1996 Pinnacle

Pinnacle was always in love with gold foil. The 1996 edition was no different. The Pinnacle logo is just gold colored, but the bottom of the card is a mass of gold foil.

At least the shape of the foil makes sense. The cards are called Pinnacle. Pinnacle means a high, pointed piece of rock. It has also come to mean, the top, the best, which is probably what Pinnacle Brands meant by their name. But going to the original meeting, a sharp, pointed slab of gold foil fits the name.

But take a close look at the foil. You may have to click on the card to see the larger image. There is some texture to the foil. Why, it looks like a spider web! And what's that stuck in the spider web? Oh my God, there's a baseball player stuck in the web! He's trying to bash his way out with his bat!

I've had these cards for years (will, since 1996) and I never noticed that poor batter there until I scanned this card. What was Pinnacle trying to tell us?

1996 Pinnacle Christie Brinkley Collection

After a very long and very successful career, Greg Maddux has announced his retirement. There have been a few card postings (most notably this one by Cardboard Junkie) but I thought I'd post my favorite Maddux card. This card is my favorite for a few reasons:

1. It's Greg Maddux
2. It features Christie Brinkley in the back
3. It's the very first card I bought on eBay
4. Once I knew I could find a card like this my baseball card collecting was rejuvenated.

This 16-card insert set was available in 1996 Pinnacle Series 2 packs. It was inserted at the rate of 1 in 23 packs so it's not incredibly rare.

I assume that the frame Greg is holding onto must be sitting on something. Or he's very strong. That thing must weigh 50 pounds.

1996 Select Certified

Cards with a mirror finish! The scan doesn't do this card justice. The background behind Cal is as bright as a mirror. The card logo and player name are in gold foil. The cards came with a plastic film to protect the surface.

I purchased the entire 144 card set in 2004 on eBay for $12 (including S&H). The cards were originally sold in 6-card packs for $4.99. That's 83 cents a card in 1996. I got them for a tenth that.

The cards were produced by Pinnacle, which had obtained the Score brand by then. Select had been a Score product starting in 1993. Card companies like to put words like "Certified" in their card names to signify something special. Certified has two meanings: "officially recognize (someone or something) as possessing certain qualifications or meeting certain standards" and "officially declare insane". I'm guessing that Pinnacle had the first meaning in mind but the second meaning may more accurately describe the state of the baseball card business in the mid to late 1990s.

By the time I bought these cards the plastic film had been on there for 8 years. Due to the difference in materials (the card vs. the film) the cards were all bowed inward. This happens because the cardboard absorbs moisture while the plastic film does not. So the card expands a bit but the plastic film cannot expand. So the card bows. The film was real hard to get off as well but the cards appear to have not been damaged.

1996 Leaf Preferred Steel

Men of steel.

Or rather Cards of Steel.

Baseball card manufacturers have been playing around with different materials sor many years. This trend starting picking up in the mid 1990s with cards made of plastic, wood, leather, metal, etc. coming on the scene.

In 1996, Leaf put out a set called Leaf Preferred. The set wasn't very special but in every pack you got one of these.

Leaf Preferred Steel. In addition to the Daulton, I also have Lenny Dykstra. Natch, both are Phillies. I don't remember how I acquired these. I only own one of the base cards. Most likely I got them at my local baseball card store who used to have a big box of reasonably priced singles. I say "used to" because he went out of business a few years ago and I no longer have a local card shop. Heavy sigh.

The steel cards are pretty nice. They are solid cards with crimped edges. The printing is crisp. They look nothing like the base cards. In fact, they are much nicer looking than the base cards.

They even had two parallels, Steel Gold and Steel Power. I've got a Gold card of Carlos Delgado. It looks just like the regular card except, of course, its Gold colored. I've never seen the Steel Power card.

1996 Topps Laser

Steve posted a die cut card a few days ago and someone mentioned the Topps Laser cards as being an extreme example of cut cards. Topps issued just one year of these, in 1996. They came 4 to a pack for $5.00. Pretty pricey for 1996. I bought 1 pack. Looking on eBay just now it looks like they had Laser football cards as well. And someone is selling a Topps Laser cut card featuring Pam Anderson from her opus "Barb Wire". Only 4 days left on that auction so hurry and bid (the opening bid is only $0.99).

The whole baseball set can be had for $24.

I always kind of liked the cards but getting them into an album page or a penny sleeve without damaging them is challenging. The cards are very thin. There were 4 designs of which I have 2. The comment mentioned that the design for pitchers was very fragile but I don't have one of those. The other design I have features gold foil in the cut area. The back features a small photo of the player, personal data (weight, height, etc.) and "Spotlight Stats". On Clark's card it says "0 The number of Giants first basemen other than Clark with a Gold Glove".

1996 Topps Finest

From 1995 through 1999, Topps put a protective plastic film on the front of their Finest cards. I don't think the first few years of Finest had this and as near as I can tell they stopped doing it after the 1999 release.

I don't know how many other manufacturers did this. I do know that Pinnacle put out a set called Select Certified in 1996 which also had a protective film.

When these cards first appeared there was much debate among collectors. Was the film a part of the card and therefor shouldn't be removed? Wouldn't the card look better without the film? If the film wasn't part of the card and you wanted to remove it, how difficult would it be to remove as the card got older? Would removing it damage the card if it was on too long? And just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

I can answer a few of these questions. The price guides don't mention anything about the film on these cards so I assume it doesn't matter to the price of the card if the film is removed or not. Does the card look better without the film? I think it does, but you can be the judge of that. The Select Certified cards look way better without the film. These cards have a bright mirror finish (which doesn't scan well) but the film makes them look dingy. I just peeled this Finest card and the film came off easily without any damage to the card. The film on the Select Certified cards is very difficult to remove now, you seriously risk bending the card in half. Also, the Select Certified cards have a quite a bow in them, I think due to the film. I believe that over time, as the cardboard has absorbed moisture it has expanded. The film has not expanded so the card bows inward on the front. The Finest cards are not bowed, maybe because they are thinner.