1990 Sportflics: Lenticular Technology at its Okay-est

1990 Sportflics #7

In my collection: 1

Griffey looks: blurry

Is this a good Griffey card?  Yes.  The first use of lenticular technology on a Junior card.

Sportflics first came out back in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1990 that the set was graced with a Griffey card.  There’s not much to the design: a blue box for a name plate, little orange and yellow lines that seem to slide around the border, and an alternating team/position below the name.

After this set, Sportflics would take a three-year hiatus only to return in 1994 under Pinnacle as Sportflix 2000, a more well-rounded and modernized brand.  Unbeknownst to them, lenticular technology was not about to catch on, but just in case it did, a lenticular mini-explosion was ignited by card makers.  Two come to mind: Pinnacle marketed a second lenticular 3D product called UC3 the following year, and so did Topps who came out with Dimension III (D3).  Both were a’ight, but even as a kid it was clear that this would be a passing fad.

And did I mention that these cards are the scourge of card bloggers because they can’t be scanned effectively?  I tried to get a scan of both front images, but kept ending up with an unaturally multi-limbed amalgam.  Here it is:
 

1990 Sportflics #7

The card depicts the bottom half of Junior’s trademark swing in two parts.  It’s blurry, too, as lenticular cards have always been pretty imprecise.  Image quality is sacrificed for the multi-view effect, and the result tends to be meh.

Lenticular printing would eventually improve but not by much.  Its limited return in the mid-90’s would mark the end of its use as a base set concept.  Good riddance to silly Happy Meal technology.

A PWE From the Dollar Store

Doug of the excellent blog Sports Cards From the Dollar Store sent me Griffeys and Saints.  I don't know where he is getting Saints cards up there in Canada.  Oh, wait.  Yes I do.

This may be the greatest Griffey sticker I've ever seen.  Classic uniform, great candid shot, blindingly sparkling.  I want ten more of these so I can start sticking them places like inside my eyelids.

 

 When/what is National Baseball Card Day?  I want to be a part of it.

I'm not certain Ingram is going to be with the 'aints much longer.  A lot of locals wish we had kept Ivory, and judging from his peformance this weekend, they may have been right.  The other guy here couldn't pay for a meal in this town if he wanted to.  Even I bought him a beer once at a sushi place in my hometown of Metairie.  That was a fun day.

I haven't familiarized myself with all the new talent yet, but here's hoping these guys work out.  The Saints have had their share of defensive trouble, but luckily they're finally turning it around.  I'll be watching for these two.

Thanks again, Doug!  I'll be sending you some Mookies and Delgados....

Taking Griffentory Part 1: The Project

I have a lot of Griffeys.  Have I mentioned this before?

I spent the last two nights going through my binders and boxes trying to get an accurate count.  I’ve done quick-and-dirty counts before, but I’ve never approached the level of precision.

Going through the binders and hard-counting would drive me insane, so it was quicker to go year-by-year counting the empty pockets.  After that, I could simply count the pages and apply this simple formula:

9n - y = x

Where n is the number of pages, y is the number of empty page pockets, and x is the total number of Griffey cards in that year.  I then added each year’s x to the total number of encased Griffeys and those from the oversized box to get my first ever official total Griffey count.

Items I did not count:

- Ken, Sr. or Craig Griffey cards that don't feature Junior

- Topps Coins

- posters

- containers

- valentines

- magazines

- COAs

- Griffeys that are within completed sets

Items I did count:

- phone cards

- sealed Starting Lineup cards

- cameos

- error cards

- all-Griffey sets (e.g. my sealed Make a Wish set)

I also wanted to take it a step further and find the correct quantity of unique Griffey cards, that being the whole collection with the duplicates left out.  There was really no way around it - I would have to do a page-by-page hard count.  I would also have to check the backs to make sure I was including the promos and be very careful around the large, similar-looking, Griffey-exclusive sets (e.g. Griffey Gallery and Junior Circuit) which got special attention.

I counted as unique any differing parallels and variants, including O-Pee-Chee versions of Topps cards, factory set and Tiffany versions of base cards, minis, promos, samples, and error cards.  I did not count multiples from any numbered set, even though the cards are technically unique by serial number.

