Friday, September 25, 2009

Video Box Break and Review: 1995 Leaf Limited Series One

One box of 1995 Leaf Limited Series One
20 packs per box, five cards per pack

The Video


(fast forward to 7:50)



The Pulls

Base Set: 79 of 96 (82.29%)

Parallels
20 Gold (24 cards, one-per-pack)

Inserts
1 Lumberjack (eight cards, 1:23, numbered to 5000) A. Belle

Autogamers: NONE

The Review

1995 Leaf Limited. Ahh yes, I remember it well. In the era before autographs, game used cards, and obscenely scarce parallels, Leaf Limited was the ultimate. It was Donruss' answer to the new wave of "super-premium" products like Topps Finest, Flair, and SP, and it more than held its own weight.

14 years later and time has not been kind to '95 Leaf Limited. The first series was one of the first to feature a "true" rookie card of Hideo Nomo. Back then, collectors went bonkers trying to find a Nomo. But Nomo never really developed into the Hall of Fame pitcher everyone in 1995 was convinced he'd be. And while only 45,000 serial-numbered waxboxes of each series were produced, today you can get three boxes Leaf Limited for about the price of what one box went for in '95.

The base set consists of 96 cards, and are all done in what Donruss called "Spectra Tech" foil -- the rest of us just called it holographic foil. Most of the usual suspects are featured, although such players as Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Greg Maddux were saved for the second series. Each pack had one of 24 Gold cards, a pseudo-parallel set that featured a different photo than the player's base card. The Spectra Tech foil makes the Golds a little more difficult to distinguish from the base cards, however the backs have a gold background, compared to a silver background in the base cards.

The big insert was the 16-card (eight in each series) Lumberjacks. Each card was serial-numbered to 5000 copies -- which in '95 was still considered scarce -- and printed on a wood veneer that gave it the look and feel of a baseball bat. In the era before game used cards, such "material" cards were a Donruss staple.

The Bottom Line

This box yielded about five-sixths of a base set, and five-sixths of the Gold insert. I also pulled an Albert Belle Lumberjack insert, which in 1995 would have been a $30-$40 card.

Product Rating: 3 Gumsticks (out of five)

If you've got $30 burning a hole in your pocket, and want something to bust, pick up a box of 1995 Leaf Limited.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

These cards sure were nice, and they seemed to have aged fairly well, too. Amazing how cards with real, actual thought put into them hold up, isn't it?

Retrofan said...

Maybe i'm the only one, but these live box breaks seem to be less exciting. Chris you don't break loose. I like the raw emotion. This is like your mother is of to the side and you don't want to be impolite. That's just my opinion though.

Wax Heaven said...

I agree he seemed a bit reserved.

Also, don't like how you pronounce Jose's last name!

Chris Harris said...

I had to tone it down a bit, because the Dr. Wax Battle show is a family program. That, and I left my bottle of rum in the car and I actually liked the product.