S̶p̶o̶r̶t̶f̶l̶i̶c̶s̶ Sport Flix1996 Cubs

On Saturday I took a look at the first release of Sportflics.  Today I've got their swan song.

The final set came out in 1996, ten years after the first.  There were. however, a few years during that span (1991 -1993) in which no set was produced.  So that makes this final set their eight release.

The sports card industry saw quite a bit of change during those ten years.  Sportflics came out just as the industry was about to explode.  By the  time of it demise, the industry bubble had burst and Sportflics was one of many casualties.

The company that produced the cards saw plenty of change too.  It's name went from Optigraphics to Score to Pinnacle to belly-up in 1998.

Even the brand name changed, becoming Sport Flix in 1995.  As the company and brand struggled, the set size shrunk.  The 1996 version has only 144 cards.  Among the 144 cards were 24 special UC3 cards.  These have a 3D look to them.  The previous year, Pinnacle had an entire 147-card UC3 set.  Cutting back to only 24 was quite a downgrade.

The Cubs were slotted into just three spots on the checklist.

 

Grace and Sosa got regular cards...

....and Sammy has one of the 24 UC3 cards.  Pinnacle must have been caught off-guard with Ryne Sandberg's return from retirement because the 1996 set is the only one that didn't have a card of Ryno from a season in which he was active.

I've got Sportflics/Sportflix bookends now posted.  In the next couple weeks I'll fill in the rest of the sets.