Friday, July 30, 2010

1989 Pro Set #101 Simon Fletcher

Simon Fletcher was a defensive end for the University of Houston from 1982 to 1984. That 1984 Cougar team was co-champion of the Southwest Conference.

After his college career, he was selected by the Denver Broncos in the 2nd round of the 1985 NFL Draft. He played for the Broncos from 1985 to 1995. Fletcher is tied with DeMarcus Ware for the NFL record for most games in a row with a sack (10). He also holds the Broncos' record for career sacks (97.5)

Today's card is the 1989 Pro Set #101. I know Pro Set cards were ridiculously overproduced so they have little monetary value, but I still love their look.

Another thing I like about Pro Set cards is the size of the sets. This 1989 set had a total of 561 cards. The 1990 set had 801 cards. Because of the size of these sets, pretty much every starter, some of the backups, and the coaches were all featured on cards.

Today's cards are so focused on stars that positional players like linemen and non-stars in other positions like defensive back are rarely featured. If you like to collect only stars, the current format is great. If you have other collecting goals like players from a certain college or all of the active players on a pro roster, you may be out of luck.

I understand the economics of this. Cards have become so expensive that a collector may feel cheated if the monetary value of a card is too low because of the player featured. It's just a shame that this is the case. But manufacturers generally try to give the public what they want, so we have only ourselves to blame.

1 comment:

Commishbob said...

I loved that set. Got me back into card collecting (at least for awhile). The 1990 set was even more overproduced. But the cool thing was that you could actually go to convenience stores and the like and get a pack for 50 cents or so. Kids at my school would bring them in to trade. We had a lot of fun with them. I'd go out and pick up a pack and hope to find a card I needed. It was just like the good old days. Now they have packs at Target and they run $4 or so. Kids don't have that kind of $ to drop. It's become an elitist hobby. And a lot less fun.