50 Years of Gem Mint Perfection

I do not have a single Gem Mint 10 in my collection. I have a few 9 OC's, not sure if I even have a straight 9.

Searching...70's may be tough

Closing out the 2000's. Sorry, thought I had a 70's gem mint...only 9's. Doh!

Man, I need one of those 81 Hendersons!

Awesome card. I've tried to get one of those graded and can't seem to find one centered well enough.

@gameusedhoop said:
I'll play...

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Pretty cool. How were these distributed? If in the restaurant, impressive when you take into account the food, kids’ greasy fingers, or getting bent or smashed in the back of the car!

@Geoff76 said:

@gameusedhoop said:
I'll play...

![]

Pretty cool. How were these distributed? If in the restaurant, impressive when you take into account the food, kids’ greasy fingers, or getting bent or smashed in the back of the car!

I appreciate 1986 McDonald's for similar reasons. I remember receiving them and placing them on a try that could have had ketchup BBQ sauce or honey mustard spillage. But if it survived that, I am reaching into my pocket for a penny or a nickel to scratch off the bottom to see if I can get a free milkshake or some other food. So hard to imagine anybody took them home delicately didn't scratch them and stored them well. They dont fit in a penny sleeve or top loaders or plastic sheets. Also think the photography is better than any other football set up to that point. Wish I would have loaded up more when they were cheap.

@UlyssesExtravaganza said:

@Geoff76 said:

@gameusedhoop said:
I'll play...

![]

Pretty cool. How were these distributed? If in the restaurant, impressive when you take into account the food, kids’ greasy fingers, or getting bent or smashed in the back of the car!

I appreciate 1986 McDonald's for similar reasons. I remember receiving them and placing them on a try that could have had ketchup BBQ sauce or honey mustard spillage. But if it survived that, I am reaching into my pocket for a penny or a nickel to scratch off the bottom to see if I can get a free milkshake or some other food. So hard to imagine anybody took them home delicately didn't scratch them and stored them well. They dont fit in a penny sleeve or top loaders or plastic sheets. Also think the photography is better than any other football set up to that point. Wish I would have loaded up more when they were cheap.

There seems to be MASSIVE amounts of unscratched 86 McD cards out there for sale in player and team lots. That might have even been the early beginnings of over abusive back door behavior with retail cards.

Imagine the unused cards though, as I recall the coupons were only good for a short period of time and each set was only available for a short time span. Once the dates of issue passed, they were worthless to the stores.

@mrmopar said:

@UlyssesExtravaganza said:

@Geoff76 said:

@gameusedhoop said:
I'll play...

![]

Pretty cool. How were these distributed? If in the restaurant, impressive when you take into account the food, kids’ greasy fingers, or getting bent or smashed in the back of the car!

I appreciate 1986 McDonald's for similar reasons. I remember receiving them and placing them on a try that could have had ketchup BBQ sauce or honey mustard spillage. But if it survived that, I am reaching into my pocket for a penny or a nickel to scratch off the bottom to see if I can get a free milkshake or some other food. So hard to imagine anybody took them home delicately didn't scratch them and stored them well. They dont fit in a penny sleeve or top loaders or plastic sheets. Also think the photography is better than any other football set up to that point. Wish I would have loaded up more when they were cheap.

There seems to be MASSIVE amounts of unscratched 86 McD cards out there for sale in player and team lots. That might have even been the early beginnings of over abusive back door behavior with retail cards.

Imagine the unused cards though, as I recall the coupons were only good for a short period of time and each set was only available for a short time span. Once the dates of issue passed, they were worthless to the stores.

Yeah, I am confident a lot of store managers just slid the stacks of them out the door when they closed up. I feel like I bought a team set of Eagles for the Randall Cunningham like 12 years ago and it had a band on it, as if never broken up and distributed to customers. But dont think any were Gem Minty. Even with maybe that sneak it out the back door strategy dont see a lot of PSA 10s. Wonder about that with the Taco John Kurt Warner too. Would love to find an old Taco John employee with a stack of sets no taco purchasers ever got their mitts on.

@threeofsix I've Zero post 1994 Slabbed cards as it's outside my focus, it is OK if I do 1970-1995 years only? If yes i will include at least 1 trek card