One of my favorites were laser cut, die-cut cards. I know that card companies had been creating die-cuts for decades, but in the 90's the precision was taken to the next level. Check out these two Tony Gwynns I recently had shipped to me from COMC:
1998 Paramount Fielder's Choice #14
1999 Paramount Fielder's Choice #16
Pacific inserted these into their Paramount boxes at a rate of 1 per 73 packs, so they were fairly tough pulls. Throw in the fact that there are 20 cards in each of these sets and the odds of pulling a specific player are insane.
When these cards first came out, they were pretty expensive. Unfortunately... they're losing the war against time. Every year that passes, more and more collectors lose interest in their older inserts in an effort to keep up with the Joneses (including myself).
The good news is that since demand is dropping... prices have dropped too. A few weeks ago I picked up the pair for $5.15, which probably seems expensive since it doesn't contain his autograph or a swatch of his jersey. But one look at these cards in your hands and you'd understand my purchase.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
8 comments:
Very cool cards, I'd take that pair over cracking a random pack for $5 at the hobby shop any day. Nice pick-ups Fuji!
I would have loved to acquire one of these back in the day. I'm a 90's guys through and through. Great Stuff!!
While I don't miss the hundreds of different products being put out a year like in the mid ninties, I do miss all the competition. It was that competition that led to Chrome, Autographed cards, relic cards, manufactured relics, foil, acetate, parallels, mini parallels, and a ton of other cool oddball cards. Can anyone tell me of an innovation that has happened in the last ten years with cards? And with Topps the sole MLB license holder I doubt we'll ever see any innovation this decade either. I'm glad Panini and Leaf are still trying to get a little market share and to be honest I've been pretty impressed with the way Panini has been able to produce cards with no logos or team names. The best part now is that you can pick up over produced 90's wax from Pacific and Pinnacle for pennies of what you'd have paid for it back in the day. I love finding old unopend wax from that era simply because of all the cool inserts.
Now get back to busting those black friday boxes!!:)
perforated and die cut cards are always going to be high up on my list, regardless of brand and player. they always look cool, especially in a top loader.
Thanks! When you put it that way... it makes even more sense.
Thanks! It depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm Mr. Vintage. Other times I'm Mr. 80's Oddballs. On that particular day, I was Mr. 90's Insert Guy.
I'm hoping that Upper Deck gets their MLB license back... but I'd settle for Panini or Leaf. As for the Black Friday boxes... stay tuned for tomorrow's post.
Great minds think alike ;-)
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