The Prowling Cat’s Picture Perfect Trade Package

I’ve been lucky enough to receive lots of fun and unique Griffey-related items from bloggers all over the country, and I consider myself blessed to have so many card collecting pals in and around cities that actually have baseball. I can count on one hand how many MLB games I’ve been able to attend in person.

I can’t help wondering if I had better access to baseball whether or not I’d have stopped collecting so many years ago. I mean, even in markets outside of Seattle, Cincinnati, and Chicago, Griffey may have been in your home city two or three times per year. I can’t even imagine what that must be like. But Zenus, a.k.a. The Prowling Cat, can get me close.

These are photos taken in person at a 2009 game where the Rangers hosted the Mariners. Pictures in a magazine are one thing, but these add a whole new level of authenticity. He actually took these pictures, making them originals. These are less photos than baseball artifacts. Big Guy on the steps knows what I’m talking about.

"Woooo! Griffey! Woooo!"

I did get to see Junior play once while we were evacuated to Houston for Hurricane Katrina. Sadly I couldn’t really enjoy myself at that game. It’s great to see Junior late in his career and in an M’s jersey. And it was generous of Zenus to send me his originals.

But that wasn’t all. He also sent along a bunch of Griffeys including these three bizarre Pepsi cards. They are from a set of eight of which I now have six. Frankly I’m surprised I haven’t been able to finish this one yet, but I’m a lot closer now.

Here’s another branded oddball in that 1994 Dairy Queen gold card, another tough set to build. And that lenticular Upper Deck card is only the second one of these I’ve come across.

Finally, knowing my penchant for strange cartoon cards, TPC sent this disturbing number from Wacky Packages. Dribblin’ Dave, who spins the ball on his finger and doesn’t dribble and rides a skateboard around headless corpses with impossibly tight-laced shoes. Pretty sure that’s travelling there, bub. And, you know, murder or whatever.

This was one seriously fun package to open, my friend. Thanks a bunch!

Junior Junkie Journey: M&M Sports Cards in Pensacola, Florida

If you’ve ever been on a vacation with your in-laws, you know at some point it’s good to get away for a while and get some “me” time. And what better excuse to do this than baseball cards?

We took a trip to Perdido Key, Flora-bama recently, and four days in I decided it was time for me to go off on a little adventure. After a bit of Googling, I decided on M&M Sports Cards in Pensacola, an LCS only 40-minutes away. I went early in the morning (10am, early for card shops, I think) so as not to miss any afternoon family fun.

I had to explain to my wife that there are a lot of Griffeys in the world, and some of the best ones are sitting in boxes in card shops across the nation, often in places where no one collects Griffey, Mariners, or even baseball (New Orleans, for example, is a football town with very few baseball collectors). These cards may never see the light of day, so it’s up to us Griffey collectors to go out and find these orphaned cards and give them a home. In addition to that, I would be supporting local business, filling the car with gas, picking up some groceries, and every other excuse I could think of to buy myself a few hours away. It worked.

M&M’s is an excellent card shop. Having visited card shops in other cities, I know that not all have survived in as good a shape as the one I frequent back home. Many have taken on new identities as paintball stores and comic shops to supplement their patronage. Once I saw a place that sold baseball cards and sandwiches (mostly sandwiches, it seemed). So walking into a new place and realizing that it is a real, honest-to-goodness card shop brings me a lot of relief. That was the case with M&M.

Out front there were bins with 50%-off sports memorabilia. In the front window there was a sign advertising the shops’ Trade Night. Inside, the shop was organized (but not too organized – you know what I mean), well-lit, and full of glass cases, shelves of sealed boxes from the 90’s through today, and rows of 5000-count boxes organized by team. This was exactly what I was looking for.

I was greeted immediately and asked if I needed help finding anything. In situations like this I don’t like to show my Griffey fandom too soon (I find this can often affect the cost of unpriced items. Plus I like to find things myself so they are more of a surprise), so I told the gentleman I was just killing some time looking around. Within two minutes I had found several items I would definitely be purchasing and set them at the register as a way of saying, “Don’t’ worry, bro - I am buying some stuff today. I will not be wasting your time.”

