Raising the Bar

When I look back on my collecting history, I can pretty much define the kind of collector I was by decades.  In the 80's, I was opening packs and boxes in search of rookie cards.  The 90's were all about parallels and insert cards.  And when I came back to the hobby in the late 2000's, I was hoping to pull autographs and relics.

These days I try to hold off on opening packs and boxes.  My hobby budget is usually reserved for specific singles and complete sets.

Back in April, I purchased a 1998 Zenith Raising the Bar insert set off of eBay:

On the surface, this set is just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill shiny insert produced by Pinnacle.  It's not particularly flashy.  And they aren't rare.  But I've been obsessed with 1998 Zenith baseball and hockey for the past twenty-one years.

That's when Pinnacle came up with the Dare to Tear line of cards.  Each pack of 1998 Zenith contained three 5x7 trading cards.  Within each 5x7 trading card, there was a standard size card embedded inside.  Collectors had to choose to either keep their 5x7 card intact or tear it open to reveal the standard size card.  If you are familiar with Allen and Ginter's RIP cards, it's pretty much the same concept.

These shiny, golden inserts were inserted into one out of every twenty-five packs.  When you consider that there's eighteen packs per box, collectors were not guaranteed one of these inserts in their box.  And if you decided to keep some of your 5x7 cards intact, the odds of pulling one of these were even tougher.

That's why I let someone else do all of the work and purchased the complete set of fifteen cards:

1 Ken Griffey Jr., 2 Frank Thomas, 3 Alex Rodriguez
4 Tony Gwynn, 5 Mike Piazza, 6 Ivan Rodriguez
7 Cal Ripken Jr., 8 Greg Maddux, 9 Hideo Nomo

10 Mark McGwire, 11 Juan Gonzalez, 12 Andruw Jones

13 Jeff Bagwell, 14 Chipper Jones, and 15 Nomar Garciaparra

As you can see, the checklist is loaded with hall of famers.  There are currently nine guys in the set that have a plaque hanging in Cooperstown and one or two other guys with a shot of eventually making it in.  The rest are recognizable names from the era.

At the end of the day, nobody will be funding their retirement with this set.  In fact, I purchased all fifteen cards for $20.49 (+ $3 shipping), which is a little over the price of a blaster.

However when you consider how these were distributed to collectors and all of the big names on the checklist, it was well worth the price I paid (in my humble opinion).

Okay, here is today's question of the day:

Alex Rodriguez, Hideo Nomo, Mark McGwire, Juan Gonzalez, Andruw Jones, and Nomar Garciaparra are the six guys in this set who aren't enshrined at Cooperstown.

If you had a vote, would you vote for any of these guys?  Do you think any of these guys eventually get elected?

That's it for now.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!