1998 Upper Deck UD3: It's Complicated

In 1998 just about every card company tried in their own way to redefine the “set” with new configurations and the introduction of extremely complicated tiered base sets. Donruss did it with Preferred, Topps did it with a newly-complicated version of Finest, and Fleer did it harder than anybody with Flair Showcase. Everyone jumped on the complication trolley, leaving many collectors (including yours truly) scratching their heads at what they just pulled from packs.

“Look! I pulled a Class 6, Level B, Rainbow Gold, semi-common domino
refractor polka-dot edition, Seat 12!”
"Is that good?"
"No idea."

Upper Deck’s foray into the inconceivable was 1998 UD3. And while ridiculous by most standards, this set was a cinch to understand in 1998.

What we have here is a 270-card checklist with three tiers of subsets in three different effects. So it’s really a series of nine 30-card subsets. On top of that we have a die-cut parallel that is also tiered and serial-numbered with the rarer cards appearing later in the checklist.

The result is that each card has three numbers: a set number (out of 270), a subset number (out of 90), and an effect set number (also out of 90).

I don’t want any heads exploding, so I’m going to stick with just the Griffeys. Here’s the breakdown:

Each player appears in only one of the subsets, Griffey’s being Power Corps (there is also Future Impact and The Establishment, but don’t worry about those), and each subset shows up three times in the main checklist, once per effect. Each of Griffey’s three base cards is the same subset card in one of the three printing effects, so there are three regular Griffey base cards. Each of the subset/effect pairings are also seeded at differing rarities.

Each of those three base cards comes in a die-cut parallel as well, doubling the number of cards for each player to six. Add two to that as there is also a blurry background Griffey cameo on the Jay Buhner Rainbow card and its die-cut parallel. Those, along with the Sample card and Blow-up box topper card, gives us a total of 10 Griffeys from 1998 UD3.

Here is the full Griffey checklist from 1998 Upper Deck UD3:

#S1 Sample
#60 (Power Corps Light FX)
#60 (Power Corps Light FX) Die-Cut #/2000
#60 Power Corps Blowups 5x7
#150 (Power Corps Embossed)
#150 (Power Corps Embossed) Die-Cut #/1000
#240 (Power Corps Rainbow)
#240 (Power Corps Rainbow) Die-Cut #/100
Jay Buhner #213 (Power Corps Rainbow) (cameo)
Jay Buhner #213 (Power Corps Rainbow) Die-Cut #/100 (cameo)

So let’s start at the top:

1998 Upper Deck UD3 #60 (Power Corps Light FX)

The first 90 cards in the checklist are in an effect called “Light FX,” which is a fancy way of saying “etched foil.” These are 1:1, making them the easiest Griffey pulls in the set.

1998 Upper Deck UD3 #60 (Power Corps Light FX) Die-Cut #/2000

The die-cutting and numbering are the only differences here from the regular card. It doesn’t add much design-wise. I do appreciate the pre-rounded corners, though.

1998 Upper Deck UD3 #150 (Power Corps Embossed)

The next 90 cards are all in the Embossed effect. The Power Corps in this effect are only slightly rarer than those in the Light FX at 1:4 packs. As you can see this effect is bordered in bronze.

1998 Upper Deck UD3 #240 (Power Corps Rainbow)

The last 90 cards are in the Rainbow effect which is really just a refractor. At 1:12 packs these are the rarest non-parallel Griffey base cards, but this effect also includes the rarest subset/effect pairing at 1:24 packs for cards from The Establishment subset. The gold looks good, too, I must admit. The die-cut for this baby is limited to only 100 produced, a super low run for its time. It’s probably very expensive, too, so I’m in no hurry to complete this one.

And to make things more complicated...

1998 Upper Deck UD3 Jay Buhner #213 (Power Corps Rainbow) (cameo)

It's a cameo! Junior is sitting in the background by the dugout, hat on backwards, watching his buddy at the plate. Yeah, it's pretty blurry, but come on - that is so our guy.

