Pro Set football cards were released at the height of my interest in professional football. They had a lot going for them at the time, especially in that the photos looked great and the prices were right. Unfortunately, they flew too close to the sun and things fell apart quickly. One of the first I looked into when I returned to card collecting was to find out whatever happened to Pro Set. Here's a pack I bought online recently from 1993, the company's last full set of NFL cards.
14 - Johnny Bailey Stat Leaders - I had never seen this set before, so I knew that the first card would be a surprise, no matter what it looked like.
369 - Mike Tomczak - On first glimpse, the design isn't great, but it still contains most of the elements that made me interested in the 1990 and 1991 sets. (The absurdly low prices for entire boxes were a big draw, too.) That '93 Pro Set' logo is awful and almost unreadable, however.
179 - Keith McCants - Here's a look at the back. A second full color photo is a nice touch. These are pretty light on stats (last 3 seasons), even when looking at offensive players at skill positions.
259 - Chris Doleman - Another sign that I used to be a lot more interested in the NFL than I am now is that I've actually heard of most of the players in this pack. I'm sure I couldn't say the same about a pack from 2018, even though my favorite team just won the Super Bowl.
444 - Mark Rypien - Speaking of Super Bowls, here's a former Super Bowl MVP.
399 - Steve Young - Back to back Super Bowl MVPs, in fact.
114 - Vinny Testaverde - And here comes Vinny to break the streak we had going.
79 - Jim Harbaugh - So many quarterbacks.
210 - Patrick Bates - Bates was a rookie safety in 1993.
30 - Troy Aikman - Another star QB and Super Bowl MVP.
60 - Vinnie Clark - Not the best photo here. I'm not sure if Pro Set still had access to the NFL's photo archives at this point or not.
41 - Mark Stepnoski - Here's Aikman again, this time behind his center.
1 - Marco Coleman - Coleman was Pro Set's Rookie of the Year. The actual ROYs that season were Carl Pickens (offense) and Dale Carter (defense).
220 - Greg Robinson - Another Raiders rookie.
150 - Edgar Bennett - Finally, here's Bennett, a big back who won a ring with Brett Favre's Packers.
