1996 Finest set was released in two series. Standard boxes in each series contained 24 packs with 6 cards per pack and a SRP of $5. Boxes contained a full-size reproduction of a base card with players like Troy Aikman #134, Vinnie Clark, and Clay Matthews among others featured.

The set consists of a 359 card checklist, 191 for series 1 and 168 for series 2. 220 Common Bronze, 91 Uncommon Silver, and 48 Rare Gold cards make up the complete set. This is the first year Finest made this essentially a set of subsets, with Destroyers, Freshman (series 2 only), Future, Playmakers, and Sterling subsets or Themes.

Silver and Gold cards made up part of the chase for inserts, the bigger chase are Refractors. Collectors could expect to see in a given box 6 Silver and 1 Gold base card with 2 Bronze Refractors. A Silver Refractor fell once every other box and a Gold Refractor once every 12 boxes.

Rumor has it that fewer than 150 of each Gold Refractor was produced. However it should be noted on the baseball side that one collector managed to amass over 220 Greg Maddux Gold Refractors.

Pro Bowl Jumbo cards wre distributed at the 1997 NFL Experience Pro Bowl show in Hawaii and measure 4"x5 5/8". The enlarged 5"x7" versions were made available during the same time.