Even though Ultra is my favorite brand, this is probably my least favorite design for the brand. The Ultra logo is quite large, and seems oversized (even though it takes up less space than the previous two year's design elements) The names being vertical is not something I like. The card stock is extremely thin and flimsy. Even so, I'm still trying to complete it and it's one of my favorite sets for the 1994-95 Season.

UD got a lot of run out of this design. I know it appears in multiple sports. I like it enough, and it's easy to remember which season it goes to, but for UD the best was yet to come.

At this point, and for the rest of the SLU run, they were using a design from the previous NBA season for their issues. After being with Topps the previous season, Hoops got the call this year.

This set is listed as 1995, but it's actually 1994. The cards are copywritten 1994. They have a subset honoring the 1994 Hall of Fame inductees. But the redemptions expired in 1995, so Beckett calls them 1995, and everybody else follows suit. *sigh*. At only 38 cards this is the smallest NBA release ever issued in packs. A box of these may be the first NBA box I ever opened- with 1990-91 Hoops and 1994-95 Hoops. That information is lost to history but my gut is telling me that I got all three that day and that I did this one first because it was the smallest, lightest box. There's no way to ever know. I DO know that I pulled my first expired redemption ever from this set- and I finally "redeemed" it, when I bought the card I would have gotten on COMC in 2016, 20 years later. Complete

Complete! Here we go with the 1995-96 releases. I discovered the NBA in February 1996, meaning these were the cards still on the shelf when I discovered the sport, and were current. I have so many memories of these sets that I could write about them all day, and not run out of things to say. (Of course, nobody would likely care because it would be memories of things involving family members and people I went to school with, who nobody in the card-verse knows about). For example: I bought an open factory set of this set on the last day of 5th grade, so April 1996, from my classmate Ed Ibanez. It wasn't complete, he had taken some of the cards he wanted. I finally got the missing cards over the years and completed it in 2002.

I believe E-XL may have been the last set issued during the 1995-96 regular season. I don't remember for sure. Back then it was a little expensive for me so even to this day I've only got 58 of the 100 cards in the set. I really should work on getting the rest. I actually want to get every base card of the 1995-96 season...it should be doable, there are no super rare or expensive cards from the entire season, at least not in base sets.

Although it's not complete, I have a lot of 1995-96 Finest. I didn't get them when they were new, but that's OK.

Flair from 1995-96 has a really sparkly metallic design, but it doesn't scan well no matter what I do. I just got this card in trade last year.

Complete! Here we go...the first set I got. I've told this story before, but here it is again. In 1996, I was in 5th grade. My mom worked at my school and noticed that pretty much everyone in my class- all my friends- collected NBA cards. I did not. I had already been collecting NASCAR since 1992 and non-sports since 1988, but nobody else in the school collected either of those. I was getting left out, which I didn't really notice but she did. So, for Valentine's Day, she gave me a single pack of 1995-96 Fleer Series 2. I can only remember two of the 10 cards that were in that pack...this is one of them. (Literally, the actual second card in my collection is the one that I scanned). The other, the first card (Sam Cassell) is on pretty much every other list I mention this set on.

Later that night I found the Knicks-Hornets game on MSG. I was hooked. The NBA took over my life, and pretty much every waking moment was spent on it from 1996-06. In 06, I was burned out...I was no longer enjoying it, and I walked away, not looking at my cards or even thinking about them until 2011. When I was getting back into them, in 2011, I couldn't remember what year some insert was. An internet search led me to the Database. I've been here ever since! Unfortunately, I don't remember which card it was I was looking up! I finally completed this set on January 9th, 2003.

I'm still in contact with most of my friends from school who I collected with back then. I'm the only one who still collects. There's only one core member of our trading group who I am not in contact with- it doesn't appear he has any social media accounts at all.

I am actually working on trying to build a "Master Collection" for this set- every insert as well as every base card. I still have a ways to go.

This was the 2nd NBA set I added to my collection in February 1996...I finally completed it on COMC! I know for sure my first coach card came from this set (Jim Lynam of the Bullets) and the first Insert I remember having came from this set- although I know it wasn't. 1995-96 Fleer promised an insert per pack. I just don't remember which one it was.