M. I. A.

I am pretty irritated right now.  I wanted to do a post about a couple cards (inserts) I picked up last month.  Unfortunately, the cards have decided to disappear.  I cannot find them.

Oh sure, I’ve looked.  I feel like I’ve looked everywhere.  They’re just gone.  What really steams me is that I checked them off my list.  I’m not supposed to check them off until the cards are in their box.  Of course, I’m supposed to do a lot of things.

So, here I am looking for these two stupid cards.  They only set me back $1.50 for the pair, so it’s not some huge financial hit.  Still, it will gnaw on me.  I’m the woman searching for her lost coin.

Officially, I’ve already called of the search.  I’m not looking for survivors anymore; this is a recovery operation.  Rest assured, they’ll turn up.  They’ll be in my tax return file.  Or maybe they’ll be stuck in with the wrong set.  Maybe they’ll be under the couch.  I won’t know whether to be happy or angry.

Bonus Break – 1990 Bowman

In the past two weeks I’ve posted two other breaks of 1990 Bowman.  Since I bought three boxes, this will be the last one.  After a preview, a break, and another break, what is left to say?  Admittedly, there isn’t much, but this box did yield a little surprise.  As with the other boxes, this one (as part of the group) cost me $3.97 plus $3.00 shipping.

Stats

Normally I’m pretty good about keeping track of how many of each card I get from a box.  This time, since it’s box #3 of 1990 Bowman, I got a little lazy.

Base cards

The base cards of 1990 Bowman haven’t changed over the past two weeks, so there isn’t much point in showing a bunch of them again.  One card did catch my eye.  It was less about the card or the picture and more about the name…

333 Joey Belle

I wouldn’t have guessed that Albert Belle went by Joey at one time, but who am I to question 1990 Bowman?  I looked it up on Baseball Reference.  They know Albert goes by Joey.  I guess I’m just not in the loop.

Surprise

I promised a surprise, and here it is.  The top of this box had a folded advertising poster.  I’m not sure how common these things are.  Maybe every box had one.  All I know is that of my three boxes, only this last one had a poster.  It is about 10 x 14.  The ball point pen gives you a feel for the size.  It’s nothing fancy, but it made the box a lot more interesting.  The cards featured on the front are Rickey Henderson (left) and Will Clark (right).

Conclusion

The real purpose of this box was to see if I could get close to finishing the set.  After two boxes I had 451 different cards in the 528-card set.  Once this box was done, I had 513.  Box #3 gave me just about as many new cards as box #2.  It shouldn’t work that way, but that’s what happened.  At just 15 cards shy of the full set, I’ll probably finish it off with a trip to Sportlots.

Preview – 1998 Sports Illustrated Then & Now

Beckett Set Notes (verbatim from Beckett set page)

“The 1998 Sports Illustrated Then and Now set (created by Fleer) was issued in one series totalling 150 cards and was distributed in six-card packs containing five cards and one mini-poster with a suggested retail price of $1.99. The fronts feature color photos of active and retired players plus 1998 rookies and prospects. The backs carry ratings for each player in key skill areas. The set contains the topical subset: A Place in History (37-53) which displays statistical compairson between current players and retired greats. Notable Rookie Cards include Magglio Ordonez. An Alex Rodriguez checklist mini-poster was randomly seeded into 1:12 packs. In addition, an Alex Rodriguez promo card was distributed to dealers and hobby media several weeks to the product’s release.“

Box Contents

24 packs with 6 cards per pack

Cost

$13.35 on eBay ($9.36 auction with $3.99 shipping)

Description

Here is Fleer’s shot at a pseudo-vintage set.  It actually took two recognized names to put out this product – Fleer and Sports Illustrated.

The foil packs follow the lead of the box.

Insert / Parallel List (taken from Beckett)

Art of the Game – 8 cards – 1:9 (insert)
Covers – 12 cards – 1:18 (insert)
Great Shots – 25 mini-posters – 1:1 (insert)
Road to Cooperstown – 10 cards – 1:24 (insert)
Extra Edition – 150 cards – 1:24 (parallel)

Comments

The year 1998 marked my (brief) return to buying modern cards.  I was mostly into Topps, but I did pick up a few packs of SI Then and Now.  I remember these cards as being a notch or two above the Topps flagship cards – very thick and very glossy.  To my 80s cardboard eyes, these cards were very impressive.  I’m looking forward to tearing into this box.  I think getting this box for under $15 is pretty good.

A rudderless ship

Around a month ago I ended my paternity leave from posting, dusted off the old blog, and went back to cards and writing.  At the time I decided that I would focus on boxes from the 90s.  It seemed like a good idea.  Lots of cheap boxes can be found from the 90s, and almost all have inserts (another restriction).

In the past week I’ve opened two (soon to be three) boxes of 1990 Bowman.  These cards have been great.  While going through them I’ve been wondering why I should limit what boxes I open?  If a 1990 box can be so much fun, why not open boxes from 1989 (with or without inserts)?

