Parallels have been flooding our hobby for years now. These days it's not uncommon for a common base card to have five or more parallels. Back in the 90's, I couldn't get enough of them. These days, overabundance has tamed my infatuation with them. That doesn't mean I won't actively chase down specific ones for my collection. In fact this post was written around one specific card... that you may or may not consider to be a parallel.
However before we go any further, I should address that this post is focusing on a very specific type of parallel. The kind that falls under the pack-pulled category.
In other words I'm not going to get into the Topps Tiffany or Fleer Glossy sets of the 80's. I'm also going to exclude the O-Pee-Chee or Leaf baseball cards from my childhood... since they weren't pulled from the same packs as their American counterparts. Plus, I'm not even sure if these are considered parallels to most collectors.
In short... today I'm narrowing down the focus to parallels pulled from the same packs as their base card versions.
If you ask collectors when these pack-pulled parallels first showed up in our hobby, 1992 would be a popular response. That's because both Topps and Leaf started inserting them into packs that year.
1992 Topps Gold #270
Topps got the ball rolling by inserting one of their Gold parallels into every thirty-six wax (technically cellophane wrapped) packs.
That means the odds of pulling one of these gold parallels of Gwynn were really, really slim. Luckily 1992 was the height of the Junk Wax Era and collectors have ripped open millions of these packs over the years, so there's no shortage of these parallels out there.
It should be noted that Topps released these parallels at different rates into their cello (34 card packs), rack (45 card packs), and jumbo (90 card packs). They also inserted them into their vending boxes and factory sets... which also explains why you find them floating in dime boxes and quarter bins periodically.
That being said... anyone else miss the days of finding only one parallel in an entire box of cards?
1992 Leaf Black Gold #206
Later that year... Leaf started inserting parallels into their packs too. However... they took a slightly different approach by including one of their Black Gold parallels into each pack of baseball cards. That explains why Topps feels the need to put a parallel in every pack for most of their current products.
Anyways... after some deep speculation... I feel that there's another pack-pulled parallel that's been staring us in the face for decades. It's just one that's never been appreciated. Actually it's a parallel that most collectors don't want to pull from a pack. It's the wax or gum stained card.
When I was a kid, I hated finding these in a pack of Topps cards. I remember busting boxes of 1987 Topps and creating a stack of the wax stained cards to prevent them from accidentally being included into my hand collated sets.
Fast forward a few decades and I've adjusted my way of thinking. Why can't we look at them from a positive angle and call them "wax stained parallels"?
I realize... collectors typically focus on condition, so most of you will never buy into this "new parallel". That's okay. My best friend says I'm "a little different"... which brings me to my latest Tony Gwynn purchase:
1983 Topps #482
Back in October of 2020, I wrote about how I wanted to start collecting wax stained rookie cards. I immediately added "1983 Topps Gwynn stained" and "1983 Topps Gwynn PSA ST" to my eBay search list and last month this card popped up with a best offer option.
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
19 comments:
I was pretty happy to find a 1992 Topps Gold Rickey Henderson for $0.20 - the more common Topps Gold parallels were the Winner stamped cards, which has an entirely different story besides being inserted one per box.
Another great way to keep collecting affordable too.
The only gold card that I pulled from the many, many packs of 1992 Topps that I opened was Bill Wegman, which still resides in my saved cards section given how special it felt at the time.
I am one who agrees that there are far too many parallels today. But I think the genie is out of the bottle for good on that one!
**Adds Leaf Black Gold to wants list**
I love a good wax stain on a card. The best one I've got though is one where the pack has been squeezed so there is an indentation in the card that's the shape of the stick of gum!
Heritage had "gum-stained parallels" back in 2016 (I don't know if it did it in the years that followed). Until now it was the only time I had heard of someone considering a stain a parallel. I could collect a whole other 1976 Hostess set with that set of rules.
1992 Topps Gold-- Ten year old me was all over it!
I found it odd that a gold parallel from baseball was inserted at roughly one per 36 packs. Yet in basketball, football, and hockey they were inserted at one per pack.
