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

Completed insert set – 1998 Topps Milestone

1998 had some tough insert sets – and I’ve now knocked them all off their pedestal!

Info about the set:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Set description:  This was a retail-only set in 1998 Topps series 2.  This set focused on career milestones that these individual players were close to at the end of the 1997 season.  The front has an action photo and a larger posed photo over a blue foil cloud background.  The back discusses the milestones that player could reach in 1998.

Set composition:  10 cards, 1:36 odds (1998 Topps series 2 retail)

Hall of Famers:  6.  Eckersley, Griffey Jr., Gwynn, Maddux, Ripken, Thomas

The other 4 guys all had some level of steroid implications.

How I put the set together:

• 5 cards from COMC
• 3 cards from Beckett’s marketplace
• 1 card from Sportlots
• 1 card from eBay

Like the series 1 retail-only insert set from 1998 (Baby Boomers) – I didn’t get any from actual card packs, makes me sad 😦

Thoughts on the set:  This is a nice insert set, I like themes that these sets had around this time frame and it’s a very pretty design.  Reminds me of some mid-90s Upper Deck insert sets I also really liked.  This would have been fun to collect in 1998.

Card that completed my set:  #MS3 – Dennis Eckersley

I bought this from Beckett Marketplace on Black Friday.  I was looking for this card for what seemed like forever quite a while – the 2nd to last card I bought was in 2017.  In fact, at one point I thought I had this card and realized it was the Topps Chrome version (which are much more easy to find compared to the base Topps set).

Best card (my opinion):  #MS6 – Ken Griffey Jr.

Easy pick, this is the winner hands down!  Griffey with the backwards cap!

My Favorite Reds card:  There are none, though Griffey would be a Red!

***********

Here’s a scan of the set – front and back.

Any other tidbits:  Here’s the milestone predicted for the 1998 season for each player:

• Barry Bonds – MLB’s first 400 HR, 400 SB player (reached in 1998)
• Roger Clemens – 3,000 strikeouts (reached in 1998)
• Dennis Eckersley – 1,070 Games pitched – all-time leader (he passed Hoyt Wilhelm with the final appearance of his 1998 season and career – but Jesse Orosco passed him the next  season)
• Juan Gonzalez – 300 HR (reached in 1998)
• Ken Griffey Jr. – 300 HR (reached in 1998)
• Tony Gwynn – 9th batting title to pass Honus Wagner for NL mark (never reached) and 3,000 hits (reached but not in 1998)
• Greg Maddux – 200 wins and 2,000 strikeouts (both reached in 1998)
• Mark McGwire – 400 HR and 1,000 RBI (both reached in 1998)
• Cal Ripken Jr. – 400 HR and 1,000 XBH (both reached but not in 1998)
• Frrank Thomas – tie Joe DiMaggio for 2nd with 8 straight 100 RBI to start their career (full seasons

Rickey Henderson got to 2,000 runs in 1998 and was just the 6th person to reach that mark – he should have made this set!  Especially since the Thomas one was kind of a reach.

Completed master set – one last look at 1999 Topps

As I mentioned in the last post, I finished the master set for 1999 Topps now that I’ve checked off the Ryan Finest set.  I’d been sitting with only that set to complete for quite a while.  The All-Topps Mystery Finest set I’d finished back in late 2015 – so it took me almost 8 years to get past this last obstacle!

Info about my base set:

How I put the base set together:

• 229 cards from the series 1 hobby box
• 217 cards from the series 2 hobby box
• 16 cards from trades

Card that completed my base set: #352– Miguel Tejada

Best card (my opinion): #100 – Ken Griffey Jr.

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

My “Master” Set Info:

807 cards – 462 “base”, 121 “traded“, 220 “insert”, 6 “other”

• Insert sets:  Picture Perfect, New Breed, Lords of the Diamond, Hall of Fame Collection, All-Matrix, Power Brokers, All-Topps Mystery Finest, Record Numbers, MVP Redemption, Ryan Reprints, Ryan Finest
• Promo sets:  Pre-Production

How I put the additional sets together:

• Traded – boxed set from eBay
• Promos – all 6 cards from an eBay auction
• Inserts – 25 from my s1/s2 hobby boxes, 11 from trades, 52 from Beckett Marketplace, 42 from Sportlots, 41 from COMC, 25 from eBay, 24 from card shows

Other product bests

Completed insert set – 1999 Topps Record Numbers

After completing the Nolan Ryan Finest set from 1999, I started doing my Master Set post – and realized I’d never done a completed set post for 1999 Topps Record Numbers.  Not too surprising; this isn’t the most exciting set.

