Atomic Awesomeness!

There are some great inserts around from the 90s that I wish card companies would bring back and reintroduce into their products.  Parallels and chase cards nowadays can be complicated and overdone.  How many different color variations does Topps put into some of their sets now?  The fact that there are collectors make whole rainbows, not half a rainbow, out of one players cards should probably tell you that there might be a few too many.

This past week I had the chance to go back in time and chase down a parallel of one of my favorite players.  I've been looking for a 1997 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor of Ray Lankford for some time, but had not been able to pin one down yet.  I found one on Ebay about a year ago and got busy the day the auction closed and missed the card.  Another one popped up recently that I watched for a long time.

1997 Bowman's Best Ray Lankford Atomic Refractor 

I was not sure I wanted to pay more than $5 for this card plus $3 in shipping, but the seller eventually came down and I was able to pick up the card.  I can now say that I have the 1997 Bowman's Best "Rainbow" of Ray Lankford card.  You know, all three of them.

I used to love finding the Bowman parallels in the late 90s when the card set simply had refractors and atomic refractors.  The refractors generally came two per box and atomic refractors came one per box.  Simple, no serial numbers, and no crazy colors upon colors.  The cards are still highly collectable too and many cards fans of the 90s are willing to pay good money to pick up a copy of a refractor or atomic refractor of their favorite players.  Perhaps Topps should try this simple approach with some of their 2014 products.