It took a year, but I pieced together the entire 135-card 1995 Select Certified Mirror Gold football set.

These cards are parallels of the base set and were inserted 1 in every 5 packs. What drew me to this set, aside from the beautiful golden-rainbow finish, is that it features photos from the 1994 season, which was the NFL’s 75th anniversary season that saw teams use a variety of throwback jerseys.

The print run for this set is estimated to be just short of 2,000 copies per card. I’d venture to guess I have 1 of maybe 50-100 complete sets.

This is the first complete set I’ve put together since the 1996 Score football set 30 years ago, and that’s a big deal for me. As someone with bipolar disorder, I have a collecting history that matches my life choices: I get deep into something for a little while then get bored and move on, and that explains why my card collection features tons of deep but abandoned chases. I broke that streak by committing to this chase, despite the dozens of individual purchases needed, and I completed it.

Time to rest.