Here are all the Griffeys I need from 1998 Upper Deck UD3:

#S1 Sample
#60 Power Corps Blowups 5x7
#150 (Power Corps Embossed) Die-Cut #/1000
#240 (Power Corps Rainbow) Die-Cut #/100
Jay Buhner #213 (Power Corps Rainbow) Die-Cut #/100 (cameo)

As for the design, it was a hot minute before I realized this was even a base card. I was already used to UD3 and its base set made up of multiple subsets from the 1997 product, but this year’s set is much more complicated and frankly looks a lot less like a base set. I always mistook it for a multi-tiered insert - I think it’s that big “1997” on the card front and plethora of text boxes that make it look that way. Those characteristics just aren’t very base-y, ya know?

I don’t know where they were planning on taking this brand, but whatever it was didn’t happen. I suppose it should be no surprise that I’ve never seen 1998 UD3 mentioned on the blogsphere apart from this post. 1997 UD3 comes up every now and again, but I think a lot of folks are content to just forget 1998 UD3 even happened.

My New Card Room: One Year Later

A year ago this month I had the unique opportunity to turn a whole room into my own collecting dungeon/office/man cave. Now that a year has passed, here is a quick update on how that room has evolved.

The desk, of course, is the nerve center of the room. The top shelf of the hutch has all the non-overproduction-era cards divided up by team for trade purposes. The shelf above the computer holds all my cases, sleeves, screw cases, team bags, and other storage media. On the shelves to the right are my reference books, digital scale for shipping, and every note I've ever received from fellow bloggers in trades. I also have a lot of empty pack boxes I just don't have the heart to throw out (yet). To the left of the laptop is a steel phone stand with the Griffey Swingman logo cut out of it made by fellow Griffeynaut Jason.

Sadly my old HP scanner/printer finally gave out, so I had to buy a new one which works wirelessly via wifi. The green table is all-purpose, but the school desk on the left is strictly for cardboard. That corner also holds my signed Upper Deck super jumbo, uncut 1989 Upper Deck sheet 1, and a few other cool items (Megaman!).

Here's the school desk. I've got a few items on here going out to other bloggers, new Griffeys, some stuff slated for eBay, and a few smaller set boxes.

My Griffey cabinet houses the bulk of my collection, including all Griffeys worth less than ten bucks (the rest are in a vault at the bank). On top are large boxes full of blogger trades, mini collections, and my non-baseball cards.

Those big brown flat boxes hold my print collection which is a real pain in the B to store. To the left is the closet which is full of shipping supplies and hundreds of bubble mailers ready for trading.

I've had that Griffey poster since I was wee.

You may notice a few blanked-out items on the walls. If you want to know what I'm covering up, you'll just have to come visit (bring Griffeys).

These shelves see a lot of action, too. As you can see I got a small flat screen so I can watch DVD's and tapes while I do cardboard. Five of the shelves here are devoted solely to cardboard with a few more bits and pieces spread among the other shelves. The early-80's X-wing toy suspended from the ceiling I got at a card show a few months back.

Here are the card shelves. We have one with set binders and Griffey magazines, another with general cardboard items, one with a bunch of complete sets and my ongoing 1989 Donruss set building boxes, and the one on the bottom-right is a massive load of unsorted cards divided up by brand. Frankly I'd like to find something to do with all those cards. There are just so many, and I don't have the heart to throw them away. The "burn" box is full of damaged overproduction-era cards I'm saving for the fire pit game we invented a few years back.

One of my favorite things in this picture is the VCR which I keep connected to a DVDR at all times so I can digitize VHS tapes.

Here is my Griffey shelf. I don't generally collect big, clunky, non-card stuff like this, but I do enjoy it, so it's nice to have a place for it all. Kirby is there because it's just a really neat card.

Here are my CD, DVD, and VHS collections under the watchful eye of the X-wing. You can also see my MST3K prop collection on the top of the shelves over on the right there.

That's it. I know I'm too late for the contest, but I've been meaning to put this post together for a while, so there it is. I'm reigniting the blogging spark!

Coming soon: dozens of overdue trade posts. I swear...

The 20-Year Checklist: 7th Inning Stretch Update

Some of you may remember I began a difficult project last year with a very precise deadline. I challenged myself to complete the once-impossible-seeming Beckett Ken Griffey, Jr. Tribute checklist from 1996, and I gave myself until December 31st, 2016 to do it. The year is definitely winding down, so I figure it’s time for a progress report.

