Completed master set – one last look at 1998 Topps

Once I completed the Topps Milestone set (see previous post), that meant I’d notched the master set for 1998 Topps.

This was a missing link type year – and there were some major obstacles!  I’ve now finished everything Topps from 1980 to 2001!  This also means I’ve finished off the second full decade of “Master Sets” that I’m doing!

Info about my base set:

How I put the base set together:

• 265 cards from series 1 hobby box
• 188 cards from series 2 hobby box
• 48 cards from trades
• 2 cards from an eBay lot

Card that completed my set: #160 – Derek Jeter

Best card (my opinion): #146 – Jose Guillen

Check out this link to see the rest of the base set post.

My “Master” Set Info:

685 cards – 503 “base”, 176 “insert”, 6 “other”

• Insert sets:  Rookie Class, Etch-A-Sketch, Mystery Finest Interleague, Mystery Finest Bordered, Flashback, Clout Nine, Hall Bound, Focal Point, Baby Boomers, Milestone, Clemente Tribute, Roberto Clemente Reprints, Roberto Clemente Finest
• Promo sets:  Pre-Production

Toughest card to track down:  Milestone #MS3 – Dennis Eckersley

There were a number of difficult cards to track down – so many of these insert sets were easier to find Chrome versions.  And for both Milestone and Hall Bound – I thought I had the finishing card coming my way until it got here and I realized it was the Chrome version.  Baby Boomers and the Flashback set were also similarly difficult.  But I’ll go with the one that took me the longest to track down – which was this card.

How I put the additional sets together:

• Promos – all 6 cards from eBay (as a set)
• Inserts – 17 cards from boxes, 4 from trades, 1 from a card show, 91 from COMC, 32 from Beckett’s Marketplace, 28 from Sportlots, 3 from eBay

Other product bests

Best Insert card:  Milestone #MS6 – Ken Griffey Jr.

Severe apologies to the Clemente 1973 reprints – but I love this Griffey hat backward card!

Best Autograph or Relic card:  None in the 1998 product.  There was a giveaway promotion called Roberto Clemente Memorabilia Madness Redemption but no newly minted cards in this category.

Most notable insert card:  Hall Bound #HB8 – Rickey Henderson

I like the inserts overall in this product – but there isn’t a particularly famous one.  I probably should go with the 1973 reprint of Clemente, but I’ll go with this one instead.  The Rickey Henderson card is the only Topps card depicting him in an Angels uniform and the only card of his from Topps 1998.  He wasn’t in the base set for some odd reason – but made this insert set.

Best Reds insert of any type:  Flashback #FB7 – Deion Sanders

Literally the only Reds card out of 176 inserts.  And half of it was when Coach Prime was a Yankee 🙂 !