patch rookies were part of the base set.  Yet for 2002, I only have 6 or so cards left to grab.  2004.... I now have Rivers and Manning.  Once I secure a Roethlisberger, everything else is mere details!

Here's the backlog of some other recent adds (the Peterson already got its own thread):























As always, thank you for checking out my thread and keep those collections the Finest they can be!

[savagenate]

Holy Mackeral! Awesome pieces to sell (just in time in my opinion!) and what an add! Rivers will be a HOF guy at some point in the future, despite no super bowls. It sucks for him that his best chance at a SB is coming in a year where the season could be canceled at any moment. From all accounts he's a good guy. Hope for the best for him, and again, what an add! Congrats!

[rjcj2017]

Good Lord that's crazy ... no offense, but those three cards you sold aren't worth $20 combined in real life.

Even if you went $10 on the Brady and $5 each on the Mahomes, that would still be stretching it.

That's an awesome pickup on the Rivers, good for you.

This kind of reminds back in 2012 (I believe?) at the height of "Linsanity" with Jeremy Lin basketball cards.

I had a bunch of his RCs in a commons box but sold five of them for like $120 when he started blowing up, and I took the proceeds and bought a second-year Kevin Durant auto picturing him with the Seattle Sonics.

It's one of my favorite cards because it's made by a company that no longer exists (as far as producing licensed basketball cards), depicting a team that no longer exists.

Amazing what you can do when the market goes bats--t crazy.

[jplarson]

Holy Mackeral! Awesome pieces to sell (just in time in my opinion!) and what an add! Rivers will be a HOF guy at some point in the future, despite no super bowls. It sucks for him that his best chance at a SB is coming in a year where the season could be canceled at any moment. From all accounts he's a good guy. Hope for the best for him, and again, what an add! Congrats!

Thanks!  Very glad to add this one and now only Roethlisberger left as a biggie from that year.

no offense, but those three cards you sold aren't worth $20 combined in real life.

None taken!  If that's what the current market rate is then I'm definitely a seller.

A new add for me.  I love bringing in stuff from 1999 Finest and what better than an oddball from Topps Vault.





For reference, here's the actual back:



Some nice photoshopping skills by Topps.  They also decided to move the image from card PF28 to card PF38.  It's a fun peek into the design process.

[savagenate]

Interesting!

[jplarson]

Added another to 1995 Finest Landmark, the only set that uses 4 ounces of bronze to create the card, or "medallion" as Topps called it.












For some added fun, I also got more paperwork for the set.  Right-click and choose "View Image" to see it in larger format.











Original mailed advertisement for Series II along with an offer to jump back on Series I, inside and outside scanned and stitched back together in Photoshop.









Letter provided to collector's who completed series 2.









Certificate provided by Topps to guarantee the set completion.  The person I bought the paperwork from was the 365th person to complete Series 2.  The cards themselves aren't serial numbered, no way to verify that.  They were part of a monthly program to buy two Series 2 cards over a six month period.  Presumably lots of people were completing them at the same time so the seller being 365 out of 6,000 could be something as simple as alphabetical order or date when his paperwork was processed.


I'd love to track down some more advertising for the original 4 card Series I.  Additionally Beckett indicates on their Landmark page, https://www.beckett.com/football/1995/finest-landmark/, that Series II was offered in 2-card monthly allotments, then as an entire 12-card set.  The above brochure is for the monthly subscription, I wonder how they advertised the entire Series II at a price of $300 plus shipping.  

I'd like to learn more who were the two players each month.  One of the acquisitions I made was for Barry Sanders and Rick Mirer who came in a special 2-card box.  They are card #'s 5 and 15 respectively.  I can't be sure they were the original 2 shipped together but seems kind of weird to not have 5 and 6 together, or 5 and 11 (then 6/12, 7/13, 8/14, etc) together or 5 and 16, then count inward to 6/15, 7/14, etc.  Weird.