1995 Finest Refractors

Ok, I know I'm not new to the hobby, but what's the deal with 1995 Finest Refractors? I mean, I can find a few commons on eBay because they're labeled wrong and get them cheap that way, but for the rest of the players, the prices are a little nuts considering at this point, the Finest brand is 3 years old.

George Calfas is an excellent source in this site with any questions regarding 90's Finest. He might chime in.

Set collectors? Registry collectors?

My guess is set collectors. Early year Finest refractors are popular. Same with Bowman Chrome. They are also harder to come by now and people may be willing to splurge a bit more as this stuff gets rarer and rarer (more people putting this stuff into personal collections and sets I'd bet with each passing year). There are also people who hoard this stuff and buy copy after copy of their guy.

I'd expect these type of inserts to just get more and more expensive as time goes by.

theplasticman said:

Set collectors? Registry collectors?

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That's my guess as well, but it's weird to see less 1995 refractors compared to other years, not including 1993 of course.

theplasticman said:

Set collectors? Registry collectors?

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A lot of hoarding back then.

For my player collection I found the '95 Finest Refractor the toughest to find other than the '93. I think there was a theory regarding the 1994 MLB players' strike resulting in decreased production of a lot of '95 product. I'm sure others on this board are more knowledgable about this than me though.


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I've been looking at these for a while, too, as I've been thinking of building a set either of these or 93s. I think there was a dynamic working against the 95 set. The 93 set exploded, obviously, and the 94 set was kind of a dud, nowhere near the excitement of the initial release. In 95, I think dealers ordered less of it, both because of the previous lackluster effort, and the strike's aftershocks where the card market was still in cautionary mode. And then it wasn't heavily broken because it was IIRC the highest price brand at the time, and there was no real reward in it, no major RCs, no super-rare inserts, etc., so no real incentive to break multiple cases of it. And I'm not sure the coating that appeared that year didn't turn some people off, because the cards are dull with the coating on, but if you remove it it's not in 'original condition.' That lower supply, coupled with one of the nicest Finest designs, IMHO, and all the set building and player collecting that's removed so many from the market leads to a very low supply 17 years later.

As to pricing, this was one of the sets that sort of took off with set builders over the past few years. It's calmed down now, but I seem to recall a cycle a while ago that made it very popular and every refractor was salable and set builders were competing for them. And when player collectors see prices jump, they try to get their guy before it becomes too high, which adds to the competition. That lead to triple-digit pricing for some cards and the market is slow to let price-memory fade. Once the small group that is willing to spend whatever for a card has either got theirs or moves on, prices drop on auctions, but they don't for fixed price. So you see people trying to get $290 for a PSA 9 Griffey, which might've been possible once upon a time, but probably not today.

if there are a lot of buyers like me I Try to pick up every puckett example that comes up because they don't show up often

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i remeber when this set came out. i was just starting to collect cards then. I bought pack after pack. So many i was able to finish the set then i found out there are refractors in there. I didnt pull one. And believe me i got tuns of packs back then and I didnt pull not one. maybe they are hard to pull?

There are a few people building sets and a couple others hoarding. I have an incomplete set which I am trying to figure out how best to sell. Singles sell well but I dont have the time and most consigners (who offer reasonable rates) dont wish to mess with selling 1 card at a time.

The print run is solid but the ROI has many people like myself leaving wax sealed. I am sitting on several cases of both Series 1 and Update. My guess is there are a bunch sitting in common boxes.

Anyone interested in my near set please feel free to drop me a line.

I'd take the puckett from you if you decide to split it up

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Ah, thanks for helping clear this up everyone. Still sucks that even commons are commanding a premium. Good thing I just need one, not an entire set!

Oh, and then there's this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-Topps-...0856262108?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item2ec3f755dc

Gwynn's 95 refractor was way harder to find than any other, including 93... I finally dous Gwynn 95 at a small shop in Phoenix in '02. I was glad to pay the $20 asking price. 95's were not one per box were they?

Gwynn545 said:

Gwynn's 95 refractor was way harder to find than any other, including 93... I finally dous Gwynn 95 at a small shop in Phoenix in '02. I was glad to pay the $20 asking price. 95's were not one per box were they?

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2/box (1:12 packs) in both Series 1 and Update.

Slightly off topic - can those uncut sheets be professionally cut? Is there anyone that does it? I mean, there's a good chunk of the set and the condition would be great, if done properly. Could result in some high grade cards too...

I don't see the hype in these. Pretty ugly compared to the 93 imo.

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Still need the Biggio

Luckily I have the bagwell cause there's not a chance in hell I'd pay the amount wanted for these.

predatorkj said:

Luckily I have the bagwell cause there's not a chance in hell I'd pay the amount wanted for these.

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No doubt! Rickey on eBay right now for around $125. I paid about $10-15 for mine.