The 1995 Fleer Ultra baseball card set is considered by many collectors to be one of the most valuable modern issues in the hobby due to several highly coveted rookie cards and inserts it contains. Issued in packs during the 1995 baseball season, the 375 card Fleer Ultra set featured today’s biggest stars when they were young players just breaking into the Majors. Several factors have contributed to immense interest and skyrocketing prices for the top rare 1995 Fleer Ultra cards over the past twenty-five years.
Perhaps most notably, the 1995 set contains the premier rookie card of baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr., widely considered the most valuable modern baseball card in existence. Griffey had already established himself as a budding superstar by 1995 with several All-Star appearances and was on his way to becoming one of the game’s greats. His Ultra rookie card has steadily accrued value and today high graded PSA 10 examples routinely sell for over $10,000 in auction. The rarity and condition of the Griffey rookie make it a true prized possession for collectors.
Another hugely valuable 1995 Fleer Ultra card is the incredibly rare hologram parallel of Chipper Jones. Only a tiny number of these printing plates are believed to exist featuring the Hall of Famer’s image in extruded holographic foil. Grading services like PSA have verified less than 10 Gems of the Chipper holo in their population reports. A PSA 10 sold at auction in 2018 for an astronomical $100,000, showing just how coveted and well-preserved examples are. The unique parallel and card of such a legendary player drive its stratospheric value.
The 1995 set also holds claim to Miguel Cabrera’s rookie card, well before he would cement himself as an all-time great hitter still playing today. Cabrera rookie cards have steadily gained value as his Hall of Fame calibre career has unfolded. Highly graded examples in PSA 10 condition have been selling in the $2,000 range in recent years as Cabrera moves up the career stats lists. His rookie honors make the 1995 Fleer Ultra issue an important one to his collecting community.
Perhaps the biggest hidden gem from the 1995 set are the incredibly rare Mike Piazza Futures Game parallel inserts. Only 50 of these futuristic refractors featuring the future Hall of Fame slugger were inserted into packs to promote the annual Futures Game event. Examples rarely come up for sale, and a PSA 10 sold in 2017 for nearly $30,000, setting a record price for the parallel. The unparalleled scarcity and allure of such a low-printed parallel of Piazza make these cards true prizes.
Along with star rookie cards, the 1995 set also included many flashy inserts that have ended up among the most valuable. Arguably the most coveted of all is the 25 card Derek Jeter rookie signature parallel insert set. Only a couple hundred of these autograph parallels are known to exist across all 25 signatures, making each individual card exceptionally rare and desirable. A full PSA 10 set in 2014 sold at public auction for an astounding $250,000, setting a record for any baseball card set. Condition is everything with these fragile autos from a legendary player.
A cousin to the Jeter sig series is the Pedro Martinez MVP parallel insert set. These refractors featuring the soon-to-be Cy Young ace similarly carried extremely low print runs and his autograph was arguably the most desired at the time. High graded full sets of these 25 cards each signed by Martinez have sold for over $100,000 in recent years. Collectors prize the rare parallel autograph inserts of all-time great players like Jeter and Martinez.
While the 1995 Fleer Ultra set may be nearly twenty-five years old at this point, it still represents the early careers of so many acknowledged Hall of Famers and modern statistical titans and as a result interest and prices have only grown over time. From Ken Griffey Jr and Chipper Jones to Miguel Cabrera and Mike Piazza, the significant rookie and rare cards in the set continually gain value as their subjects add to their incredible respective baseball legacies. For those who can afford the ever-appreciating prices, a collection including the above described highly valuable 1995 Fleer Ultra gems would represent a true pinnacle of the modern era of baseball cards.
