COMC Black Friday: Part Four - Cards from before the 1999 expansion return

Okay, this post won't have very many cards. This COMC order didn't have too many cards from before 1999, but I'm very happy to have picked most of them up.


Some time last year I became aware of the 1978 Topps Holsum football card set. Upon looking around, I found the one Browns card in the set at a good price on COMC and snapped it up.

I wasn't familiar with Holsum breads, but I'm very happy to add a new oddball to my collection.


An interesting tidbit that was pointed out in the description of the set on the Beckett website is that there is no mention of Holsum anywhere on the card even though the cards came in their loaves of bread.


Cards that I have been aware of since the late 1980s are the Fleer Team Action sets. I picked up a number of packs of the 1987 set while on a vacation in the US at that time. As a kid I thought they were okay, but I didn't like that they were team cards and didn't focus on players.


Now, as a collector, I have done a good job of picking up most of the cards and stickers of their sets, and here are two more stickers to add to my collection.

Left: 1985 Fleer Team Action Helmet Sticker; Right: 1986 Fleer Team Action Helmet Sticker

It is sometimes difficult to figure out exactly what year each sticker was issued, and I have received improperly identified stickers in the past from eBay, but if you're looking into Fleer team stickers I highly recommend The Fleer Sticker Project website.


This website let me know that the 1986 stickers had a red back, as opposed to the 1987 ones, which I had from those original purchases on vacation, that had blue ones.


Here are the backs to the above stickers.

Pretty cool prizes on the back of the 1985 sticker. Back then I would have loved the jacket and autographed team football, but now I find the trading card proof sets to be a more interesting prize.


The next card may look familiar to football collectors, but is a little different.

Okay, that is the same picture and design as the regular 1991 Pacific card of Eric Metcalf, but as we look at the back of this card...

...we see that it is card number 66 as opposed to the regular card which is number 83.


This is one of the Prototype cards for the 1991 Pacific football card set.


Here is the back of the corrected version of the regular 1991 Pacific card, with a scan borrowed from the Trading Card Database:

Now, I say corrected version of the back, because if you look at the last line of text on this card, there is an error version that says, "Terry is the son of former NFL running back Terry Metcalf."


Knowing that, look at the prototype back...  Okay, the text is different, and they refer to his father, but now look at the sentence in orange above the stat line...  Pretty funny that it is a different error mixing him up with his father.


And above his picture, it says Cleveland instead of the trademarked BROWNS. I like seeing things like that.


I'm really happy to get this prototype. It will look nice sitting next to the error and corrected cards in my binder.


The next card that I picked up doesn't excite me as much, mostly because of the player involved.

1995 Donruss Red Zone Update

This is the only Browns card in the Red Zone Update set. I'm sure I was happy when the Browns originally signed Rison, but I soon became disillusioned with his free agent signing, especially when I heard his comments that he was looking forward to the move to Baltimore, and when I heard that Art Modell needed to get loans to guarantee Rison's signing and that it probably was a factor in the move to Baltimore, well, that just made me love the player so much more. (Please read the sarcasm that was meant in that previous sentence.) And, yes, I know that that is completely unfair, but hey, I feel how I feel. But the card was needed for my Browns collection.


Finally, let's look at a pair of Michel Jackson autographs.

1996 Pro Line Autographs - Blue and Gold

You weren't thinking of that other guy, were you?


It was nice to add these Blue and Gold autographed Michael Jackson cards to the Blue and Gold Keenan McCardell ones that I previously owned.


Some of the Gold autograph cards from this set were numbered out of 250 on the back. Both Browns (well, I guess they were technically Ravens then) players in the set that I have cards for did not number their card backs. Maybe that's why they eventually started actually printing the serial numbers on the card.