Learned Something New Today...

[sbfinley]

My "this will never be completed, but it is fun to work on" is my attempt to check off a type of every set listed in the Lemke's 2011 Card Catalogue. For more modern sets occasionally I'll pull an old monster box down with 90's to early 2000's stars and sort them to see if I can find something new. Today I pulled down a box of Frank Thomas and checked off about 40 new inserts from the book. While sorting I came across this card and at first I thought it was just a regular 1995 Donruss Big Hurt base until I noticed the "National Pack Time" logo. Intrigued I checked with BCP and learned something entirely new. From the website:

1995 National Packtime is an 18-card set jointly produced MLB, MLBPA, and the six licensed card companies from 1995 (Donruss, Fleer, Pacific, Pinnacle, Topps, and Upper Deck). The set was issued in large part to drum-up sales of the new 1995 baseball card sets after the devastating strike of 1994-95.
Each of the six companies produced three cards for the set, which was available only through a mail-in offer for 28 wrappers from any of the six companies listed above plus $2.00 for shipping and handling. All orders had to be postmarked by June 30, 1995; any card sets not purchased by that date were destroyed. Topps, Donruss, and Fleer all recycled designs from previous sets (1995 Topps, 1995 Donruss, and 1995 Ultra, respectively).
The cards are numbered on the back "X of 18." An unnumbered offer card, with a checklist on its back, was found in various 1995 baseball products.
An additional second series of six National Packtime cards, known as the "Welcome to the Show" series, were distributed later in the year, in a similar fashion.

Today I learned that most of the major card companies worked together to build back sales following the 94-95 baseball strike.