Well, here it is!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Info about the set:

Set description:  This set showcased a record reached by 10 different players in 1998.  For example, Mark McGwire hit 70 homers, Sammy Sosa hit 20 homers in a month, Griffey became the youngest player to reach 350 homers, Cal Ripken ended his consecutive games streak at a record 2,632 games.  These cards have a striking similarity to the 1995 Topps design, but have a fireworks design in the background.

Set composition: 10 cards, 1:8 odds (1999 Topps series 2)

Hall of Famers:  3.  Mike Piazza, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr.

How I put the set together:

• 5 cards from my series 2 hobby box
• 1 card from a card show
• 3 cards from Sportlots
• 1 card from a trade

Thoughts on the set:  This set has a lot in common with the Record Breakers subsets from some of the 1970’s and 1980’s Topps sets.  Those tended to have some sort of newspaper headline-ish info on the front.  These cards don’t really celebrate the accomplishment, they list the top 10 of the record that was set.  I like the list, but a little blurb on the accomplishment would be cool.  And the set feels superfluous.

Card that completed my set: #RN7 – Kerry Wood

I think.  But am not sure.  I think this was the last card, which I got via trade from a reader back in 2013.

Best card (my opinion): #RN9 – Cal Ripken

 

I want to say Wood for this one – I think back then Wood getting 20 strikeouts was such a cool thing.  The sky was the limit!  I thought about Ripken – but this was for the streak coming to an end (and thus setting the final mark) – not for the 1995 season when he broke the record.

My Favorite Reds card:  There are none.

Any other tidbits:  Here’s a list of the records:

• 1 – McGwire – HR in a season
• 2 – Piazza – Batting Average by a catcher in a season
• 3 – Schilling – Strikeouts by a NL RHP in a season
• 4 – Griffey – Youngest to reach 350 career HR
• 5 – Sosa – HR in a calendar month
• 6 – Garciaparra – Hitting streak by an AL rookie
• 7 – Wood – Strikeouts in a game, rookie
• 8 – Clemens – Strikeouts in a game
• 9 – Ripken – Consecutive games played
• 10 – McGwire – HR in 3 consecutive seasons

Completed insert set – 1999 Topps Nolan Ryan Finest

Finishing up some more completed sets.  I finished the regular set for this almost 7 years ago, so some serious time between the Ryan reprint set and the Ryan finest set.

This was actually pretty recent purchase, so I’m no longer a year behind.  After this one – there will be a master set post forthcoming as well, which is exciting.

Info about the set:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Set description:  After issuing reprints from great outfielders from the 50’s and 60’s – Mantle, Mays and Clemente – Topps went with a more recent hobby icon in 1999, strikeout king Nolan Ryan.  Ryan was the theme elsewhere in the product, too – he was given card #34 (his uniform number).  This is the “Finest” version of that insert set.

The regular reprints have a gold foil stamp on the front to designate the cards as “Nolan Ryan Commemorative” reprints, but this has no stamp while being finished in the Topps Chrome/Finest technology.  Like the 98 Clemente set – Topps still called this “Finest”.  Unlike the Clemente set – it didn’t have a peel-off protector.  This set is more similar to the Aaron set in 2000 which also didn’t have the peel-off.  But that Aaron set was called Chrome.  My opinion while looking at all of these – this should really be called Chrome.  Shrug.

Set composition:  27 cards, 1:18 (1999 Topps)

Hall of Famers:  1 – just Ryan.  Jerry Koosman is the only other player featured in this set.

How I put the set together:

• 1 cards from my 1999 s1 hobby box
• 2 cards from a card show
• 4 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 20 cards from COMC

Card that completed my set:  #27 – 1994 Topps

I thought I had finished this set, went to go do this post last year and realized as I was typing above there were 27 cards!  I never got that last 1994 Topps card!  Well, I got it on COMC 3 months ago and the cards arrived at the end of September!

Thoughts on the set:  Same thing I said in the regular set completed post.  By 1999 this idea was probably a bit overdone, but to be honest – if Topps had just decided, we’re gonna do one of these every year, but cut back on other stuff, I think it would be pretty good.

Ryan, like Mickey Mantle, is a true cardboard icon – like Mantle, his greatness to card collectors outpaces his considerable greatness as a player.  So this is a good set.  The fact that it’s 27 cards and fits perfectly into 3 binder sheets is awesome too!

