Friday, February 5, 2016

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #10: 1994-95 Fleer

The top 10! Now we are really getting down to my favorites, and we are past halfway on this countdown.

#10: 1994-95 Fleer

Why I like it: The design. Each team has multiple colors of foil splash behind the player & team's name and I really like that.

Set size/completion: 390. I have 382 of them, or 97.9% according to the Trading Card Database.

The cards feature a white bordered image on card front that has a various color foil splash on the bottom with player name and team/position. There are multiple colors for each team. (I think) with gold, like this card, the most common color, followed by red and blue.

This set also included the first cards ever for the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies, which were to debut in the NBA in the 1995-96 season.

I don't really like the back all that much. They have only partial stats, the stats and image go in different directions, and the black borders chip easily. At least the color pattern in the right margins is colorful, and varies from team to team.

There are 16 different inserts. My favorite is the All-Stars, which is textured to look like a basketball.
 1st Year Phenom
 All-Defensive
 All-Stars
 Career Achievement Award
NBA Award Winner
NBA League Leader
 Pro Visions
 Rookie Sensation
 Sharp Shooters
Young Lion

All in all, a great set...and good enough to make the top 10.

2 comments:

  1. This is one of the sets I bought the most of during my basketball-collecting days. Between the foil and the black borders on the back it seemed like more often than not they were damaged straight out of the pack. But that's what was available in my area, so I bought a ton of it.

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    1. These were still available at my local shop until at least 1998. I think I did a box of one of the series, possibly both, I can't remember anymore. I've got a pack of series II I got from a repack in 2013 or 2014 I have not opened yet. The black borders especially are prone to chipping but that's to be expected when the borders are any dark color. My Pooh Richardson card is missing an entire corner- it looks like it was bitten by a giant rat. (lol). It came out of the pack that way- I'm sure it got caught in a machine in the printing/packing process.

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