Buzz 8 in 8: Busting 1991 Pro Set Series 1 NFL cards (Hour 6)

Do you like Buzz Breaks? Today's your day then as we launch 8 in 8 -- a series of a eight breaks of wax boxes and wax packs in as many hours today. We'll post one every hour ... this is Hour 6.

The box: 1991 Pro Set Series 1 football cards
The cost: Can vary a lot for this one ... see new NFL boxes here

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

Packs per box: 36
Cards per pack: 14
Cards in this box: 504
Base set completion: 
Not likely (I love ripping this -- but hate sorting this year)
Duplicates: Plenty ... as many as three of some cards

Notables on base cards – Joe Montana, Mike Singletary, Bruce Smith, Jim Kelly, Derrick Thomas, Dan Marino, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Earl Campbell, Thurman Thomas, Ty Detmer, John Hannah, Whitney Houston, Raghib Ismail, Emmitt Smith, Scott Norwood, Bo Jackson, Herschel Walker, Tim Brown, John Elway, Paul Tagliabue, Bill Belichick (RC), Andre Reed, Troy Aikman, John Elway, Michael Irvin, Mike Ditka, Anthony Munoz, Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnson, Bernie Kosar, Howie Long, Don Shula, Deion Sanders, Steve Young, Derrick Thomas, Cornelius Bennett, Eric Dickerson, Reggie White

Inserts: 43 (a sampling of everything in the gallery)
World League (36) – Notables include Jason Garrett, Jack Elway, Chan Gailey, Roman Gabriel
World League Helmets (4) – San Antonio Riders, Barcelona Dragons, Sacramento Surge, Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks
Super Bowl NFL Collectible (1) – Super Bowl XXV
Pro Set Specials (2) – Walter Payton, Red Grange

Autographs/Memorabilia: Not this time

What's Buzz-worthy: If you weren't collecting football cards between, say, 1989 and 1991 then you might not realize how good the releases were from Pro Set during that time in that they made cards covering all aspects of the league in what was called a "living set" philosophy that meant updates to cards during the season, a few series and even cards that can update previous years' history-based insert sets. Pro Set changed the game for football for a short time and was surpassed by other companies with flashier stuff that wasn't as overproduced as nearly everything was from this company. This one is a little more pricey in some instances than other boxes largely due to one Rookie Card -- a RC of somebody you might not expect -- Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick. In top grades, that card can pay for plenty. Hit that link and switch to completeds and you can see that a PSA 10 of that card consistently goes for about $175. It's not easy to land a 10 but the cutting on these can be a lot cleaner than the previous year so it's not an impossible task. Errors and variations are plentiful here but this year is a little more boring. Most of them are cards with and without the NFLPA logo on the pack but some like the Derrick Thomas record-breaker card showing him with the Buffalo Bills can be rarer and slightly more pricey than people might expect as they discount the appeal of cards from this era simply because they are available. (Error cards aren't assured in every box, of course.) This box was a strong one for its time with two of its special inserts in the same box (Walter Payton and Red Grange) but ultimately there's not a lot of expensive cardboard to be found here beyond high-grade specimens of key cards. The photography here is top-notch as is the checklist that includes a number of surprises such as Whitney Houston on a card for the Super Bowl, Heisman winner Ty Detmer before he was supposed to be found in packs, U.S. soldiers watching games during wartime, and other subsets (refs!?!) and inserts that included past greats, today's stars even a sampling of players from the World League of American Football with some names you might recognize. The card backs are encyclopedic by today's card standards and I could have easily shown you plenty more images in that gallery between notable players and good photos. It's a fun break for its time, especially if you happen upon error boxes, though all of the draft picks are in Series 2 and this one isn't quite as fun as 1990. I wouldn't overpay for these boxes by any means -- I've seen this series as high as $25 a box, which is too much -- but the last two I landed were about $12 and $4 so they evened each other out ($10-15 is probably the norm). You probably had to be there but Pro Set was ahead of its time by including chase cards and inserts that got you ripping into multiple boxes instead of just one or two to build a set.

Product Grade: A- 
Box Grade: A+ (two special inserts when none were guaranteed per box)
Fun Grade: B+

What's next? Be back in an hour ...

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