I’ll be releasing the results of these counts with a contest.  Comment below with your guess for each of the following:

1. the total number of Griffeys

2. the number of unique Griffeys

3. the Duplicate Ratio

The Duplicate Ratio is the ratio of total Griffeys to unique ones.  For example if I had 1000 Griffeys and 200 were unique, the ratio would be 5, or five Griffeys for every one unique Griffey.  1000/200 = 5.  You got it.

The closest to each wins a prize.  You have 48 hours to guess.  I’ll post the results of the Griffentory on Thursday.   Good luck! 

Design Timeline: Triple Play

This post is part of an ongoing feature The Great Griffey Base Card Project.

Donruss’ aesthetic began skewing more and more high end in 1992.  Check out that Design Timeline and you can watch as each design of the mid-90’s gets more and more contemporary, even adult.  Probably in the very same meeting at which this new direction was agreed upon, Donruss must have also decided they needed to offset this move by creating another set for the younger collectors - the ones who care less about gold foil in fancy cursive and high-end photography.  These kids wanted action, color, pizzazz, chutzpah, maybe even a little moxie.  “You know, for kids!” is probably exactly how this brand was pitched.  Thus Triple Play was born.

From the beginning this was a simple brand with photography that could only be described as “neato.”  There were not a lot of inserts, but it was jam-packed with relatively unique action shots, the first ever official cards for team mascots, and Fun at the Ballpark cards featuring Jay Bell milking a cow.  What fun!

Here is every* Triple Play design by year:

1992:

This is not the worst inaugural set I’ve ever seen.  I can see how kids would like the orange laser beam horizontal across the center flaring out to red beneath a slanted photo - kids enigmatically like lasers and uneven lines simultaneously, I get that - but when I was that age I was all about multicolored designs, rainbows and the like.  Yeah, I was that kind of kid.  Hence this polarizing, one-note, all-our-cards-are-bright-ass-orange stuff would have lost me two packs in were it not for the kooky nature of the cards themselves.  The pictures of mascots and players getting hit with pies and…..well, stretching, I guess, are all such a novelty that this set gets a pass.  It’s also one of my favorite Griffeys of ’92 because of that mysterious picture totally giving gravity the finger.

1993:

My favorite of the Triple Play base set designs, the ‘93 set is characterized by the red-accented black border and big silver surname marquee across the top of each card.  This color and design feel a lot more “cool” and grown-up.  Plus the black-red-silver combo is the same color scheme used by Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, and we all know that his rocket-powered flying car was much cooler than Gadget’s hokey transforming mini-van. 

They upped the number of inserts this year and kept the same high ratio of kooky fun cards, including a card for new president Bill Clinton (only George H.W. Bush had received a major-brand baseball card before in the 1990 Topps set).  They also threw in color photos on the backs.  We started seeing glossy finishes on inserts, but the base set would have to wait until next year.  Regardless, this is the most distinctive of the Triple Play designs.

1994:

Here is another example of a set getting away from its roots.  This year they did away with the kids’ club and just made a regular set of baseball cards.  All the young’uns who were drawn in by the fun content of the ’92 and ’93 sets now had to face the reality of a set comprised of just guys playing baseball.  No pies or mascots or wackiness - just action shots.  It must have been like being given your first book without pictures.  Glossy?  Yes.  Colorful?  Sure.  Fun?  Meh….  At least the inserts started to get really cool this year.

Design-wise, the bottom-mounted name plate sports a centered team logo among team-appropriate colors that have the letters of the player’s surname cut out with a cool shadow effect.  Triple Play also dropped the border and embraced full-bleed printing for the first time, continuing the picture into the cut-out lettering beneath.  The set completely omits players’ first names which I like.  It’s a good-looking set, but it’s definitely not keeping with the original purpose of the brand. 

I think that at this point in the brand’s timeline Donruss intended for TP to compete with Collector’s Choice on the low-end.  The price points were about the same; but while Triple Play’s inserts were awesome in ’94, the base set was not nearly as impressive as that of CC, nor were there any cool parallels (CC had silver and gold signature).  Ironically had some of the characteristics of the previous years (e.g. unique photography, quirky cards) been carried over to the ’94 set, TP probably would have lasted a bit longer.  As that was not the case, this would be the last set from Triple Play for 18 years. 