The man running the store was also one of the owners, a friendly fellow named Mark (or possibly Mike, but I think it was Mark). He was packaging a large quantity of cards in little yellow padded envelopes for mailing. Clearly this shop has adopted the method of supplementing sales via eBay, something I can’t imagine any card shop nowadays not doing.

I ended up poking around for a good 45 minutes. While I was doing so, another customer came in who appeared to be a regular and bought two boxes. He was super friendly and even recognized the New Orleans Zephyrs logo on my hat. I was glad to see that this shop has its regulars.

Here’s some of the stuff I brought home:

The first item I picked up, a sealed set from mid-90’s Upper Deck. I knew right away that I already had the Griffey from this set, but this particular one offered something more:

A numbered COA with a big ol’ Griffey head on it. Oh, no! Only 216000 of these sets were produced? Hurry and get yours before they’re gone!

So this Legends Memorabilia magazine is something I already have, but I don’t like to open and read them for fear of compromising the condition, so I always buy an extra when I can and the price is right. This particular periodical is actually a price guide, but it seems to be a price guide for other Legends memorabilia. So it can conceivably tell you its own value. Part of me wondered if reading this thing would be like dividing by zero, thereby creating a black hole in time-space. I’m still not 100% what the purpose of the magazine is, but it's a looker.

This is a stack of 189 Stadium Club base cards from this year. There were two gold parallels in it (including that awesome Eckersley card), but all the rest went toward completing my set. I’m currently at 80% with lots of dupes.

I don’t even know what to tell you here. They called to me. Check out Vanilla Ice!

I met Laura Dern once at Bonnaroo. She was super nice. I had to buy her Americana card.

I also pulled a bunch of singles out of those 5K-count boxes, including a sweet Dizzy Dean card I’ll be delivering to the Dizzy Dean McDonald’s in Wiggins, Mississippi. These were 50 cents each.

Finally, here are the Griffeys I brought home. That Pacific card in the top left corner is actually pretty rare, but the rest are not terribly hard to come across.

So that was my M&M experience. The shop is located at 1922 Creighton Rd # B, Pensacola, FL 32504. There was a lot of NASCAR and Miami Dolphins merch to be had as well as a few antique-looking toys and games. It's everything you may be looking for in a card shop, and a solid excuse for some away-from-the-family time if you're on the Gulf Coast for vacation.

How the Griffeys of 1997 Upper Deck Changed Everything Part 2: The Inserts

Welcome to Part 2 of How the Griffeys of 1997 Upper Deck Changed Everything. This one's going to be a doozy, so I hope everybody brought clean socks. Here you go:

The Inserts

We’re going to start at the top of the food chain today with what is generally considered one of the mack-daddiest insert cards of all time.

Hold your breath.

Make a wish.

Count to three.

1997 Upper Deck’s greatest contribution to cardboard history: the first ever game-used relic on a baseball card. This one is a behemoth in the collecting world, and it’s frequently counted among the greatest Griffey cards of all time. It was also an early favorite for best Griffey acquisition of 2015. Was.

1997 Upper Deck Game Jersey #GJ1

 

“Game Jersey” is a jersey-relic-wielding insert comprised of just three players: Junior, Tony Gwynn, and Rey Ordonez. This was an historic moment for the hobby. Suddenly the value of these little paper rectangles wasn’t quite so abstract because there is something with inherent value embedded right into the card. Suddenly you weren’t holding a glorified picture of a player – you were holding a piece of his actual game-used uniform.

Suddenly...cards have new meaning to me...

This insert changed what it is that defines a “hit,” and of course Upper Deck gave Griffey the first card in the set. I’m pretty up on the prices these tend to go for on eBay. The Ordonez averages right about $5.00, the Gwynn closer to $20, and the Griffey regularly breaks $350. This means that if you’re lucky/crazy/stupid/obsessed enough to actually land the Griffey, completing the set becomes a cinch.

