30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, August 20, 2012

Set Showcase #23: 1998 Ultra "Kid Gloves"

A few months ago, I wrote about my love for "embossed" cardboard.  One of the cards I mentioned was this 1998 Ultra "Kid Gloves" insert card of Derek Jeter:


Well... I found someone selling their complete 12 card "Kid Gloves" set on eBay and threw out a bid and ended up winning the auction for $3.99 (free shipping).  Yep... that's 25¢ a card.  You gotta love overproduced, cool looking 90's insert sets.  

Here's a closer look at the set breakdown.

Set: 12 Cards

#1 Andruw Jones, #2 Alex Rodriguez, & #3 Derek Jeter

#4 Chipper Jones, #5 Darin Erstad, & #6 Todd Walker

#7 Scott Rolen, #8 Nomar Garciaparra, & #9 Jose Cruz Jr.

#10 Charles Johnson, #11 Rey Ordonez, & #12 Vladamir Guerrero

I'm a huge fan of the card's design, because it features an embossed glove with a photo of the player in their defensive stances.  They were seeded into one out of every eight hobby packs, so they weren't rare.  But they're still cool looking cards.


Hall of Famers:  0% (0 Players)

Currently none of the players are enshrined at Cooperstown.  But I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing embossed bronze plaques of Jeter, Rodriguez, Jones, and Guerrero within the next decade or so.


Beckett Value:  $15

Derek Jeter is the most valuable card in the set... listed at a whopping $4.  A-Rod and Nomar are both listed at $2.50 each, while Chipper and Vladamir round things out at $1.50 a piece.


eBay Value:  $3.99

I only found one completed sale for this set... my $3.99 purchase.  However, I've seen sales for as little as 35¢ (shipped) for a single Walker and as high as $5.94 (shipped) for a single Jeter.

There's currently a complete 12 card set up on eBay for $4.99 (+ $3.00 shipping), so we'll see if somebody pulls the trigger and picks up this set.

Today's question is about the 1997 AL MVP and 6x MLB All-Star... Mr. Nomar Garciaparra.

Do you think he'll eventually be enshrined in Cooperstown along with some of the other big names in this set?  Why or why not?

Happy Monday everyone.  I hope all of you have a great week.  Sayonara!

15 comments:

Chuck's Used Cards said...

Unfortunately, Nomar's career in Boston came before the Championship years. So chances are, without significant numbers and no trophies he will not make the ballot.

He may alos be best know as women's soccer icon - Mia Hamm's husband.

Anonymous said...

I'm a fan of this set and Ultra in general. I've got the A-Rod in my box of favs.

Zippy Zappy said...

As much as I admired Nomar Garciaparra back in the day (funny how Yankees fans had respect for Nomar like how Red Sox fan's respect Jeter), the man's career became marred with injuries and while the player everyone thought he was going to be would've been a HoFer the real person just couldn't fit that role. He did however give Red Sox fans hope for their first WS title in nearly a century and while he wasn't with the team when they finally did it a lot of people credit Nomar as being a pivotal part of that historic WS run (they even gave him a ring). He was also part of the "golden age" of shortstops who were both offensively and defensively good players along with Cal Ripken, Derek Jeter & Alex Rodriguez. So he'll definitely be remembered by the generation that saw him play but as far as Cooperstown goes, keep in mind that the voters are people who dislike thinking and just look at numbers and according to the self-proclaimed experts he just doesn't have those numbers to make the the impatient voters say "He's in, can I go now?" So while I think it'd be great if he got in, I also think he's unfortunatly not going to get in.
Not like being in the Hall Of The Very Good is anything to be ashamed of though. A lot more feel good stories and childhood idols live there and Topps doesn't shove useless random cards of those guys down our throats every year. (I originally wrote a rant on how Topps and their "printing past greats on random/useless inserts every year" make some players look overrated but to save everyone's lives 3 minutes of reading it and 5 minutes of coming up with a reply out of anger I've replaced it with this long sentence).
So no, I don't think he's getting in. But he will be one of many players I'll tell my grandkids (if I ever have any) that I had the privilege of seeing many eons back when TV shows & music were recorded on black tapes and the only sites people could see on the very cruddy and slow Aol dial-up internet were known as "Google" and "Geocities."

Dan said...

I think he just didn't have enough to get in. He had 6 great to elite years, but he didn't really have many good years to make a whole HOF career. His career was a comet, which is nothing bad, just not everyone can have sustained excellence or goodness to be a HOFer. Interestingly, there is no one with a similarity score above 900 for his career.

Commishbob said...

Dan said it well. He was really good for a short time. He is nowhere close to being a H-O-F player. Nice guy, darn good player, but he has no shot.

Fuji said...

Wow... just looked up Andruw's stats. Didn't realize he hit so many home runs.

You've gotta write up your Chipper & Jones post. Great cards are meant to be blogged about!

Fuji said...

Lol... yeah, you might be right.

Fuji said...

It's just too bad they were so easy to pull. I think this would have been one of those insanely popular sets had they been 1:72 pack pulls.

Fuji said...

I'm with you. That "Golden Age" of shortstops was amazing. The amount of names on that list is truly amazing: Ripken, Rodriguez, Jeter, Garciaparra, Larkin, and Smith. We were truly blessed to be able to witness that group of players.

Fuji said...

Yeah... I love the "comet" metaphor. And it seems like the blogger vote has him missing the HOF. But those 6 or so elite years were definitely a treat to collectors and fans.

Fuji said...

Yeah... I was torn before this post, obviously on the side of him not making it. But now I guess it's pretty clear we all have similar thoughts.

Soccer jerseys said...

I'm a fan of this set and Ultra in general. Really love these!

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