Why did Topps change in ratio? One per box to one per pack is a pretty steep change too.
Pretty cool pickup on the Gwynn .
And i agree, too many parallels and lame duck inserts out there. All too easy ti be pulled.
Going down memory lane this week putti g late 90s stuff in binders has really hit me like i need to stick with that stuff
Just rookies? Awww , been saving these for someone building these pack inflicted parallel sets.
I like parallels, but Topps really needs to cut them down a bit. I've seen listings on TCDB or wherever that cover pages and pages of all the different parallels *of a single card.* I'm good with just primary-color parallels - don't need chartreuse or whatever the heck else is being made these days.
I never minded wax on the front of the card because I could easily wipe it off and keep the card mint,if the wax was on the back no way to remove it.
The first year I remember Topps Gold was 1993 (I dont think I collected in 1992). I remember I had a stack of Topps base cards, and a smaller stack of the gold. Where I got the Bo Jackson it felt special. It definitely made for easier times collecting, and the parallels did feel out of the ordinary. Not so much anymore.
O-Pee-Chee/Leaf often had smaller set sizes and different cards focusing more on the Canadian teams - definitely not parallel sets. I'm OK with parallel sets only if someone has a reasonable shot of collecting a whole set. When you get into these low serial numbered parallels it gets ridiculous.
I didn't pull any Topps Gold cards in '92 but I did the scratch-offs and won a pack of Gold Winner cards which was a lot of fun. I think the Golds were much more plentiful in packs in '93, I remember pulling a few. I didn't buy packs in '94.
This Topps Gold cards were tought to gender, especially when Cecil Fielder was hitting all those homers.
laurens - nice find on the rickey. yeah, the winner cards are way more common than the non-winner parallels. at one point, i actually had a box full of winner parallels... thanks to the flashlight trick
runforekelloggs - yeah. maybe one day i'll build a wax/gum stain frankenset ;D
mike - i really miss the days of one per box parallels. we'd treasure guys like wegman. these days it seems like topps inserts parallels into every other pack.
the diamond king - sadly... i think you're right.
jongudmund - hope you show off that gum indentation card on your blog one day
night owl - i think i'm getting a little crazy with age... that's why i come up with wacky ways like this to collect.
base card hero - thanks for bringing that to my attention. i don't remember opening up a lot of topps basketball, football, or hockey that year so i totally missed that. not sure why they would change the ratio, but i'm sad to hear that they did.
matt - when it comes to parallels and inserts, the 90's will always be king. the competition among card companies inspired innovation that will never be repeated (in my humble opinion)
baseballcardstore.ca - i'll reach out to you if i ever decide to do a wax/gum stain frankenset
nick - there was a time when i was a big, big fan of parallels. heck, i still enjoy finding them in dime boxes and putting them into my binder collections. but year, i wish card companies would slow their roll
sg488 - i remember reading about using pantyhose to remove wax stains. pretty sure my mom got mad at me for taking hers without asking
the lost collector - i don't remember opening much (if any) 1993 topps. i wonder if they had switched over to the one gold card per pack ratio that year. either way... pulling a bo gold card had to feel pretty good.
matt - i don't consider leaf/opc from the 60's/70's/80's parallels either. but figured someone might mention them... which is why i explained their exclusion.
bo - did you use the flashlight trick? that's how i won a bunch of the packs that year. i still remember sitting on my bedroom floor with the lights off and my maglite on.
cardboard jones - totally agree. i'd love to buy the factory gold set one day and toss them into a binder for easy viewing access.
john sharp - the good news is they eventually released a gold parallel factory set, which made it easier for collectors to get their hands on the fielder.
I loved the 1992 gold parallels. That brings back the memories for sure.
Loved the Gold Parallels in Topps. I know they still have them in current products, but they don't feel the same or look as good.
sumomenkoman - it felt good to pull a parallel that was actually kind of challenging to pull.
the snorting bull - i feel the same way. for me... it's because every other pack has some sort of parallel in it. with these being pulled at a rate of 1 per box, you felt like you pulled something special when you saw that gold foil.
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