The baseball card purist in me cringes when I see the Topps Finest cards from the second half of the 1990s. At the time, Finest was a popular, high-end brand and had done some innovative things with cards that are still around today. Namely, the brand created the refractor cards. The 1995 Finest was the start of a short-lived, terrible "innovation".
So, what was cringeworthy about the 1995 Topps?
Let's look at this week's Ray Lankford card.
I love this photograph of Ray Lankford batting and wearing sunglasses. The blue, road Cardinals hat is an added bonus. What the heck is stamped across his face? It's actually a protective coating that was supposed to protect the surface of card from surface flaws. It is hideous. Definitely cringeworthy.
Why was this a thing?
I have long been tempted to go through my boxes of late 1990s Finest cards and rip all of the "Finest Protector" sheets off, but at the same time this is how the card came out of the pack. This has all the trappings of a good mid-1990s baseball card, but the fact that I even have to think about whether to peel a plastic protector off the card is a huge negative in my book.
Back of the card.
Finest has always been overrated to me. I hate the peels, most of the refractors didn't look that great, and now the greening. I try to avoid these cards whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of Finest. The initial sets were really good. Some of the more recent sets have been good, but Topps was on the struggle bus for about a decade with this product.
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