To me, there are very few base sets better than 1997 Skybox Premium. The cards featured a very simple yet effective design. The player photos were great action shot cut-outs on top of a star-blurred out background that faded to brilliant team color. The end result is a crisp, vibrant base card that just looks nice. It does not feature a high gloss finish, but just enough to set it apart from the junk wax of the mid 80s.
The inserts included with 1997 Skybox Premium were not the greatest, save one. AUTOgraphics was probably the greatest autograph set I have ever seen. I was not lucky enough to pull any of these in the football release, although I do have a Theo Ratliff from some basketball wax I busted back in the day. The autos are all on-card and also feature a good, clean design, which is probably why they have maintained their value on the secondary market more than a decade after their release. The Emmitt Smith auto can be yours (or mine) for around $200. That’s more than I want to spend for one card at this point in my life, but I would LOVE to have that card! But for now, I’ll settle for this beautiful base card:
What do you guys think? Is this a great base set card, or have I been fishing under power lines too much?
Not bad, but you can tell it was from the mid to late 90s with the color bursts and such. I like to see what is going on around the player in a card, but its a pretty sharp card.