1997 Upper Deck Game Jersey Complete Set

So I just went ahead and did it. It’s an historic and perfectly designed insert, and I’ve always been a fan. In fact, I don’t think a better-designed relic-based insert has ever been produced. Once the Griffey was mine the rest fell like dominos. In addition to these I also picked up a specimen from the throwback insert UD did in 2005:

Whenever I make the decision to buy a card just for the coolness of the insert, it always ends up being Todd Helton. He’s a guy I dig that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

One characteristic of this card that I didn’t realize until I held it in my hands is that the stock used is no thicker than that of a normal baseball card. Nowadays relic cards tend to be the thickness of three or more regular cards stacked together (making pack searching a breeze). Not these puppies. This is actually a noticeably thin card with another noticeable thin card glued on top. The top half has been die-cut and attached to the bottom half with the relic sandwiched in between. All the white you see is actually the die-cut top half. Here’s what the card would look like deconstructed:

"Deconstructed" 1997 Upper Deck Game Jersey

See what they were going for there? It's a little jersey shape with rings around the sleeves and pinstripes. I can honestly say I didn't notice that design aspect until I made this picture in MS Paint.

It’s hard to say how many of these exist. The insert is seeded at 1:800 packs with three cards in the checklist which puts the Griffey at 1:2400 packs. It was spread out between hobby (24 packs/box) and retail (28 packs/box) boxes, so averaged out the Griffey should pop up at a rate of 1:92 mixed boxes. If we knew how many boxes were made, we could figure out how many Griffeys were made. Sadly, Upper Deck will probably never tell us.

Based on market demand I’m guessing there are probably just a few more of this Griffey than there are the 1993 Finest refractor of which it is widely believed there are 241 to be had, but even that is only a loose estimate based on production numbers. Without production numbers, how are we going to estimate the number of Game Jerseys?

For no other reason than the popularity of the card combined with its going market price, I would guess that there are somewhere between 300 and 400 copies floating around. You can take or leave that estimate - we may never really know.

1997 Upper Deck Long Distance Connection #LD3

Ooh, shiny. Where many of these inserts actually have some substance to them, this is more of a “look what we can do with foil” situation. It’s not a bad looking card – the texturing is impressive and that thin outside border showcases Upper Deck’s ability to center – but the title has no real connection with the design and the card back is just a recycled photo with power stats. Plus it’s got that weird color on the front which I think is called puce. I’d really like to see an uncut page of these with those borders merging with one another. A looker, for sure, but I can take it or leave it.

1997 Upper Deck PowerDeck

The fourth and final innovation by 1997 Upper Deck were cards with digital content built right into them, namely PowerDeck cards. This particular one, the only one in the checklist, is the grandaddy of them all. Here Upper Deck really flexed their technology muscle. Sure, those playable vinyl record cards from back in the day were cool for our uncles and grandpas, but this bad boy was made for the digital age.

You were meant to remove the little cutout from the center (PSH…yeah, right) and play the card itself it with an adapter (which I don’t have). I’d love to know how many of these actually made it into a CD tray. I can’t imagine the content (an interview) ever being good enough to warrant punching the hole out or allowing your computer to spin the card at some ungodly cardboard-wrenching RPM. It certainly isn’t happening now that these babies go for in the $20 range (I got mine for way less than that).

While it didn’t really last save for a few more PowerDeck sets making it into the market over the following years, this is still one heck of an innovative idea. None of the other PowerDeck cards were anything like this first one because, frankly, they weren’t cards at all. They were little CD’s with two flat sides that came in plastic holders. I doubt we’ll see anything like this first one again until Topps makes some super-thick card with a little wired low-profile USB drive built-in (I’m calling this now, BTW).

1997 Upper Deck Power Package #PP1

 

This damage-prone insert is similar to the Long Distance Connection insert but with die-cutting and team coloration. The fact that it’s safer condition-wise to store these upside down against the flat edge instead of the round/two-pointed bottom edge drives the more anal of us Griffey collectors crazy. It does have a really cool foil logo and solid front and back photos, though. There are enough redeeming qualities here to make this one at least a little desirable.

1997 Upper Deck Predictor Scratch-Off Game Card #P26 (unscratched)

It wouldn’t be mid-90’s Upper Deck without Predictor. This year each card has four possible career goals, any of which each player could potentially reach. You had to scratch a bat to decide which goal met would make your card a winner. Design-wise it’s not much to look at which was disappointing considering Junior’s Predictor cards from ’95 and ’96 were such fine specimens of Griffeydom.

