Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 1995 Collector’s Edge Football
Collector’s Edge burst onto the football card scene in 1992, and from the beginning they were advertising themselves as something different. What was so different about the cards? They were made from a tough plastic stock. The base cards are plastic-like and can bend (at least a little bit) without creasing. Does this mean every card came out of the pack in perfect condition? Unfortunately not. Collector’s Edge still has condition issues, mostly color chipping.
1995 Collector’s Edge Football has that same tough plastic stock in its 205-card base set. There are 200 player cards and five checklists.
Collector’s Edge also did something different with their rookies. Only two rookies had a base card in the 1995 set, Jeff Blake and Alfred Pupunu. The rest of the rookie class was featured in a 25-card Rookies insert set, and thus, are not considered actual RCs. Probably not a great decision on their part.
What they did do right, though, was the EdgeTech inserts as well as the Foil and Die Cut parallels.
1995 Collector’s Edge Football Box Break
Cards per pack: 6
Packs per box: 24
Price paid: $36
Shop for 1995 Collector’s Edge Football boxes on eBay.
Pack 1 highlights:
Dave Krieg, Tony Boselli Rookies (1:4 packs) & Henry Ellard
Ellard’s best season came in 1988. The First Team All-Pro racked up a league leading 1,414 receiving yards.
Pack 2:
“Rocket” Ismail, Trent Dilfer & Dan Marino
Pack 3:
Trent Dilfer & Marshall Faulk
Dilfer quarterbacked the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens in 2000.
Pack 4:
Qadry Ismail & Natrone Means
Pack 5:
Warren Sapp Rookies (1:4 packs)
Sapp earned Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1999 after recording 12 1/2 sacks.
Pack 6:
Joe Burr…wait no, David Klinger & Steve Beuerlein
Pack 7:
Bruce Smith, Rod Woodson & Dan Marino EdgeTech (1:12 packs)
Speaking of sacks, Bruce Smith had a lot. He The two-time Defensive Player of the Year had thirteen seasons with double digit sack totals.
Pack 8:
Heath Shuler & Warren Moon
Pack 9:
12th Man card, Marcus Allen & Kerry Collins Rookies (1:4 packs)
If you collected all the cards to spell out 12TH MAN, you could submit the cards in exchange for a 25-card 12th Man Pro-Bowl set.
Pack 10:
Jim Kelly, Bryan Cox & Jim Harbaugh
Pack 11:
Terance Mathis, Terry Allen & Ernest Givens Gold Foil (1:20 packs)
Givins found the endzone 50 times in a 10-year NFL career. He scored 10 touchdowns for the 1992 Houston Oilers team.
Pack 12:
Andre Reed & Mazio Royster Die Cut (1:24 packs)
Pack 13:
Bobby Taylor Rookies (1:4 packs) & Charlie Garner
Bobby Taylor played ten seasons in the NFL. He was named to the Pro Bowl just one time after the 2002 season.
Pack 14:
Rodney Hampton, Steve Atwater & Brian Blades
Pack 15:
Deion Sanders & Ben Coates
Deion finished third in the MVP voting following the 1994 season after picking off six passes and returning three of them for touchdowns.
Pack 16:
Johnnie Morton, Kevin Greene & Ty Law 22K Gold Rookies (1:40 packs)
Pack 17:
Jay Novacek, John Elway, Barry Sanders & Rick Mirer
Mirer did not live up to his star potential after being selected second overall in the 1993 draft. During his career he threw more interceptions (76) than touchdowns (50).
Pack 18:
12th Man N, Michael Irvin, Jeff George & Leroy Thompson Die Cut (1:24 packs)
Pack 19:
Emmitt Smith, Shannon Sharpe, Ricky Watters & Errict Rhett
I could’ve sworn Emmitt was at least 40 years old during his last season in the NFL. He wasn’t. He was 35. He was still able to rack up 937 rushing yards and nine touchdowns.
Pack 20:
12th Man A & Jim Everett
Pack 21:
J.J. Stokes Rookies (1:4 packs), Herman Moore & Neil O’Donnell EdgeTech (1:12 packs)
O’Donnell was never a great NFL quarterback. However, he did protect the ball for the most part. He never had a double-digit interception total in any of his 13 NFL seasons.
Pack 22:
Irving Fryar, Dana Stubblefield & David Meggett
Pack 23:
Andre Rison & Dana Stubblefield
Stubblefield won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1993, after recording 10 1/2 sacks. He was only able to top that rookie year sack total one time with 15 in 1997.
Pack 24:
12th Man A, Ronnie Lott & Ki-Jana Carter Rookies (1:4 packs)
Lastly, the Andre Rison card back. Rison was a solid contributor from the get-go. His 15 touchdown receptions in 1993 led the NFL.
Honestly, this break was a little bit underwhelming. I was hoping for more.
I had my hopes up on pulling a TimeWarp insert. These are extremely tough pulls, found just once in every 400 packs. But, they were really cool. They featured current players battling against past legends. For instance, there’s a card of Deacon Jones attempting to tackle Barry Sanders.
I feel like with today’s technology this theme could really produce some amazing cards in more of today’s products. Panini has done it a couple of times over the years but maybe we will see this idea again in the near future.
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Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
I had forgotten about the time warp cards. They were definitely the best part of those sets