1991 Stadium Club #270 and the rest....
In my collection: 7 regular, 2 Charter Members, 2 All-Stars
Griffey looks: pensive
Is this a good Griffey card?: Yes. A nice picture, a full-color depiction of the famous 1989 Topps Traded rookie card, and just a butt-ton of frickin' class. A great card from an excellent 1st-year set.
The Set: Guess what? I love '91 Stadium Club. Ol' blue is finally here, people!
"Attention, citizens of 1991! Pay no attention to these upstart brands, for your old pal Topps is the grandaddy of baseball cards. Behold! We have hired real photographers that are going to knock you on your card-lovin' ass with their dynamic use of shadow, saturation, and perspective. And do you like.....gloss? Ha ha ha - we know. Also, we take checks." - Topps, early 1991 (not really)
This is Topps going premium. The set is characterized by a single, classy blue line offset by gold foil and the prominent Stadium Club logo.
The photography is amazing, and Topps knew it. Moreover, they wanted you to know it. That's why these babies are full-bleed (a novelty then). And peep the big, yellow Kodak logo right on the top of the box.
In your face, Upper Deck.
Another part of this set that Topps did a great job on was the colorful, engaging back. True, they tried to sqeeze a lot of cheese on that cracker, so some of the writing gets a little tiny. But you gotta love that strike zone box. On second thought, flip it for the southpaws, then you can love it. And a full-color reprint of his rookie card? How sweet is that?
In exchange for all this awesome, Topps set the price at $1.25 per pack. Now, let's get honest for a minute: do you remember actually paying $1.25 a pack for '91 Stadium Club? Hm?
I only ask because where I live, LCS's were charging $5 bucks a pack. This set was so crazy inflated, I remember keeping my commons in penny sleeves inside top loaders.
This is a set with Gene Nelson on the box. We should have known better....
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| "You overpaid for this pack, bro! LOL." |
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| Pitch Crime Dog high and tight. |
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| Tell Roberto to swing away.... |
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| Unfortunately for him, it looks like that ball is right down the middle. Strike one. |
These crack me up:
Bags and Mo each had their rookie year in 1991, so this set contains their rookie cards. And since this set depicts each players' rookie card on the back of his respective card, blah blah blah, pretty weird, right?
So, what's this guy thinking about?
The Kid look pensive, like he's trying to decide whether to double down the left field line and get some base time or just crank it out the park and call it a day. One thing's for sure - he's got a heck of a bat arsenal to choose from.
So, what's this guy thinking about?
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| Hey, is that....is that Fred? He's kinda far, but it looks like Fred. Should I call his name? Is that weird? What if it's not him? I don't want to creep the guy out. Man, that really looks like Fred. |
Packs of 1991 Stadium Club came with this card:
For thirty 1991 bucks you got a set of cards that included the likes of Andy Hawkins, Dave Stieb and Kevin Maaaaaaaaaaaaaa Oops - sorry. Nodded off on the keyboard there for a sec. Where was I?
The "medallion" they describe on the card ended up being a bronze Nolan Ryan card commemorating his 300th win. Pretty awesome....
I pulled that picture on the left from eBay where someone is selling their '91 Stadium Club booty. I believe that's a key chain I spot in the middle there. Want.
Also, did you notice how there's a "But that's not all" on the membership application card? Yikes.
Warning: It's about to get yearbooky up in here:
This is the card that makes paying for a Stadium Club membership worth it. I've said it before; I like newspaper designs. We are losing the local paper, so let's enjoy these while we can. Sunday comics and crosswords especially. Sudoku to a lesser extent.
The front of this card is weird - I can't really put my finger on it. You know that meme with the guy and his family, and he's all creepy and murdery-looking? Hold on......
<searches Internet for 43 seconds>
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| Reminds me of this. Hey, is the wife kind of cute? Is that just me? |
One more Griffey from 1991 Stadium Club:
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| Grrrrr...... |
Griffey looks kinda pissed, like he just swung through a bad pitch for a called strike 3. Unless this was taken at the All-Star Game, in which case he is irked that he had to come to Toronto.
It's a little box shaped like a stadium. Yes, I owned this. I won it at a meeting for my high school baseball card club. I think I sold it at a garage sale for pennies, but not before removing the Griffey. It's just a big, square thing that takes up too much space, and it had to go. I'll admit it, I want the set back. I'd buy another one given the opportnity to not have to pay shipping. The cards were really cool.
That's all the Griffeys from 1991 Stadium Club. It's a great set. The only card I don't have that I'd like to show you is from the football set. The Brett Favre rookie card has his name spelled "Brett Farve." And who can blame them? The spelling is so phoenetically wrong-seeming.
Oh, screw it. That's what Google Images is for:
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| Hee hee. |
I had no idea this set was only $1.25 a pack. I remember seeing it for upwards of $8/9 a pack. I knew that was more than retail but guess I never actually asked what retail was.
ReplyDeleteI never bought so much as a single one because of this.
I was shocked too. Came up in my research for this post. I was like "Whaaaaa?" then I was like "Fnuuuuuuh?" then I was like "Daaaaaaaamn."
ReplyDeleteI paid 5 or 6 bucks a pack a few times back in the day. Beckett had this set booking for a fortune. They really got us good.
Still, you've got to (begrudgingly) admit, it is a nice set.