I could paraphrase everything that Mario wrote, but you're better off clicking on the link above if you're interested in learning more about him.
Today's post is about a purchase I made after reading Mario's post:
1975 Circle K Phoenix Giants #26 Michael Cramer
What you're looking at is Mr. Cramer's lone trading card. As soon as I saw it, I wanted a copy for my Cheap Cool Cards binder. He looks like he's straight out of a 70's rock band with that hair as he's holding up what looks to be a 1948 Leaf Babe Ruth, a 1954 Bowman Ted Williams, and a 1951 Topps Connie Mack All-Stars Standup of Jimmy Collins.
Here's a look at the back:
In addition to starting up Pacific Trading Cards, it looks like he also formed the Arizona Sports Collectors Association. The back also states that back in the mid 70's, Cramer had already accumulated nearly 500,000 cards. I wonder if he held onto his collection and how long his club lasted.
Anyways... getting back to the card. I actually picked up four copies, because the eBay dealer offered combined shipping and a discount if you purchased multiple copies. So if you're interested in owning a copy for your collection, just leave a comment saying so down below. I've reserved one for SumoMenkoMan, but the other two are up for grabs. If more than two people are interested, I'll randomize the names.
It's not super valuable, but it's a cool card for anyone out there who enjoyed Pacific Trading Cards back in the 90's.
Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the company back then. I thought the excessive gold foil was gaudy. However I've started to appreciate their cards the past few years. Here is one of my favorite inserts they released:
2000 Pacific Ornaments #17
I actually used this ornament to decorate my tree a few years ago. You can click here to see it.
If laser cuts are your thing, check out this insert:
1999 Aurora On Deck Laser Cuts #16
It's kind of hard to see in the scan, but the Padres logo has been cut out with the laser. And rounding out this post is my favorite Pacific cards is my Tony Gwynn Cramer's Choice box topper:
1999 Pacific Crown Royale Cramer's Choice Award #9
What about you...
Are you a fan of the stuff Mike Cramer and his company produced back in the day? Do you have any favorites?
Do you want one of my extra Mike Cramer cards?
Looking forward to reading your responses. Happy Thursday and sayonara!
27 comments:
Great examples of fun Pacific stuff, Fuji! The ornaments are fun, though I don't have any in my collection because few of my PC guys are on the checklists. On Deck and Cramer's Choice are amazing too. I remember how big of a deal the Cramer's Choice cards were back in the day since they were so tough to pull. Don't forget the Net Fusion and foul pole cards!
I'd be more than happy to have one of the cards! I have a Mike Cramer Bobblehead somewhere in my collection and met him circa 2001 in Toronto. Wish I could have had a sit-down with him to talk about his collection!
Mark, I am interested in one of the Cramer cards
I'd like one of those Cramer cards. (BTW: Cramer was the name of one of the insert/parallel cards of the 90's Pacifc brands, which is probably my favorite brand, even over Topps and Bowman. I secretly collect every set. It's hard without actually tracking them (Once I get super super close to finishing a set I then list it in my set builds. I do it the hard way, grab them card by card when I see them in the cheap boxes. One day I'll actually figure out what cards I have and need and make lists.
2000 pacific invincible is actually one of my favorite sets. it's crazy!
Pacific did a good job with hockey in the late 1990's to early 2000's. You can still find boxes at a decent price.
I loved some of the stuff they put out during the 1990s era of Wild West of Sports cards. Their Rad-Dudes was a quirky set that always stuck in my head from that time period. Thanks for holding on to one of the cards for me!
Awesome get man. The one thing I'll remember Pacific for more than anything else is their die-cut tech was on-point. Lots of great inserts came out of that company.
PACIFIC RULES.
I've still got a bunch of 1988 & 1989 Pacific Legends baseball cards and hope to complete those sets in the near future.
Yeah, Pacific cards got a bit foil-y and gaudy at times, but they put out some nice base sets... and I appreciated the checklists which, because of the bi-lingual nature of some of the sets, included some lesser-known Latino players who would've otherwise been shut out.
Pacific has some of the best cards of the 90s. Such creative and aesthetically pleasing insert sets too. I'm a huge fan!
I'm old enough to remember when Pacific was Cramer Sports Promotions. I still have their Senior Professional Baseball Association sets - they were the only company that made an attempt to get everyone in that short-lived league on a card.
Some of my favorite Canseco cards are in the 2000's Pacific sets,when he wore a TB Devil rays jersey.
I really like Pacific hockey from the early 2000s. It's what most of my hockey collection is comprised of.
I remember collecting Pacific hockey cards in the late-1990s. It was a time when parallels and die-cuts and inserts were still pretty new and exciting (and maybe overwhelming). There was a particular insert called "big numbers" that defines the era pretty well. It was just a huge die-cut of the player's jersey number and nameplate.
I bought Phoenix Giants sets all through the late 70s,all made by his company.
Some of their sets are so crazy they're cool, I'm thinking 2000 Pacific Revolution and some of the inserts. The Christmas ornaments are fun. But some of those sets are gawd-awful ugly, over-the-top, almost puke-inspiring. Green-and-orange? All that gold? No, no, no, no, no. I can take it in small doses.
I prefer the early Pacific legends sets of the late '80s/1990.
Shoot I would have put my name in that hat for one as well. I wanted it the other day when mario posted it as well lol
Cramer and Pacific's 1980s releases are fantastic. They, like TCMA, are the cards that taught me baseball history and represented the only way I could get cards of baseball legends. I didn't get any Pacific's autographed but they no-doubt would've served that purpose wonderfully.