Best card (my opinion):  #4 – 1971 Topps

1980 and 1990 are favorites of mine as well, but this is just my favorite Ryan card.  The Finest version is better than the regular because the stamp doesn’t get in the way.

My Favorite Reds card:  There obviously are none.

Here’s the scan of the full set:

 

Any other tidbits:  Ryan had card #1 for 3 straight years from 1990 through 1992.

14 of the 27 cards feature Ryan at some point in his pitching motion.

Sometimes the silhouette of the Chrome / Finest outlines don’t match up with Ryan’s figure.  Kind of annoying.

Completed insert set – 1998 Topps Baby Boomers

I finished up a really tough set recently with the Baby Boomers insert set from 1998.  A lot of these late 90’s insert sets are really tough – but there are Chrome versions that would be easier and this was no different.  I’d search for the card I needed, see it on COMC or another site in Topps Chrome but not the flagship card I actually needed.  I finally saw the elusive Justin Thompson on eBay at the start of this year, and the rest, as they say – was history!

Info about the set:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Set description:  The cards have a firework background behind the player photo, and feature young stars in-the-making.  It’s a set with some pretty good names – Jeter, Nomar, Helton, Rolen.  The premise is that these are younger guys who are going to be the next super-studs.  They got some really right, some mostly right, a few not really correct.

Set composition:  15 cards, 1:36 odds (1998 Topps series 1 retail)

Hall of Famers:  11.  Jeter, Rolen, Guerrero

2 more could be added someday – Helton and Andruw Jones

How I put the set together:

• 7 cards from COMC
• 2 cards from Beckett’s marketplace
• 4 card from Sportlots
• 2 card from eBay

I didn’t get any from actual card packs, makes me sad 😦

Thoughts on the set:  It’s a pretty good insert set, I like themes they stick to and sets that are 15 cards as opposed to 50.  This would have been fun to chase back in 1998.

Card that completed my set:  #BB14 – Justin Thompson

I was looking for this card for quite a while – I was down to this and the Jeter after 2019.  The Jeter was findable on eBay because he’s Jeter, but this was one of those cards that you could find 20 Chrome versions but none of the regular.  I just didn’t see the regular version.  But I finally got it finished up when I saw it one the Bay!

Best card (my opinion):  #BB4, BB10 – Jose Cruz Jr., Vladimir Guerrero (Sr.)

A set like this – it’s pretty cool to have multi-generational family members included.  Jose Cruz Jr. was a stud prospect who did have a very nice MLB career.  Vlad obviously became a Hall of Famer and now his son has maybe even more potential than his dad!

My Favorite Reds card:  There are none, though Scott Rolen and Jose Guillen had some good years with the club later on!

***********

Here’s a scan of the set – front and back.

Any other tidbits:  Nothing I can think of, but…

I do wish I could do the completed master set post now – but I still need one more card to finish off the 1998 Master Set.  I still need the Milestone insert card for Dennis Eckersley – which, funny – I have accidentally purchased the Chrome version in the past!

Well, I did think of something – sounds like this is a set their bringing attention to for the current year Topps Archives product, so that’s kind of neat.

Completed master set – one last look at 1995 Topps

With that Travis Fryman Spectralite Pre-production card from a few posts ago – it’s time to do the 1995 Topps Master Set post.  I’ve now completed all my Topps master sets through 1997!  Here’s the info for this master set.

Info about my base set:

How I put the base set together:

• 298 cards from series 1 retail box
• 214 cards from series 2 retail box
• 102 cards from trades
• 41 cards I already had from back in the day
• 4 cards from eBay
• 1 card from Sportlots

Card that completed my set: #446 – Andres Galarraga

Best card (my opinion): #203 – Randy Johnson

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

My “Master” Set Info:

939 cards – 660 “base”, 165 “update”, 92 “insert” (82 flagship, 10 update), 22 “other”

• Update set:  Traded
• Insert sets:  League Leaders, Finest Total Bases, Cyberstats Season in Review, Opening Day, At the Break Power Boosters
• Promo sets:  Pre-Production / Pre-Production Spectralite, Shawn Green Proof, National Packtime

How I put the additional sets together:

• Traded – 160 cards from the Update wax box, 1 card from Sportlots, 4 from Beckett Marketplace
• Inserts –  12 cards from s1/s2/update boxes, 4 I already had from before I started this whole project, 5 cards from trades, 31 cards from Sportlots, 18 cards from eBay, 16 cards from COMC, 6 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• Promos –  the 9 regular cards I had from back in the day, 1x Shaw Green proof from COMC, 1 Spectralite from a trade, 5 Spectralite from eBay, 2 Spectralite from COMC, 1 Spectralite from Sportlots, I got all 3 National Packtime from Sportlots

Toughest card to track down:  Pre-Production Spectralite #PP5 – Travis Fryman

I posted about how hard this damn card was to track down.  I actually found a rarer “proof” version before I could find the actual card that could be found in the 1994 Topps factory – we’re talking like a decade of searching for this.