When I started I noted that there were 727 cards on this list (I was counting check boxes) when in actuality there are 769 total cards. So my figure of 570/727 or 78.4% should have read 570/769 which in actuality put me at 74%.

Luckily that didn’t matter much as I’ve made a ton of progress (more than someone with a newborn ought to). I’ve been keeping up with new Griffey adds on COMC, and I kept a very detailed list of eBay followed searches. The result is that I am now a whopping 96% complete the full list.

I have full-page scans at the bottom of this post if you're curious...

Look at all those checked boxes!

There are only 28 cards left to get over the next 4 months and 2 days. That’s 124 days or one Griffey every 4.43 days. While I do have leads on a half dozen or so of the remaining Griffeys, and none of those I need are particularly expensive, some of them are proving rather tough to find. Here are the real bears of the final 28:

From eBay

I expect this to be the most expensive card left to get. There are estimated to be about 700 of them floating around, and in 1994 numbers that’s a damn small amount. The only one I’ve seen available is a PSA 10 on eBay for $325.00. I’m going to hold off on that and try for a loose one.

The one I have

At 1:36 packs and in a checklist of 450 cards, pulling an AP of one of the four Griffeys from ’95 Pinnacle was a rare feat. I’ve got the base card which is historically the priciest of Junior’s cards within a given parallel. The other cards are two checklists (one of which has three other popular players on it) and the totally badass Swing Men subset. We’ll just see how this one pans out.

The much easier-to-come-by silver versions

If I had to guess what the final holdout is going to be, I would guess one or all of these (the Gold versions, I mean). The most annoying thing – they’re just game cards. As baseball cards there’s nothing especially great about them (the back is contest rules for goodness sake). They’re not even super expensive – they’re just super scarce. I suspect I’m one of the only idiots looking for them.

Parallels like these are proving to be some of the toughest gets. Take the 1996 Ultra Gold Medallions, for example.

This was the year Gold Medallions really started to mean something. What’s silly about this is that I already have what is far and away the toughest one to find: the 1:2440 pack Hitting Machines insert (not on the list, but come on). The rest of these pale in their relative rarity. Really, it’s not even close; and yet it’s these significantly easier finds that I’m having the hardest time tracking down.

On the other end of the spectrum are a handful of cards that are not particularly rare at all – it’s just that nobody is bothering to sell them.

This O-Pee-Chee redemption jumbo is one of them. I already have several of the much rarer gold foil version, but the crappy regular has been eluding my collecting crosshairs all year. I suspect someone out there has it and isn’t bothering to sell it because they figure it’s not worth the effort.

Then there’s the 1994 Upper Deck Jumbo Checklist #4. Look on eBay and there are dozens of every other card in this 4-card checklist…well, checklist. But #4? There is only one, and dude wants thirteen bucks plus seven bucks shipping. He’s dreaming.

And the 1995 Stadium Club #521 Extreme Corps 1st Day Issue! GAH! Now 1st Day Issue parallels have never been particularly easy to find, but I have literally every other 1st Day Issue card from every other year including the more expensive base cards, and this parallel I’ve never cared for is the one giving me trubs.

Don’t let these cards fool you, though. While it’s true that numerically this project has been a rousing success (I’ve averaged one new Griffey from the list per 3.4 days, which is ahead of my original goal of one per 3.5 days), what those numbers don’t take into account is that the remaining checklist is the most challenging part. Which brings us to prediction time.

Refractors! Finally knocked these out just this month...

Will I be able to finish this thing off? Honestly? Probably not. The numbers may look favorable in black and white, but the truth is that with every card I land the average scarcity of the remaining cards goes up dramatically. If I had a few more months I would be more optimistic. I just don’t think I’m going to be able to find every single one in this final stretch. It won’t be for lack of trying, but I cannot control the supply.

The last of the '95 Select Artist's Proof Parallels! I was
beginning to lose hope for this one...

On the other hand, will I ever finish the list? Yes, I will. Regardless of whether I get past the finish line before my self-imposed deadline, I am confident it can be done. It may end up being a 21, 23, or even 40-year checklist; but dammit, I’m going to make it happen in my lifetime. Then I’m going to rent a time machine (cheaper than buying), go back to 1996, and show 15-year old me that it is, indeed, possible. I’ll also show him how bald he is going to get. It’ll be a bittersweet day for him, that’s for sure.