*So that technically wasn’t every Triple Play design because it’s back now.  The brand has been resurrected under the ownership of Panini, and they’ve already released a 2012 and 2013 set.  The design has changed significantly into something entirely new, all cartoonish and logo-less.  Sadly, there are no Griffeys....yet.

Here's every Triple Play Base card of the 90's in order:

 

LCS Dollar Griffeys Plus a Big Mystery Box Hit

I do two things when I go to my LCS: flip through the dollar baseball box and pick up a few mystery long boxes.  Here are just a few choice items from each.

A dollar is worth it for just about any slabbed Griffey, but this one is pretty cool.  I think he probably put this in there especially for me to find.  There was also a slabbed '90 Fleer Sosa rookie, but who cares?

These also came from the dollar box, and while I already had two of these, the big news is that I didn't have the other two.  That High School card is obviously not genuine, and it's the fourth variation of it I've come across.

Now I am consistently happy with what ends up in the mystery boxes.  I always get a few gems and tons of trade fodder, but this time I wound up with a super rare card I doubt he intended to go into that box:

Shiny Sandberg.  Great start, but that's not all.  Check out the back:

See it?  Here's a close-up:

It's numbered out of only five.  I love Sandberg, but if I can sell this puppy and use the proceeds to snap up a couple Griffeys, I'm more than willing.  I checked a Beckett (yes, I have a Beckett), and they apparently don't even list parallels this rare.  What do I charge for it?

This Way to Joe Average Card Collector's House: a Trade Post

Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse PWE'd me this amazing Griffey from the 2013 Topps Archives set modeled after the great basketball set from 1972.

I love the clean, colorful design here.  Great insert.  Thanks, Mark!  I already have some cards with your name on them (literally, I wrote your name on the penny sleeve).

Jason from Joe Average Card Collector did a thing where you donate money to a kickstarter that is trying to raise autism awareness, and he sends you a Wade Boggs rookie.  I mention this not to toot my own horn (my donation was clearly incentivized), but to show Jason's generosity and because I believe in the cause.  I have a number of friends who are on the Autism spectrum, and I know that when it comes to autism it's really all about awareness, so I gave to Jason's charity of choice, www.willowhope.com.  Here's that Boggs rookie:

That's not cropped to make it look better - the edges and corners are sharp as can be.  He also threw in some Griffeys:

There's also a excellent book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon that gives a unique perspective on how the condition affects the thinking and lifestyle of kids.  Whether you have someone with autism in your life or not, it's a great read.

I have been setting aside every Rockies insert and serial-numbered card I come across.  I'll have them out to you soon-ishly.  Thanks, Jason!

A Group Break of Grande Proportions

Chris over at Nachos Grande had a group break recently.  You might have seen it because it was huge and lasted for many posts which was awesome for those of us who participated.  It was like if Christmas morning lasted for several days or Hanukkah if it lasted the regular amount of time.  I ended up with the Mariners and the Devil Rays, and there were a ton of Mariners in there.

My favorite card from the break was this 8 x 10 glossy beast:

What a great shot - I think I'm going to slap it into a frame.  There were also a lot of these regular-sized cards:

That other horizontal card is a great early A-Rod.  This set was an excellent choice for the break.

I wasn't going to land any Griffeys from this box of Gold Label, but I did end up with two versions of the A-Rod and a really cool Josh Hamilton insert.

This is Class 2 and Class 3, and Jose Canseco who is classless.  I'm new to this whole multiple-versions-of-cards concept Topps did.  I like it better than duplicates of the same card, even if those cards feature a roided-out meathead with no neck.  Still, our goal should be a society without classes, Topps.

Everybody loves '93 Upper Deck.  It's like the perfect set.  Here's a trio of Big Units.

And seven Griffeys.  I know those say Jay Buhner, but they're Griffeys.

The Fleer Tradition box yielded an early Ichiro.

This was a great surprise because I missed Chris' post that showed this card being pulled. 

There were two more Griffeys in the Skybox....box.  Not a bad-looking set.

And these cards from Fleer Maximum were a little stuck to each other from being in packs for so long.  Still, not bad-looking cards.

In all I ended up with 11 Griffeys, one of which is new to the collection.  I ended up with lots and lots of trade fodder as well, so I will be putting those in the appropriate blogger stacks and getting them out as soon as I get around to it.

Thanks for the break, Chris!  I'm looking forward to the next one....