Update set composition:  165 cards (114 single MLB player cards, 14 Draft Picks, 2 On Deck, 2 Tops Prospects, 1 Star Track, 12 Rookie of the Year Contenders, 10 At the Break, 9 All-Stars, 1 checklist)

In the update set not in the base set:  28 players (including the 4 players on the Prospect card)

Total in base and update sets:  595 different players.  Or 60% of the 1994 MLB rosters.

Here’s the link for the Update completed set post.

Other product bests

Finishing off a promo set… for real this time!

I posted this a few years ago – I had been trying forever to get one last card from the 1995 Master Set.  It was the 1995 CyberStats pre-production card of Travis Fryman.  I got a Proof that was basically a pre-production of the pre-production card, and while that’s pretty cool, I still planned on buying the actual PP5 if I could.  Well – I found it on eBay and now this set can be “crossed off the list!

Here’s the back of both cards – no difference there.

It is numbered PP5, with “pre-production sample” in the 1994 stat line.

Here’s the card I just got – the actual Pre-Production card which was found in the 1994 retail factory sets.  You got a 10-card “pack” that had 9 regular versions of the promo cards and one of these parallel “spectralight” (dark foil background) version of one of the 9 cards.  

And here’s the proof that I had been counting – it’s probably more rare than the one above, but I feel like my set is now technically complete 🙂

Here’s the actual scan of this full set with the Fryman card replaced!

Here’s a scan of all the promo sets.

1999 Topps parallels – Ken Griffey Jr. – no more hunting left to do – for real this time!

From a post ~4 years ago, I wrote:

“So I picked up a white whale about 2 months ago.  For the parallel cards in 1999, I picked Ken Griffey Jr.  I’m considering this parallel project done for 1999, though I’m having a different player fill in for Mr. Griffey for that MVP promotion.  Yeah, if I find his MVP promotion card someday, I’ll try for it.  But I’m doubtful, and even if I do, it may be more than I’m willing to pay.”

Well – I did, in fact, pick up the Griffey last year.  And – yeah, don’t ask what I paid for it (actually – it has a crease so wasn’t that bad)!

Here’s the updated post.

1999 Topps

Card I selected:  #100 – Ken Griffey Jr.

I picked a 2nd straight Hall of Famer in 1999.  It was also my 2nd straight Moeller High School graduate – Ken Griffey Jr. followed Barry Larkin.  This was my favorite card of the entire 1999 set; Griffey connecting with a pitch on a horizontal card is great.

I don’t have every one of these cards yet.  There’s 2 hold-ups.  First – like the 1998 Larkin, I’m missing the Super Chrome Refractor which is just a card that doesn’t show up on eBay or anywhere else very often.  Second is the MVP promotional card.  There were only 100 of these, and Griffey was a winner so most of them were probably redeemed.  So I’m not holding my breath on ever getting that one and have picked a replacement.

# of cards (including the Topps card):  10

The parallel sets in 1999 include:

• MVP promotion
• Oversize
• Opening Day
• Opening Day Oversize
• Chrome
• Chrome Refractors
• SuperChrome
• SuperChrome Refractors
• Action Flats

Scans:

1999 Topps #100

1998 Topps MVP Promotion #NNO

The only parallel in the 1999 Topps product was the MVP promotion.  Inserted only into hobby packs, were cards with a Topps MVP stamp.  If the player depicted won MVP of the week (as selected by Topps) in 1999, you could send that card in for a set of cards honoring each of the 25 winners.  The set paralleled the first 198 cards in series 1, and cards #243-444 in series 2.  Basically all of the regular cards but no subsets.  The backs of the cards have information on the promotion (no statistics).

As I mentioned, I was not too optimistic that I’ll ever run down the ’99 MVP Promotion card of Griffey.  I now have it and can consider this closed!

1999 Topps Oversize #7

Each hobby box or HTA jumbo box contained a 3-¼” x 4-½” jumbo card as a box topper.  There were 16 cards that are exact replicas of the player’s base cards, except for the size and the numbering.