Therefore, from here on out, the gloves are off.  Any box is fair game.  To celebrate my new freedom, look for an 80s Sportflics box in the near future.

In search of… 1998 Pinnacle 2

I’m probably closer to AARP membership than most bloggers, but I hope at least a few people remember a TV show I remember.  The show was called In Search Of.  Leonard Nimoy was the host. The show was a documentary and investigated X-Files stuff – bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts, etc. As a kid it was awesome (and more than a little scary).

This post isn’t about the Bermuda Triangle or the Fountain of Youth, but it is about a hobby mystery – What happened to 1998 Pinnacle Series 2? Huh?!? 1998 Pinnacle was a one series product. Well, let’s just look at the facts.  (The truth is out there.)

Pinnacle folded in 1998

The collapse of Pinnacle in 1998 has been well documented.  Do a search over on Wax Heaven for “Pinnacle”, and you’ll find all you need.  If there was going to be a year in which Pinnacle was going to get caught with its pants down and not be able to finish its product, it was 1998.  The bankruptcy argument alone is pretty flimsy, but it opens the door for the discussion.

1998 Pinnacle Press Plates

We have Pinnacle to thank for press/printing plates.  Pinnacle started it all in 1997 and continued the tradition in 1998.  The backs of all 1998 Pinnacle Press Plates indicate that they are from Series 1.  If this isn’t evidence that 1998 Pinnacle was initially planned to have multiple series, then I don’t know what does.

I admit that this isn’t a lock.  Look at a box of 1999 Collector’s Choice (a single series product), and you’ll see Series One written on the front.  You could argue that any single series product could be called series one.

Do I have any other proof for multiple series for 1998 Pinnacle?  Funny you should ask…

Player checklist

Look at the starters in the 1997 All-Star Game.  They are shown below by league.  Players marked with an asterisk have a regular card (non subset) in the 1998 Pinnacle set.

American League
Brady Anderson
Alex Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Jr.
Tino Martinez
Edgar Martinez
Paul O’Neill
Cal Ripken
Ivan Rodriguez
Roberto Alomar
Randy Johnson

National League
Craig Biggio*
Tony Gwynn*
Barry Bonds*
Mike Piazza*
Jeff Bagwell*
Larry Walker*
Ken Caminiti*
Ray Lankford*
Jeff Blauser*
Greg Maddux*

Dang!!  Not a single American League starter made the set while every National League starter was included.  I would bet that Series 2 was going to focus on the AL All-Stars.

Conclusion

I think 1998 Pinnacle was meant to be a two series set.  At some point very early in the design (but after player selection and layout of the press plates) Pinnacle realized that they were just going to do a single series set.  By the time the boxes and packs were put together, essentially all evidence of multiple series had been erased. The reason for shortening the set was probably financial, but who knows.

Break – 1990 Bowman

Just last week I posted a break of a box of 1990 Bowman.  I actually bought three boxes.  On average, each box cost $3.97 plus $3.00 s/h.  The first box left me 140 cards short of a set, so I figured I’d open another box and see what comes out.

Stats

base cards: 380 of 528 – 73.5% complete (124 duplicates)
Art Inserts (1:1): 11 of 11 – 100% (25 duplicates and higher)

Base cards

Base cards are base cards.  The previous box post shows some cards.  The one notable card I got in this box was Sammy Sosa, one of the key rookies in the set.  Sosa is just about unrecognizable.  I wonder if he could selectively forget how to speak English all the way back in 1990.

312 Sammy Sosa (unrecognizable & I’m not sure I ever knew that he started out on the south side of Chicago)

Conclusion

This box was just about on the money with the first.  The first gave 388 different card; this one gave 380. Based on a little math, the first box gave 73.5% of a set, and the second box gave 72.0%.

The two boxes together (if random) should give almost a complete set – 528 cards.  How complete?  Here’s the formula for the number of cards not found between the two boxes.

missing cards = 528 * (1 – 0.735) * (1 – 0.720) = 39 cards (39.2)

If the two boxes in fact left only 39 missing cards, then that would be 489 different cards.  What did I have after opening both boxes? – 451.  That’s not quite 489, but it’s not terrible.

I have a third box of 1990 Bowman that I’ll probably open and see how close I can get to a complete set.

If page hits were base hits…

Sometime yesterday this blog reached 4,256 page views.  For any Reds fan, 4,256 is a special number.  It is the number of career base hits for Pete Edward Rose (below).  Relax.  I’m not going to get into the tired HOF debate.  I’m just excited about the number.

Pete in Las Vegas in 2008 (photo credit: Wikipedia)

I started this blog about 11 months ago.  Is 4,256 hits any good for 11 months?  I don’t think it’s much to brag about.  For comparison, Crinkly Wrappers started at almost exactly the same time my blog did.  Crinkly Wrappers is fixing to pass 17,000 hits in the near future.  That’s a mere four times the hits of this blog.

OK, so 4,000 hits in a year kind of sucks.  Regardless, topping Pete Rose in hits isn’t bad.