Completed master set – one last look at 1995 Topps

With that Travis Fryman Spectralite Pre-production card from a few posts ago – it’s time to do the 1995 Topps Master Set post.  I’ve now completed all my Topps master sets through 1997!  Here’s the info for this master set.

Info about my base set:

How I put the base set together:

• 298 cards from series 1 retail box
• 214 cards from series 2 retail box
• 102 cards from trades
• 41 cards I already had from back in the day
• 4 cards from eBay
• 1 card from Sportlots

Card that completed my set: #446 – Andres Galarraga

Best card (my opinion): #203 – Randy Johnson

Check out this link to see the rest of the base set post.

My “Master” Set Info:

939 cards – 660 “base”, 165 “update”, 92 “insert” (82 flagship, 10 update), 22 “other”

• Update set:  Traded
• Insert sets:  League Leaders, Finest Total Bases, Cyberstats Season in Review, Opening Day, At the Break Power Boosters
• Promo sets:  Pre-Production / Pre-Production Spectralite, Shawn Green Proof, National Packtime

How I put the additional sets together:

• Traded – 160 cards from the Update wax box, 1 card from Sportlots, 4 from Beckett Marketplace
• Inserts –  12 cards from s1/s2/update boxes, 4 I already had from before I started this whole project, 5 cards from trades, 31 cards from Sportlots, 18 cards from eBay, 16 cards from COMC, 6 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• Promos –  the 9 regular cards I had from back in the day, 1x Shaw Green proof from COMC, 1 Spectralite from a trade, 5 Spectralite from eBay, 2 Spectralite from COMC, 1 Spectralite from Sportlots, I got all 3 National Packtime from Sportlots

Toughest card to track down:  Pre-Production Spectralite #PP5 – Travis Fryman

I posted about how hard this damn card was to track down.  I actually found a rarer “proof” version before I could find the actual card that could be found in the 1994 Topps factory – we’re talking like a decade of searching for this.

Update set composition:  165 cards (114 single MLB player cards, 14 Draft Picks, 2 On Deck, 2 Tops Prospects, 1 Star Track, 12 Rookie of the Year Contenders, 10 At the Break, 9 All-Stars, 1 checklist)

In the update set not in the base set:  28 players (including the 4 players on the Prospect card)

Total in base and update sets:  595 different players.  Or 60% of the 1994 MLB rosters.

Here’s the link for the Update completed set post.

Other product bests

Most notable insert card:  Traded Finest #7 – Frank Thomas

There just aren’t much I’d call “notable” as far as inserts now – but Finest was a hit thing that Topps was taking advantage of at the time and this Bonds card from that insert set seemed like it’s the best one to point out for that.

Best Insert card (my opinion):  Traded At the Break Power Boosters #2 – Ken Griffey Jr.

These were really cool cards with thicker card stock – and in 1995 the projections for players who weren’t gonna play a full season due to the strike were interesting.  I’d say Griffey’s card here is the best insert of this whole product.  In part because the regular old inserts from the main product were lackluster to put it lightly compared to the competition at the time.

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