1999 Topps Opening Day #58

Opening Day was back for the 2nd time in 1999.  This 165 card set was retail only, and features the same photos from the base Topps set.  The border is silver instead of the gold on flagship Topps, and there is a foil Opening Day logo instead of the Topps logo.  Naturally, the back has a different number and it has a silver background unlike the gold in the regular Topps set.

1999 Topps Opening Day Oversize#3

Just like the flagship Topps, Opening Day contained a jumbo box topper.  They were the same size – 3-¼” x 4-½” – but only had 3 players.  Naturally, Junior is one of them, along with Home Run champs McGwire and Sosa.  The only difference from this card and the base Opening Day is the size and the numbering.  I tracked this down recently as part of this parallel project.

1999 Topps Chrome #100

Topps Chrome was back for the 4th year.  For the 2nd time it was a full reproduction of the regular Topps set, released in 2 series.  The front of the card reproduces the base set using Topps chromium technology and of course the logo is the Topps Chrome logo.  The back of the card is the same as the regular set except for the Topps Chrome logo and slightly different copyright wording.

1999 Topps Chrome Refractor #100

Inserted every 12 packs of Topps Chrome were refractors.  A plastic diffraction effect that gives refractors a colorful, reflective shine.  The word refractor is written just below the number on the back – otherwise the back is the same as the regular Chrome card.  Of all the cards I got specifically for this project – this one was the most expensive – I paid $30 for it.

1999 Topps SuperChrome #18

1999 Topps SuperChrome Refractor #18

For the 2nd and last time, Topps came out with giant jumbo cards that were their own product called SuperChrome.  These cards came in 3-card packs that retailed for $4.99.  The front is the same as Topps Chrome except there’s a SuperChrome logo and the cards are 4-⅛” by 5-¾”.  The number on the back is different since it’s a smaller set, and it also has a SuperChrome logo.  There’s also a refractor version, which came 1 in 12 packs just like regular-sized ones, with refractor wording just below the card number.

YAY!  NOW I HAVE THIS CARD!

1999 Topps Action Flats #S1-8

This was probably one I could have not counted as a parallel – it’s a totally different picture.  But since Griffey has one of these, I decided to include it.  The set has the exact same design as Topps, with an action logo on the front in foil and on the back in color.  Aside from the logo and the numbering – the back is exactly the same as the Topps back.

The “Rainbow”:

Any sets I didn’t get:  That’s all you could possibly get from 1999.

Other cards I would have liked to do:  Griffey is the best (in my opinion) card in the set.  And the only 3 players that have all of the cards above are the ones in the Opening Day jumbo set – Griffey, McGwire, Sosa.

Completed insert set – 1996 Topps Profiles

Man, over a year since I’ve posted!  Life (3 kids) will do that to you.  I still have dreams of keeping this project alive, and the World Series has me inspired – so here we go.  I apparently missed doing a post for completing the 1996 Topps Profiles insert set.  Well here it is!

Info about the set:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Set description:

1996 Topps spokesmen Tony Gwynn and Kirby Puckett give their thoughts about 20 players from their respective leagues.

This set was inserted into both series 1 & 2 in all types of packs.  Each series has 10 cards from each league – 40 total between the 2 series. The cards look slightly different between the 2 series, with series 1 having a bit of a “spectralight” effect to the background, series 2 being more of a Chrome type card.

Set composition:  40 cards, 1:12 (1996 Topps series 1 & 2)

Hall of Famers:  12 (or 14)

Jeff Bagwell, Greg Maddux, Mike Piazza, Larry Walker, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Barry Larkin, Roberto Alomar, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Cal Ripken, Frank Thomas

Puckett and Gwynn are on every card giving their opinions, though they don’t give their opinions of themselves for their own card!

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from my s1 retail box
• 3 cards from my s2 retail box
• 7 cards from trades
• 2 cards from a card show
• 27 cards from COMC/Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  This is reminiscent (maybe a bit plagiaristic?) of some ideas Upper Deck had earlier in the 90’s – the Reggie Jackson set I think was the first where he gave his thoughts on current players.  It’s a good idea, doesn’t seem like wasted filler.

Card that completed my set:  #NL9 – Sammy Sosa

I got this one from a trade with Nolan’s Dugout back in 2013.

Best card (my opinion):  #NL13 – Ron Gant

Gant has by far the best picture here.  I like the Nomo card as well.

My Favorite Reds card:  Have to go with Gant based on the above.  He was the Comeback POY in 1995 during his only season with the Reds.

Here’s the scan of the full set.