2012 Topps: "Rookie Patches" Insert Set
2002 Upper Deck Sweet Spot: "Rookie Gallery Jerseys" Insert Set
1997 Proline: "Emerald Autographs" Insert Set
2012 Topps: "Rookie Patches" Insert Set
Jay's Football Cards
My Favorite Memorabilia Sets
My Top 10 List + 2 (Updated April 15th, 2021)
This list is of my favorite Game-Used sets. Even though I am not a collector of strictly Game-Used items, I do collect them as part of sets. In other words, I do spend the time and money putting Game-Used sets together.
The Game Used phenomenon started back in 1996 when Upper Deck and Collector's Edge started the craze with Game-Used Jersey and Game-Used Game Ball Sets, respectively. They turned the hobby upside down. Although, the price of the 1996 Game Ball set has fallen over the past couple years, (due in large part to CE's liquidation after bankruptcy), they are still nice cards. And who in the card hobby doesn't like firsts? The 1996 Upper Deck Game Used Jersey set still remains one of the most sought after sets 15 years after it was released.
In updating my list, 5 Game Used insert sets have since dropped off; 1998 Collector's Edge Advantage “Memorable Moments Game-Used Game Balls”, 1997 Collector's Edge Masters “Playoff Game Ball”, 1996 Collector’s Edge Advantage “Gameballs”, 1997 Collector's Edge Extreme “Game Gear Quads” and the 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars “Dress For Success”. Collector’s Edge who owned 4 of the 10 spots at one time, have now been shut out.
The latest trend now is that 8 of the 10 spots are occupied by sets from 2001. The reason for this is that I do not yet have a lot of memorabilia sets from 1999, 2000 and 2002. A majority of my memorabilia sets are from 2001. Why? I don’t have an answer for that.
The cards shown below are my favorite Memorabilia sets:, insert or otherwise; (Excluding Autograph cards).
1) 1998 Upper Deck: “Game Used Jersey” Insert Set - There may be a lot of Game Used Sets out there, but this is my favorite. One of the best looking Jersey cards I've seen.
1998 Upper Deck: “Takeo Spikes” Game Used Jersey RC#GJ17
2) 2001 Donruss Classics: “Team Colors” Insert Set - Donruss put a gem together here. What an Awesome set.
2001 Donruss Classics: “Moss / Carter / Reed” Team Colors #TC26
3) 2001 Quantum Leaf: “Gamers” insert Set - A simply stunning set. The only drawback that this set has is on card #G9. What card G10 has, G9 doesn’t. Card G10 in the set has 6 jersey patches, one of each of the 1st round 1999 draft QBs. Card G9 has only 3; Elway, Kelly and Marino. It would have been so cool to see an O’Brien, Eason and Blackledge jersey on there too.
2001 Quantum Leaf: “Fred Taylor” Gamers #G5
4) 2001 Playoff Absolute: “Boss / Ground Hogs” Insert Set - This memorabilia set has everything; Flawless layout, sequentially #‘d and nice size shoe patch. Like I said, it has everything but an autograph....oh wait, there’s a parallel for that. Yep, it has everything.
2001 Playoff Absolute: “Daunte Culpepper” Boss Hoggs #GH15
5) 1997 Upper Deck: “Game Used Jersey” Insert Set - Upper Deck created them, so it's no wonder they own 2 of the top 5 spots.
1997 Upper Deck: “Herman Moore” Game Worn Jersey #GJ10
6) 2001 Fleer Tradition: “Rookie Retro Threads” Insert Set - A very unique and memorable set. I love the poses and the card layout.
2001 Fleer Tradition: “Tomlinson / Brees” Rookie Retro Threads #46
7) 2001 Leaf Certified: “Fabric of the Game” Insert Set - An absolutey awesome set. Although, I do not agree with some of player selections, it’s still a set that will keep the collector busy for a long time.
2001 Leaf Certified: “Jamal Anderson” Fabric of the Game #JN-88
8) 2001 Playoff Honors: “Game Day Jersey Souvenirs” Parallel Insert Set - Great layout, player selection and low sequential #‘ing, (they are #’d to 25). Again, I don’t normally put together parallel sets, but this one is a must!!
2001 Playoff Honors: “Randy Moss” Game Day Jersey Souvenirs #GD35
9) 2000 Leaf Rookies & Stars: “Dress 4 Success” Insert Set - Leaf brought the “Dress 4 Success” cards over from the '99 release and gave them a face-lift. The 2000 release was an awesome set to collection and it wasn't easy either. A 50-card insert set of 10 of the NFL's hottest players. I don't see where this set was missing anything.
2000 Leaf Rookies & Stars: “Terrell Davis” Dress 4 Success #D4S-9C
10) 1999 Fleer E-X Century: “Authen-Kicks” Insert Set - The front is busy, but a sequentially #’d shoe card is tough to beat. And the Authen-Kicks set was put together very well. The only flaw might be in the player selection. It’s a little odd.
1999 Fleer E-x Century: “Randall Cunningham” Authen-Kicks #4AK
I like to hold a couple spots for sets that recently fell off the "Top 10" list or sets that just couldn't crack the "Top 10", but should still have a word said about them. So without wasting any more time here is one "Honorable Mention".
11) Honorable Mention 1997 Collector's Edge Extreme: “Game Gear Quads” Insert Set - Even though some cards didn't quite get to the "Quads" level, (Marcus Allen, Drew Bledsoe and Tim Brown, to name a few, only had 2 pieces of memorabilia), this was still a really good set. And this was way back in '97, no less.
1997 Collector’s Edge Extreme: “Eddie George” Game Gear Quad #12D
12) Honorable Mention 1999 Skybox Dominion: “Hats Off" Insert - One of the best memorabilia sets with the '99 rookies of the 1999 football season. And it came with an autographed parallel set. Talk about impressive!!
1999 Skybox Dominion: “Tim Couch” Hats Off #1
