Buzz 12 in 12: Busting 1,000-plus 1990 Pro Set Series 2 football card packs (Hour 2)

Do you like Buzz Breaks? Today's your day then as we launch 12 in 12 -- a series of a dozen breaks of wax boxes and wax packs in a dozen hours. We'll post one every hour all day long ... this is Hour 2.

The packs: 1990 Pro Set Series 2 NFL (1,000-plus)
The cost: Too much but not that much (Buzz found a deal he couldn't refuse) Get your new NFL boxes by clicking here

What's inside this one? Keep reading ...

Boxes per case: 20
Packs per box: 36
Cards per pack: 15
Cards per box: 540
Cards per case: 10,800
Cards in this lot: 15,000-plus
Base set completion: 
392 of 392 (100 percent)
Duplicates: A boatload but I'm not sorting it all (I'm not that crazy when it comes to Pro Set.)

Notables on base cards – Randall Cunningham, Ronnie Lott, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders, Mike Singletary, Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Andre Rison, Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, Warren Moon, Derrick Thomas, Howie Long, Cris Carter, Steve Young, Jeff George, Blair Thomas, Cortez Kennedy, Junior Seau, Emmitt Smith, Paul Tagliabue, Al Davis

Inserts/oddities: 2,031 or so ... but who's counting? (check out the gallery below)
Santa Claus Collectible (4) – Santa Claus
Commemorative Collectible No. 2 (5) – Paul Tagliabue
Commemorative Collectible No. 3 (2) – Joe Robbie
Special Collectible (7) – SuperPro
Pro Set Special (2) – Payne Stewart
Are You Missing Something? (7) – Andre Rison
Super Bowl MVPs (1,000-plus) – Notables include Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Len Dawson, Roger Staubach, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Fred Biletnikoff, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Marcus Allen
Pro Set Playbook (1,000-plus) – No idea on points ... zero chance I'm scratching them.
Blank-back printing errors (1) – Franco Harris (Super Bowl MVP)
Major miscuts (3) – Tony Stargell, Stan Humphries, Irving Fryar ... and it's a miracle there were not more.

Notable Cards ... By the Numbers (How many did I find?)
Emmitt Smith RC -- 28 (How many are grading-worthy? It's low ... )
Junior Seau RC -- 29
Jeff George RC -- 38
Rodney Hampton RC -- 28
Blair Thomas RC -- 36
Andre Ware RC -- 38
Cortez Kennedy RC -- 39
Bill Romanowski RC -- 45
Jerry Rice -- 35
Joe Montana -- 39
Thurman Thomas -- 29
Derrick Thomas -- 37
Warren Moon -- 35
Steve Young -- 37
Barry Sanders -- 41
Barry Sanders (photo contest) -- 33
Joe Montana Super Bowl MVPs -- 177 (has three cards)
Bart Starr Super Bowl MVPs -- 73 (has two)
Joe Namath Super Bowl MVPs -- 46
Jerry Rice Super Bowl MVPs -- 46

Variations of note (most not valuable but chased by completists ... along with plenty of other minor printing anomalies)
No. 386 Randall Cunningham name type adjustment (18 error, 8 corrected)
No. 449 Dan Hampton DE on back/DT on back (3 error, 28 corrected)
No. 496 Kevin Glover C-G on back/C on back (0 error, 29 corrected)
No. 607 Wes Hopkins red interceptions header/black header (7 error, 24 corrected)
No. 626 Rod Woodson red interceptions header/black header (4 error, 29 corrected)
No. 627 Rod Bernstine TE on back/RB on back (1 error, 40 corrected)
No. 630 Anthony Miller WR on back/WR-KR on back (28 error, 6 corrected)
No. 632 Leslie O'Neal LB-DE on front/LB on front (15 error, 17 corrected)
No. 633 David Richards G-T on back/G on back (29 error, 9 corrected)
No. 657 Curt Jarvis without/with "The Official NFL Card" on front (25 error, 7 corrected)
No. 698 Terry Wooden 51 on back/90 on back (23 error, 8 corrected)
No. 718 Pat Terrell 41 on back/37 on back (30 error, 4 corrected)
No. 723 Oliver Barnett DT on front/NT on front (0 error, 37 corrected)
No. 743 Johnny Bailey 46 on back/22 on back (23 error, 20 corrected)
No. 744 Eric Moore without/with Pro Set Prospect label and helmet (38 error, 0 corrected)
No. 785 Paul Tagliabue Back reads "peered through"/or "poses at" (21 error, 11 corrected)

Autographs/Memorabilia: None ... and none needed. 

What's Buzz-worthy: You're probably thinking one word here ... why? Well, this weekend rip and sort-of sorting project presented itself because the price was right and then also bolstered partly on accident. (And I ripped this one during the weekends if you're reading this one, boss.) My first pick-up was a case was priced too good to be true for Series 2 -- the pricier but not necessarily better of the 1990 releases -- and then the bulk lot of packs presented itself and didn't get attention from anybody but me. (Note: I didn't count the packs before I ripped them but the number touted put this haul at just over 1,000 packs.) With it all in hand, it seemed a case break just wouldn't be enough for this Absolute Craptastic Classic that I appreciate and was truly was a game-changer in its time. Why is that? The concept of a "Living Set" was in full play here with the company correcting mistakes and updating cards during its lengthy print runs throughout the year -- all reflecting news of the time on cardboard and issuing multiple series that all work off of each other. I'd argue that the 1990 release might be the pinnacle of all Pro Set football sets from its 1989-1993 NFL run. ... The cards you see above and then the notable errors and variations are really the only chases here and you can find everything for pocket change, except for maybe the Smith RC. Anything truly pricey (errors) probably wasn't put into packs or is so tough you can't expect to reasonably land them in even this many packs. The Emmitt is a reason that Series 2 cases can command big money, but I can firmly say that after ripping these I'd head back to Series 1 if I got the itch once again. Why? More cards of iconic stars and more memorable errors and variations than those found here. (This one is heaviest on RCs and most were flops.) The rare inserts in this one were allegedly seeded one in every 50 packs in this series and I landed 20 of them in this lot -- so that holds up pretty close, though they definitely didn't fall cleanly in every other box. (My lot of packs might have delivered more than the case but I didn't track what came from where while demolishing these mylar baggies during a few weekends.) The gallery below shows some of the notables, some of the oddities and even some of the weird finds when it comes to the packs, including my last box that had some of the packs in a chain not fully cut apart from each other. There are a ton of other minor printing errors or fixes that are commonly found that some people consider to be variations -- I checked for most of those and found many but didn't list them here. I put a couple in the gallery, though, so you can try to decipher what they are. Pro Set was a game-changer that got many of us ripping boxes like maniacs chasing inserts, errors and Rookie Cards more than other brands back in the day. If you weren't there, you probably don't understand. If you were, I hope you do ... otherwise, why did you read this far into my madness? A big reason to look back at these while the boxes are still cheap? Grading -- and the cutting of these cards can be brutal. I'm not sure a BGS 10 Black can even truly exist for any card. (Out of more than 3,300 slabs, there are no 10s of any kind ... but I will do my best to see if anything makes the cut here. Ironically, more than 2,600 of those graded are Emmitt Smith.) I could probably write another 1,000 words on this one, but I'll let the cardboard speak for itself below ... besides, I'm tired from all that ripping and sorting.

Product Grade: A (it gets an A+ between all three series) 
Lot Grade: A-
Fun Grade: B+

What's next? Be back in an hour ... back to the recent stuff for (almost) the rest of the way.

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