30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Cheap Cool Cards #3: 1996 UD "TV Cel" John Elway


Card: 1996 Upper Deck "TV Cel" #6 John Elway
Beckett Value: $10
COMC Price: $2.50

Here's another acetate card that I added to my collection a fews ago. Up until a few weeks ago, I had never seen one of these before. But I was browsing COMC for deals when I came across this card for $1, so I picked it up.

After some research, I discovered that these were redemption cards that Upper Deck sent out if you sent in a winning predictor card. Do any of you remember these? I loved this gimmick that UD used to interact with collectors. The premise was simple. Predictor cards were inserted into packs. Each predictor card had a player with a specific goal. These Elway TV Cel cards were the prizes for one of two different predictor cards.

The first predictor card required that Elway pass for 350 yards in a game. The other required him to have 30 completions in a game. He accomplished both feats, so if you had either of these predictor cards, you could send them in for the TV Cel card above.

I never pulled any of the 1996 UD "NFL Predictor" cards, but I did participate in their "Crash the Game" program, which is similar to the "Predictor" program. I'm not an expert, but I think they're generally the same concept. One difference I noticed was that the Elway "Predictor" card was over the course of the season, while the "Crash the Game" cards had specific goals for specific games.

It's been over 15 years, but I think that when I sent in a winning "Crash the Game" card... I was sent a specially marked "Crash the Game" set. Did anyone else participate in this program? Do you remember the prizes?

I also know that there were different versions of the "Crash the Game" cards. For example in the 96/97 NHL Collector's Choice "Crash the Game" series there were silver and gold cards. The gold cards were tougher to pull. I'm assuming that you received a special gold set if you sent in a winning gold card, but once again I'm not 100% sure.

I'm not a big fan of most of these "Crash the Game" designs, however the concept was cool. I'm not going to lie, every time I pulled one I was excited because I knew I might win something. With the 1996 NFL UD "Predictor" cards, not only did the collector get the thrill of seeing if the player would win them something, but the actual prize turned out to be a sweet acetate card.

And if you've read my posts before... then you know that I Love Acetate!

Thanks for reading... Have a great weekend.

2 comments:

Charles @ Hoopography said...

I love Acetate too!!! They're such cool cards. That Elway TV Cel is great and I think $2.50 for a really neat John Elway insert is quite the deal. Good Stuff Mark!!!

I never did participate in the Predictor or Crash the Boards contests, even though I have a ton of thos cards.

SpastikMooss said...

I have a post about YCTG somewhere on my blog. I had a Griffey Jr. back in the day where he had to hit a homer, and HE DID! I sent it in, and got the card a month or two later. Still one of my favorite cards to this day!