The prize for a winning card?

1997 Upper Deck Predictor Exchange Card #P26

That would be the picture used on Griffey’s ’97 Collector’s Choice base card. No real innovation there. As in previous Predictor redemptions it’s more or less the same design as the game cards but with a techy difference. This year they gave us Cel Chrome cards as seen in Upper Deck’s UD3 brand from this same year. That big field of silver acts as a watermark of sorts and is only visible in good light. Here’s me trying to make that happen:

I was never crazy about this Cel Chrome stuff as it only looks decent if you peel off the plastic surface protector, but once you do that the surface is highly susceptible to scratches. I guess what I’m saying is it’s not my favorite Predictor set.

1997 Upper Deck Run Producers #RP1

Run Producers was a die-cut insert since it was first introduced in 1996, but this ’97 design is definitely the best. In addition to being less damage-prone than its predecessor, the centered banner nameplate, muted primary colors, and sepia background give this card a classier look. They also give us a reasonably large stat box for a die-cut insert. An appreciable step up.

1997 Upper Deck Star Attractions #SA1 Silver

Can you imagine how much garbage the Upper Deck factory produced in ’97 with all that die-cutting going on? This card’s eight corners and a rounded bottom and top edge make condition-conscious collectors like me nervous. I’ve always been a fan of background photography done in textured foil, a printing technique that Upper Deck pretty much mastered in 1997 (for an absolutely astounding example of this, see the background on the 1997 Upper Deck Home Team Heroes #HT1 Griffey/A-Rod Jumbo).

There’s also a gold parallel to this insert because why not?

1997 Upper Deck Star Attractions #SA1 Gold

I do enjoy how Junior’s stance here fills out the card nicely. There’s also a ton of proportionality to the design with every element either centered or balanced on the other side. As much as I like the card, it’s tough to come across one with little or no damage; so if you do, snatch it up (carefully, of course).

Despite all these bloody inserts I've shown, I'm still three cards short. Here are all my Griffey needs from 1997 Upper Deck:

Amazing Greats #AG1
Hot Commodities #HC5
Power Package #PP1 5x7 Jumbo

Still, that was some serious insert action, am I right? You probably won’t be seeing any posts for later sets that require a split the way this one did. After ’97, rather than create tons of new inserts for their existing brands the way UD did here, the card companies instead started flooding the market with sub-brands, each with its own theme and inserts. That makes 1997 Upper Deck one of the last “supersets” of the 90’s.

And did you notice something? Junior was an integral part of three of the four innovations 1997 Upper Deck is known for.

The first SP base cards? A subset called "Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Hot List."
The first relic cards? Junior is card #1 and still the most sought after of the three.
The first card with digital content? A one-card insert featuring one and only one player. You know the guy.

Upper Deck was laying the groundwork here for card innovations that would take us into the next century and beyond, and they did it all with Griffey cards. How 'bout that? These Griffey cards really did change everything.

Thanks for reading.

How the Griffeys of 1997 Upper Deck Changed Everything Part 1: The Base Set

I’ve waited a long time to do a write-up of this groundbreaking set, and after months of searching and great expense I finally got everything I need to do it. Turns out it would have made for one really long post, so instead here are two normal-sized ones. Enjoy!

The Base Set

There were a lot of neat innovations happening in the card industry in the mid-90’s, but few brands were as forward-thinking as 1997 Upper Deck. This set sits among my favorite base sets of the 90’s and features a simple design of full-bleed photos with a bottom-mounted nameplate featuring a stamped foil team logo, a tinge of team color in the name field, and some great wood texturing in bronze foil.

This was also the last of four consecutive sets to feature that bronze foil that ruled the Upper Deck flagship sets of the middle-90’s; and though they were bronze, I consider them the golden age of Upper Deck design. Of those four sets, ’95 had the best aesthetic, ’94 had the best photography, ’97 had the best innovation, and ’96 had the best…worstness? Is that a word? Anyway, ’96 was the worst of those four, and it’s still an above-average set.

