1998 Metal football cards

I've mentioned before my love for the 1998 Metal set, with it's unique design with a non-baseball photograph behind the player. I've been looking out for a cheap complete set, as I don't want to spend $100 for a 220 card set. It seems that whenever I don't check eBay, someone auctions a set off for $20-30, but when I check regularly those are never there. I did however come across a cheap lot of 1998 Metal football cards, and I ended up winning a 60-card lot for about $5. I'm not really looking to collect this set but they make a nice addition to my football card collection, and I'd still like to pick up the NY team cards from the football and basketball sets.

Fantastic card of Chris Calloway here. The World Trade Center dominates the photo, of course, but it is also a great view of the whole Financial District, the Lower East Side, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and even downtown Brooklyn.

Moving to midtown with Jason Sehorn, who was always one of my favorites. Hard-hitting DBs have always been a favorite of mine. This appears to be a sunset shot dominated by the Chrysler Building. The 59th Street Bridge (Queensborough Bridge) and the smokestacks of the Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City are in the background, while the Socony-Mobil building, across the street from the Chrysler Building on 42nd and Lexington, is visible at Sehorn's feet. Today there would be several more skyscrapers in this shot.

As great as skyline shots are, street-level shots are even more fun, because that is where we actually can go. That is why this card of Wayne Chrebet is the one I was most excited to get. You can see behind him the Chrysler and Socony-Mobil buildings, making it pretty easy to place this photo. The giant Jet is making his catch on Lexington Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets. Next to him is 320 Lexington Avenue, an apartment building constructed in 1880. On the next block you can see a green awning and just make out the name of the restaurant, Fagiolini, which opened in the 1980s and closed around 2012. In the foreground are a yellow cab as well as another car, whose license plate number Metal left in full view.

The non-New York cards are lots of fun too. Lots of landscapes, random machinery, and photos of the team's namesake (a Chicago Bear with a bear, a Pittsburgh Steeler in a steel factory), etc. One thing that threw me was the use of the team name "Tennessee Oilers". I had completely forgotten that they didn't change their name to Titans until their second season in Tennessee.