Sorry about the long delay between
postings. Work has been busy.
A Really Bad Set of over 300 Cards
In previous posts, I have talked about the Junk Wax or Junk Era for sports cards that ran from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. During this era, the sports card companies went crazy producing virtually any kind of set that was eaten up by the customer, which had changed from kids to collectors. A lot of really bad sets were produced in this era, because mostly anything that was printed basically ended up selling OK with hoarding collectors.
4. A special subset had player’s wives showing
off the officially licensed NFL women’s wear.
Player’s wives?!?!?
And so this atrocious set was born.
There still is a very active secondary market
for these 1991 Pro Line autographs on eBay, and several collectors are
passionate about trying to put together autographed sets (footnote 4).
In conclusion, there is no market for non-autographed cards from
this set and such cards are truly junk. Please throw all cards from this set in the recycle bin, so as to save some trees from being cut down and to save the the world from the embarrassment of this set.
A Really Bad Set of over 300 Cards
In previous posts, I have talked about the Junk Wax or Junk Era for sports cards that ran from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. During this era, the sports card companies went crazy producing virtually any kind of set that was eaten up by the customer, which had changed from kids to collectors. A lot of really bad sets were produced in this era, because mostly anything that was printed basically ended up selling OK with hoarding collectors.
The 1991 Pro Line football set is the
worst-of-the-worst in my opinion because it took sports cards farthest away
from anything that a kid or even a sports fan would want to own. In the 1991 Pro Line football set of 300 cards plus some inserts, there are:
1. No action pictures. Most of the poses were sort of ridiculous
vanity shots that kids sometimes now get for their high school yearbooks. The pictures seem to have little connection
to the players, their personalities or their positions.
2. Almost no player information on the backs of cards. Instead, there are inane paragraph-long observations by the player profiled about what
it’s like to be a rookie or star or whatever.
The cards had no stats, no schools, no player measurements, and no
player trivia. They were worthless for
player information.
3. Most of the cards shamelessly display players wearing
official NFL-licensed merchandise. This
set was more of a catalog for officially licensed NFL merchandise than a
football card set.
Caption: On the left, Erik Howard of the Giants displays his officially
licensed NFL T-shirt and shorts while seemingly trying to hold in a massive
dump. On the right, Eric Allen shows off his flat-top haircut,
Why?
This set was the brainchild of a person at NFL Properties,
which was the producer of the Pro Line set and not a sports card company. Printing and distribution had to have been
outsourced to other parties.
I can just see the conversation at NFL properties that got
this set going:
Executive #1: We
should go directly into the sports card business. Those things are selling like hotcakes.
Executive #2:
Yeah. People will buy
anything. Donruss put out this crappy baseball
set called ‘Studio’ this summer with pictures of players that looked vanity
shots from a high school year book.
People bought’em. (footnote 1)
Executive #1: Really? No way.
Executive #2: Yep.
And the best part is you don’t have to spend money on game photographers
or even going to games. You just take artsy
looking still shots of players.
Executive #1: What if we put the players in NFL
merchandise? The commissioner says we
need to sell more of that stuff.
Executive 2: What about the women’s merchandise?
Executive 1: The players have wives don’t they?
Executive 2: Awesome.
You’re a genius.
Caption: On the right, Jennifer Montana’s rear end is used on this insert card to hawk the
NFL’s ‘Spirit Collectible’ line of women’s clothing. On the left, Babette Kosar models a ‘Spirit
Collectible’ team jacket while contemplating how she will have to divorce her
husband Bernie when he burns through all his money. I own and keep these cards only for their schlock value.
In Reality...
In terms of history, the 1991 Pro Line set did create some
friction between the NFL and the Player’s Association (i.e., the NFLPA or
player’s union). The sports card companies
had been getting legal permission to use the players’ images through the NFLPA
and were paying royalties to the union.
NFL Properties went directly to the individual players in the 1991 Pro
Line set and each was paid $5000 for participating and signing off on their
image rights for this set (footnote 2).
The relationship between the NFL and the NFLPA was already icy in 1991,
so NFL Properties probably saw no need give the union more money, because such money was
often used to file lawsuits against the NFL.
No independent card company would have likely risked the wrath of the
NFLPA in signing so many players directly and not going through the union. Such a company would have risked not getting
a license from the union in future years if the direct-to-players move did not
work out.
In defense of the 1991 Pro Line set, it did have one
innovation, which was putting autographed versions of the cards (about one-per-wax
box) in the product. Also, the autograph
cards contained stickers or stamps to verify that they were genuine, which was
ahead of its time in 1991. That being
said, NFL properties sort of blew the autograph inserts by having players sign
the cards on the back. (footnote 3) This
makes the cards less presentable for the collector.
Caption: Nick Lowery, in a very flattering pose, shows off
his officially licensed NFL shorts and shirt.
For some reason, three pairs of shoes and a Chiefs helmet are placed
randomly around Nick for ambiance. I am throwing this card out after this post.
Market reception of the set seemed to be poor by
1991 standards (footnote 2). My guess is
that the autographs became a part of the set after focus groups “threw up” on
the cards for being so bad. Despite the
modest reception, the NFL continued to produce two more Pro Line sets in 1992
and 1993. NFL Properties seemed to have
learned a little bit of a lesson by 1992, as the 1992 set had more action shots
of players in real games interspersed with vanity photos. Also, the hawking of NFL clothes was more
subtle. By 1995, NFL Properties had sold
the ‘Pro Line' name to Classic Games and was out of the card business.
There are still plenty of factory sealed Pro Line 1991 football
boxes around and they sell on eBay for around $12-15 when shipping is included
(footnote 5). This is less than they
cost collectors when they originally came out.
Without the possibility of an autograph in each box, I suspect they
would sell for much less.
In closing, what made the 1991 Pro Line set so truly awful is how far it strayed from what many sports card enthusiasts, myself included, feel is great about sports cards, kids and collecting. Putting aside the obvious and ridiculous amount of product placement for NFL licensed clothing, the set seemed to have everything a kid would not want from a set. Imagine that your parents gave you a box of this set by accident back in 1991. You and friends could trade a Phylicia Rashad for a Stacey O'Brien while developing a craving for Zuba Pants.
End Note
Like all other posts, please feel free to make comments. I review all comments before they are posted in order to reduce spam and keep things on topic. Also, it may take me a few days to review comments.
Footnotes
1. The whole vanity shot of players idea was first fully implemented in Donruss' Studio brand of cards starting in summer of 1991. While cards with vanity pictures (and players performing their hobbies and such) had appeared in cards sets before, the Studio brand centered an entire set around "studio" portraits of players. Donruss Studio sets rank high on my list of worthless junk sets.
2. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19911020&slug=1312041
3. Another interesting post on this set can be found here: http://sanjosefuji.blogspot.com/2011/03/good-bad-ugly-3-1991-pro-line-portraits.html . That blog is where I became aware of the autograph location issue, which I have found mentioned in other descriptions of the set.
4. An interesting site that shows one person's passion for these autographs can be found here: http://bcn33rs.wordpress.com/about/ . My perception of the market for Pro Line autograph cards is from examining all finished auctions on eBay on 11-11-2012.
5. The prices for wax boxes of Pro Line cards is from examining all finished auctions on eBay on 11-11-2012.
