Every time I went to the grocery store, I needed more. Yup, back then cards were pretty much found EVERYWHERE. The one thing that caught my eye about Fleer was its unique color design and its inserts. I had actually put together a decent amount of great looking insert sets I was trying to together from the product such as TD Sensations, NFL Prospects and Pro Vision.
However, one of those insert sets I really wanted a set of was the beautiful Flair Preview inserts. It was a preview to the "high end" product Flair that would soon release. There was just something about it. The design, color and just overall layout had me chasing them down. It was a must have set! And chase I did! Back when card shops and card shows were relevant where I live, I used to go around hunting for those I didn't pull from packs. The good thing about the Flair Preview cards was they were inserted one per pack. The bad thing was, you got a lot of doubles.
I had put together 29 of the 30 card set but one card kept evading me. And it was the one card I wanted the most from the set. Rodney Hampton. My favorite Giants player at the time. I had to have it, not only for the set, but because he was a Giant. The card shop didn't have it. The shows didn't pop up any and I couldn't pull it. So I was stuck. That's where the second half of this story begins.
At this time I was still in school. And we used to write to a trucker who traveled all over the country. And the one thing I would always talk to the trucker about in my letters to him was card collecting. Come to find out he was a collector as well. And I got to talking about missing the Hampton from my set. He said he would do his best to find me one. I thought to myself it was impossible and there was no way he was going to find one.
A few months later, the trucker scheduled a visit to our school. I was out sick that day so i was a little disappointed I wasn't able to ever meet him. But the following day back at school the teacher handed me an envelope with a letter in it. I opened it up and BAM out popped the Hampton! He said he found one on the road after stopping at a few places and was more than happy to help me finish my set. It was one of the most memorable collecting stories I have and still a set in my collection as well.
I did write the trucker back to thank him and tell him I was sorry I missed him. We communicated for rest of the year before I moved on from that classroom. It was a kind thing that he did that I will always be grateful for as a collector.
Sport Card Collectors
Part 3 of the series "The story behind that PC find" will be out later this month.
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If you have any similar stories about one of your PC cards or items please send us an e-mail and let us know at packgambler@gmail.com We might feature you in an upcoming story just as we did with Sport Card Collectors.
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