I was leafing through some 1995 Pinnacle Trophy Collection cards and thought some of the photos looked familiar. Sure enough, I checked my 1995 Select Certified Mirror Gold set and saw that Pinnacle reused some photos from their rookie photo shoots. When the work is good (or you have a short turnaround time), you go with what you’ve got.

After recently finishing the 1995 Select Certified Mirror Gold football card set, I grabbed this uncut sheet because…why not.

The highlights are two rookies of Terrell Davis, Warren Sapp, and Curtis Martin. Pinnacle went bankrupt in 1998 and I’m willing to bet this was sold off at that time.

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.

The 1990s was a whacky time for sports cards, but when they got it right, they created art.