30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

The Bronze Age of Baseball Cards (The Remix)


You know a set is pretty cool when it comes in a wooden box.  What you're looking at is a complete set of the 1995 Topps Legends of the 60's Medallions that I picked up back in September on eBay for $76.24 ($56 + $14.99 shipping + $5.25 tax).  It represents my most expensive eBay sports card purchase of 2021.


According to Beckett, Topps offered these bronze medallions to their Stadium Club members on a one card per month basis.  Each card sold for the ridiculous price of $39.95.  That means the entire 12 card set would set a collector back $479.40.


I'm guessing there weren't a lot of collectors who dished out that kind of money for these which explains why these aren't as common as most 90's trading cards.


This checklist and writeup comes from SCD's 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.  After fourteen years, it features pretty accurate values for this set.

Now if you're wondering if you've seen these cards before on my blog, you have.  I built a hand collated set two years ago which I showed off here.  Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to purchase a set I already own, but when I read about the custom wooden box that accompanied it... I knew I wanted one of those as well.

By the way... if you'd like to see each bronze medallion up close and personal, then click the link above.  I scanned the front and back of each card along with one of the booklets the cards were originally shipped in.

While were on the subject of bronze cards from the 90's, here are a few more:


The year after Topps produced those heavy bronze medallions, they created a bronze subset in their Finest product1996 Finest was split into two series... and each series consisted of three colored subsets: bronze (common), silver (uncommon), and gold (rare).  What you're looking at above is a complete set of Series 2 bronze cards that Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders sent me a few weeks ago.

Here's a closer look at some of my favorites in the set:


He also sent me these bronze bordered parallels:

1996 Score Dugout Collection #10
1996 Score Dugout Collection #45
1996 Score Dugout Collection #103

The mid 90's definitely seems like The Bronze Age of Baseball CardsWhat do you think?

Then again card companies also used a lot of silver and gold in their productsDennis also sent me these...

1996 Score Gold Stars #24
1996 Donruss Press Proof #61

These two cards feature gold foil and are brand new additions to my Hideo Nomo and Rickey Henderson PC's.

The next four cards also feature gold (or silver), but more importantly... they also opened my eyes to something new about this twenty-five year old set:

1996 Flair Silver #374
1996 Flair Gold #374

1996 Flair Silver #376
1996 Flair Gold #376

I have always thought the silver versions were the base cards and the gold were a rarer parallel.  Then I read this post and my mind was blown.  Fleer actually produced each color in equal quantities.

By the way if you have extras of these laying around and you're looking to trade... Dennis is building each of these 400 card sets.  Click here for his wantlist.

Getting back to the bronze trading cards, Dennis also sent me this memorabilia card of Kurt Suzuki:

2007 USA Baseball Bound for Beijing Materials #GU-9

It's not a bronze parallel, but Team USA did win the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics.  Unfortunately, Kurt Suzuki wasn't on that team.  However according to the back of this trading card he was a part of the Team USA qualifying team in 2006.

Another Team USA item that Dennis included in his care package are these two McDonalds cups:

 

These are a blast from the past.  I totally remember collecting these back in 1992Good times.

Thank you Dennis for this very generous care package!  And thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post and relive the Bronze Age of Baseball Cards.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

12 comments:

gcrl said...

i remember bronze being a big thing for donruss in the mid-aughts. i hadn't seen that 1996 score rickey before - looks like he needs some privacy to finish his business. great package from dennis!

The Diamond King said...

Nice stuff. I wish I had friends like Dennis!

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

That set is nice in the case. If you want to get your $75.00 bucks back, I'd be interested in the hand collated set.

Dennis said...

Wow, nice deal on the medallions including the box, those look great! Glad you liked the rest of your stuff too!

night owl said...

Yeah, the mid-to-late '90s was definitely the period for gold, silver and bronze overload.

I've never seen those bronze medallions before (must've missed your earlier post). Not really my thing.

Elliptical Man said...

I do like the cups.

Xavier Higgins said...

76-93=Junk Wax Era
94-05=Wild Wild West
06-15=RC Logo Era
16-Present=Transcendent Era
Those Cups Bring me back to simpler times...Great to have you back in the Fold.

The Lost Collector said...

The 90s were the absolute best time for cards!

The bronze cards are pretty cool. Looks like something my grandma would have ordered me. Also the Team USA McDonald's cups were always cool. I wish I had saved mine!

The Snorting Bull said...

I love the cards you posted here, especially the Topps set at the top. Have you ever seen the Pinnacle Metal Works cards? I believe they came out in 1997 or 1998. It's another really cool, heavy set of cards with a bronze parallel.

Nick said...

I've heard of those Legends Medallions before, but I'd never actually seen any until this post. Have to agree with Night Owl - not really my thing, but an interesting pickup nonetheless!

SumoMenkoMan said...

That box is legit on the bronze cards. I love the packaging on cards sometimes more than the cards themselves.

Fuji said...

gcrl - my friends and i would call that the asian squat. if you ever stumble across me at a flea market, there's a good chance i'm mimicking rickey looking for bargains on the ground

the diamond king - yeah... dennis is one generous dude. hope to one date be able to meet him in person

johnnys trading spot - the thing is... the hand collated set has the cardboard holders (these booklets)... and i'm that crazy collector who enjoys having both. lol.

dennis - i know i didn't show it in this post, but i brought your magic johnson plaque to my classroom and three kids have already commented on it. didn't even realize this generation of kids knew who magic is. thanks again for the care package

night owl - seems like every era has some kind of crazy hobby trend. and i don't think these medallions are very popular, so you're in the majority. i've always been into the weird and abstract stuff

elliptical man - me too. i collected the 1992 ones back in the day. i'm one cup away from completing it, but i can't remember which one i need

xavier higgins - happy new year xavier! i'm still slowly writing about the stuff you sent me. a few days before christmas i wrote about that very cool corey seager box topper you sent me. love the titles for the different eras. the wild wild west is perfect

the lost collector - i totally agree. the hobby and collectors really benefited from the competition among card companies. good times.

the snorting bull - i'm very familiar with the metal works cards. i completed the maddux rainbow years ago and wrote about it here:

https://sanjosefuji.blogspot.com/2013/10/just-another-maddux-monday.html

nick - i don't think many card collectors look forward to storing huge chunks of metal. that's why i assume topps had a lot of these sitting in their inventory unsold.

sumomenkoman - totally agree. sadly the box was actually damaged when shipped. it's hard to see in the photo, but the cards are sitting in foam. the foam was originally lined in felt, but the weight of the cards shifted during shipment and was permanently damaged. i ended up peeling the felt off but luckily managed to save the foam.