I just received my 1994 & 1995 Finest sets! (sorry, can't do pics)

Estil

The package arrived yesterday. Needless to say, I was thrilled and couldn't wait to get my hands on those shiny cards and put them in my new binders (which I picked up a couple after the package arrived). There was however, one little problem. When I took the 1994 cards out of their penny sleeves, some of them were a little "stuck" and when I pulled them out, the darker backgrounds of most of the cards (especially first series) got little "spots" on the shiny surface (from the penny sleeves "clinging" to the shiny card surface), and some of the cards even had what looked like fingerprints. Curiously though, you can't really see them except against the dark backgrounds of the pictures (which the 1993 and 1995 sets don't have). I just don't understand how something that's supposed to protect the cards (penny sleeves) can actually end up hurting them. Now, the cards look just fine when they're in the binder/pages, and you can only see those "spots" (it's hard to describe and you can't see it on scanned copies of the cards) when you take the cards out and hold them up to the light. Now the 1993 set I have does not have any of those (as well as the 1995 set; I haven't taken the peels off of them yet though, but I'm about to start on that even as we speak), and while the 1994 set is otherwise totally NRMT/MT looking, I'm not sure if I should send the 1994 set back or not. I'd hate to do that and then find out all the 1994 Finest sets are that susceptable to fingerprints/spots.

Overall I am pleased with the sets and they do look very beautiful, I was a little disappointed that the 1994 set cards surfaces weren't as "flawless" as my previous 1993 set and the other 1995 set.

mccardguy1

My experience is that they are all likely to get these spots and fingerprints. But its been awhile and dont remember if a soft cloth would clean them up or not.

Estil

<< <i>My experience is that they are all likely to get these spots and fingerprints. But its been awhile and dont remember if a soft cloth would clean them up or not. >>



Actually, I tried that on a few, and let's just say it doesn't make it better (unless I'm not using a proper cloth). Seeing as how these sets are sort of like a gift from my wife (remember, she bid on and won these sets for me), and seeing as how it's for my permanent collection anyway (I don't do any of that professionally graded card stuff), I'm leaning towards keeping that 1994 set. And since the 1994's have a much "darker" design, I can't exactly expect it to look as "bright" as the 1993 and 1995 sets.

As of this moment, I got about the first 63 cards of the 1995 set peeled. So far the film has come off just fine, but as a warning to those of you who want to collect Finest sets and peel them, you must be very patient and take your sweet time peeling them; no sense risking a dinged corner or (God forbid) creasing the card by pulling the peeling off the wrong way. How I peel them is that I have the card on a flat surface with a couple of my fingers first holding down the side away from where I'm peeling (top left corner usually) and then I put a couple more fingers on the top corner as I'm finishing the peeling. I'm rather surprised the peeling can still come off seeing as how these are eleven year old cards. Geez, has it been that long ago already? I'm starting to feel old.

And I've still got 252 more cards left to peel, but boy do those cards look gorgeous after you peel them and place them in the binder. Now if only other collectors would stop treating the peeling of those cards as committing sacrilege. And I will also say that those 1996 Finest cartons are growing more tempting to get (you can't go wrong for $20-$25 each), but I do have other collecting projects as well as quite limited funds; it sure can be hard to decide which collecting projects get priority, isn't it?

Stone193

One of the things that I found about Finest and Flair that got a bit annoying was all the scratches and roller marks.

The cards look great until ya hold them up to the light.

I did buy into the style of card tho and like the design.

mike

Estil

I guess I can now see the wisdom of Topps doing that whole Finest Protector film thing. And yes, I would indeed like to perhaps do a Flair set run also, at least up to 1996. I have Don Mattingly's 1995 Flair card and I must say the design is beautiful with that sparkilly silver background (I think that's for AL players, with gold backgrounds for NL players). As for the 1996 set, they did gold/silver of all the cards. For that set, I'm not sure whether to do an all silver set, all gold set, or have gold for NL and silver for AL like the previous year. Or did anyone build those sets like that?

sagard

After the Flair run, Topps Gold Label picked up where they left off. Beautiful cards.

lawnmowerman

In my experience with newer cards and penny sleeves, if left too long the sleeves do damage the cards. Cards like Bowman Chrome and the like develope spots and even worse surface damage. I even had some regular 1994 fleer football cards get messed up by penny sleeves. For long term storage of cards I dont plan on sending in for grading I use BCW vinyl pages.
matt

Estil

<< <i>In my experience with newer cards and penny sleeves, if left too long the sleeves do damage the cards. Cards like Bowman Chrome and the like develope spots and even worse surface damage. I even had some regular 1994 fleer football cards get messed up by penny sleeves. For long term storage of cards I dont plan on sending in for grading I use BCW vinyl pages.
matt >>



Vinyl!? I thought that was long gone because that too could cause damage to cards. For example, I read in a Beckett letter around 1994 or 1995 how a collector was pulling some 1991 Leaf Gold Rookies for trading and the gold foil was actually peeling off onto the vinyl pages, which when he called Donruss, said the problem was fixed in the 1991 Series 2 Leaf, but since the cards were out of print for a few years, there was nothing the company could do in terms of replacing the cards. Beckett themselves recommended using polyprophene (sp?) sheets instead, which I think it what virtually all plastic sheets are made from today, including Ultra-Pro.

Estil

Well, now I've gotten the first 84 cards of the 1995 set peeled and in the binder. Boy this is gonna take awhile...

Anyone else here love to collect Finest (or Refractor) sets?