I missed their 1990s releases but I've loved discovering and collecting the bilingual ones because of the way they hint at a much larger collecting fanbase in the United States. A lot of the designs are a bit much for me and I can't imagine collecting a set. But they're great to have a couple in the binder to shake things up.
I'm not familiar with Kramer, but I'm pretty fond of Pacific and all the different sets they put out in the 1990s. I never see more than 2-3 at any given place, however, though I typically purchase them for my player collections.
Great looking card! When I read Mario’s post and saw it I was drawn to it because of my local connection to the Phoenix Giants and Circle K. Would love a copy of the card! I always thought Pacific cards were a little weird at the time, but looking back, they put out some really cool stuff.
last call for entries into the free mike cramer rookie card. so far there are five people interested: stephen laroche, rod richards, johnnys trading spot, sport card collectors, daniel wilson. i'll go ahead and wrap things up tomorrow (monday at 6pm pacific time). if you're interested, just say so in the comment section below.
dennis - yeah, those cramer's choice cards were pretty popular back in the day. the card shops in my area even had special card holders for them. and yeah... those net fusion cards are sweet! i totally dropped the ball on not including those
stephen laroche - there's a cramer bobblehead out there? that's sweet! i'd want one of those.
rod richards - dang it. i totally should have set one aside for you, since i never really know what to send your way. i'll tell you what, if you name doesn't get picked in the randomization... i'll just send you my copy. at least i could say that i owned the card at one point
johnnys trading spot - it's a shame we don't live closer. you could have been the recipient of all of my goodwill donation over the years. i'm sure there were plenty of pacific cards in the mix
gcrl - i had to look up the 2000 invincible design to see what they looked like. but yeah, that was an awesome set.
base card hero - yeah, if i remember correctly, i think steel city had some really good prices on their early 2000's stuff. i've considered buying a box or two in the past
sumomenkoman - never heard of the rad-dudes set, but i looked them up on comc. very cool. i'll have to see if there are any affordable boxes of this stuff on ebay.
lee hero - the first thing that pops into my head when i think of pacific cards is the gold foil ;)
nick - uh... i'll go as far as saying some of their stuff rules. but who knows... maybe in ten years, they'll be my favorite card company :)
bbcardz - i have a couple of unopened boxes (can't remember the years). one of these days i'll bust into them
the shlabotnik report - i liked it when the made their checklists inserts. i'm sure it annoyed some collectors, but i thought it made them fun to pull.
the lost collector - they're still probably my least favorite card company from that era... but i agree some of their stuff was awesome
npb card guy - i'm still trying to chase down that nettles pacific senior league error card ;)
big tone - i was out of the hobby by 2001, so i probably don't have any of those cansecos. then again... i prefer to remember canseco for his time in oakland
gca - i opened a lot of pacific hockey,,. but it wasn't from that time period. i mainly opened their stuff in 97/98 and 98/99. i was searching for those ice blue parallels.
gregory - i totally forgot about that insert set. don't think i ever pulled one for my collection, but i do remember seeing them back in the day
sg488 - were there any players on those rosters that eventually made it big at the major league level?
night owl - glad to know i'm not the only one who thought the gold was a bit too much. good call on the pacific legends cards. completely forgot about those while writing this post
sport card collectors - i'll add your name into the hat
nick vossbrink - the bilingual aspect is another thing i dropped the ball on when i wrote this post. that was pretty cool that they added spanish text on some of their cards
henry blanchette - i recommend reading mario's posts on mr. cramer. they're pretty interesting
daniel wilson - they've really grown on me over the years... especially the inserts. i'll add your name to the list of entries
I am a huge fan of Mike Cramer and Pacific, easily one of my favorite 1990s card companies. My favorites are too numerous to name, but anything die-cut is high on the list. I especially love the netting cards. I think that there was a Dugout card in one year, maybe a foul pole in another year. Those were the best.
I’m in a state where it’s a miracle that I saw this post within 3 days of the publish date. I’m always interested in cool cards from 1975 so please throw my name in the mix for randomizing. I’m pretty sure I have some Pacific cards in the athletes with phones collection and I like all those cards, so those are my Pacific favorites.
Okay... entries are closed. Here are the list of people who will be entered into the randomizer:
stephen laroche
rod richards
johnnys trading spot
sport card collectors
daniel wilson
steve at 1975baseballcards.com
I'll go ahead and hit randomize 5 times... and the top 2 on the list will receive Cramers. I'll do the randomization at 6:30am on Christmas morning (in like 3 minutes) and the results will be published in this morning's post.
New book Cramer’s Choice available for preorder from Amazon and other book sellers
Book Reviews & Awards
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• “If it’s not the greatest book ever written about the sports card hobby and industry, there has certainly never been another one like it.”—Jeff Morris, writer Sports Card Daily, former ESPN.com columnist. • “The legend of Mike Cramer can seem like Chuck Norris material. But he really did operate a major mail-order trading card operation out of his childhood bedroom in Phoenix. He really did spend his twenties working Deadliest Catch–style king crab fishing boats in Alaska while becoming the first millionaire in the sports memorabilia business in the offseason. And he really did lead a scrappy Seattle startup against Topps and Upper Deck in the sports card heyday of the early 1990s, producing some of the most treasured cards in the industry. Cramer’s Choice is the rollicking tale of Pacific Trading Cards and the epic life of its founder.”—Pete Williams, author of Card Sharks
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