So, yeah. Innovations. There are four major ones in ’97 Upper Deck.

The most obvious and polarizing of those was the inclusion of text above the name plate that dated and put into context the photo on the card. I call it polarizing because I’ve heard equal parts praise and condemnation for the captions. Personally, I love them. We get some context and it practically guarantees an original photo every time. I think the biggest complaint is that it takes you out of the card in the same way giant on-screen promos for other TV shows take you out of the show you’re watching.

Case in point: Shovin’ Buddies

Maybe if UD had put it on the card back there would be more love. The haters should be happy, though, as this has never been done again since (apart from the occasional insert or subset).

So that innovation didn’t stick. Here’s one that did: the ’97 UD base set contains the first ever short-printed base cards in the form of the Griffey’s Hot List subset. This is a concept that is more prolific now than ever before much to the delight and/or dismay of collectors, depending on who you talk to. They’re not variations like most of the SP’s we see today – just a subset of base cards that are a little harder to come across.

There are two other innovations from ’97 Upper Deck, one of which hung around for a few years then disappeared and another that changed the hobby forever. Some of you probably already know what the latter is. Before we get to those, let’s look at some other fun cards from ’97 Upper Deck:

1997 Upper Deck Jackie Robinson base cards

Look! Jackie Robinson base cards! Some of the first base cards that were tributes to retired players that I can remember came when Topps started giving card #7 to the Mick in 1996. The very next year Upper Deck jumped aboard the tribute train with this excellent 10-card subset made up of shiny, full-bleed sepia photos in a layout similar to their ’95 base set.

1997 Upper Deck Strike Force and Nomo base card

The pitchers-only Strike Force subset is pretty darn cool, but that shot of Hideo batting is better.

1997 Upper Deck Rock Solid Foundations

These are not base cards, but I gotta sneak ‘em in somewhere. I used to get so excited pulling Rock Solid Foundations inserts from packs. Something about the stately design and black border/refractor combo made these cards feel so rich. The checklist was an absolute beast, too, including the likes of Chipper, A-Rod, Ordonez, Delgado, Pettitte, Manny, Pudge, Pedro, Mondesi, Damon, Jeter, and Junior Junkie PC Javy Lopez. Just a cool 90’s insert with very few bad pulls.

Hey, who’s that sittin’ over there?

1997 Upper Deck #175

Griffey’s base card this year really puts the “dated” in “inundated with cathode ray tube dinosaurs.” I won’t lie – I still have one working CRT television that almost never gets used (I really only keep it in case I feel like playing some Duck Hunt on NES), but here are five of them. There’s got to be a thousand pounds of TV on this card. Regardless of that, the pose is great, the multi-angle camera views are fun and different, and the backwards cap is freakin’ flawless. This card has always been a favorite because there aren’t many cards like it, but looking back from 2015 I can’t help but chuckle a little at its 1997-ness.

1997 Upper Deck #150 Defensive Gems

A defense-focused subset in that papery foil stuff, Defensive Gems is as run-of-the-mill as they come. The saving grace here is Junior’s great smiling throw, but a little design tweak here would have upped the ante significantly.

1997 Upper Deck #385 Capture the Flag

This subset, based on each player’s contribution to his team’s postseason performance at winning their respective pennants, is well-titled and attractive. I’m still not crazy about the papery foil, but in concert with the gold foil stamping in the logos, it’s not half bad.

1997 Upper Deck #424 Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Hot List

Here it is: the first short-printed Griffey base card. The layout is identical to the regular base card (which must have confused some kids back in ‘97) but with an awesome post-swing shot and trippy foil texturing in the background. It’s got all the attributes of a parallel, but brother, it ain’t no parallel. These must have driven set builders crazy.

This subset has its own foil logo which means Griffey’s name is on a lot of other players’ cards. Should I, as a Griffey collector, be chasing them? That’s still up in the air for now. If I do decide I should collect ‘em all, it won’t be unwarranted. The cards look great.

Up next, more innovation from the inserts of 1997 Upper Deck. Until then, please enjoy gratuitous pandas.