Pro Set

The football brand that took over the checkout aisle.

Pro Set arrived in 1989 with big print runs, low prices, and shameless cross-branding: Santa Claus cards, Trump card, Saddam Hussein card, a Lombardi Trophy hologram. The design was clean, the checklist was massive, and every 7-Eleven in America sold packs. Pro Set is the junk-wax era's football-and-oddball anchor. Went bankrupt by 1994; the brand never fully recovered.