Here's the remaining list which I pretty much have memorized now:

1. 1993 Finest All-Star Jumbos #110
2. 1993 Upper Deck Iooss Collection #WI13 Jumbo
3. 1994 Collector’s Choice #634 Up Close & Personal Gold Signature
4. 1994 O-Pee-Chee All-Star Redemptions #8 Jumbo (regular non-foil)
5. 1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU5 /500 (w/ Craig and Ken auto)
6. 1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU4 /1000 (w/ Ken, Sr. auto)
7. 1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU6 /500 (w/ Ken, Sr and Jr. auto)
8. 1994 SP Holoview #12 Red
9. 1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos Gold #1
10. 1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos Gold 125th Anniversary
11. 1994 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Checklist Jumbos #4
12. 1995 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game #CG8A 7/2 Gold
13. 1995 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game #CG8B 8/24 Gold
14. 1995 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game #CG8C 9/15 Gold
15. 1995 Collector's Choice SE #261 Checklist Gold Signature
16. 1995 Donruss #340 Press Proof
17. 1995 Pinnacle #304 Swingmen Artist's Proof
18. 1995 Pinnacle #447 CL Artist's Proof
19. 1995 Pinnacle #450 CL Artist's Proof (w/ Bagwell, Piazza, Thomas)
20. 1995 Score #447 Platinum
21. 1995 Score Rules #SR1 Jumbo
22. 1995 Stadium Club #521 Extreme Corps 1st Day Issue
23. 1995 Upper Deck #100 Electric Diamond Gold
24. 1995 Upper Deck Predictor #R45 RBI Leader
25. 1996 Collector's Choice #310 Gold Signature
26. 1996 Ultra Home Run Kings #6 Gold Medallion
27. 1996 Ultra Power Plus #3 Gold Medallion
28. 1996 Ultra Prime Leather #6 Gold Medallion

741/769

96.4%!

I'll continue logging my progress with the list via the "Official Griffey Want List" tab at the top of this page, even if it takes us into 2017 (which is pretty likely at this point). Here are the full-page scans of the want list at the time of this post.

Fifteen-year-old me is excited out of his mind.

Thanks for reading!

1994 Ultra: Ultra Lite

1994 is the last of the “simple” Ultra sets. After this came parallels and paralleled inserts with insertion ratios astronomical by early-90’s standards. Obviously things got pretty hairy for big-name player collectors, so for now let’s take a minute and enjoy the leisurely pace of a time before the Gold Medallions, Platinum Medallions, and 1-of-1 Masterpieces that characterized the remainder of the Ultra timeline.

Look at these two!

1994 Ultra #120

They’re totes BFF’s. Buhner made it into the Hall of Fame speech – not much higher praise than that. I like how Junior is looking directly at the camera as if to say, “Excuse me – we are having a buddy moment. Could you please give us a sec while we celebrate our friendship with mutual being-good-at-baseball and complicated handshakes? Thank you.” Love this card.

I also like how the design is reminiscent of the inaugural 1991 design, e.g. lots of horizontal elements and a classy font. The large, etched-foil Ultra logo (on every card, btw) that replaced the flaming baseballs of the previous two sets also looks great even though it was only used for this one set.

On the back an abbreviated stat box and total lack of blurbage make space for three giant color action photos. This is an idea that would come to define a lot of 90’s cardboard: plenty of sizzle, very little steak. Not that I mind it – there are plenty of other cards (not to mention the inserts from this very set) to turn to for actual baseball information and more complete statistics. I’m willing to forgive certain sets of cards to be a little less informative for the sake of photography and foil (which is probably one of the defining characteristics of a 90’s collector). And speaking of foil, this may be the most ever put on the back of a base card.

1994 Ultra All-Star Team #8

All the inserts are pretty similar design-wise with player photos superimposed over full-bleed fields of primary colors populated with 90’s-style clipart. I don’t mind that Junior looks a little cross-eyed here – this is a fun, colorful card. In fact all the inserts put together have the appearance of a modern-day parallel rainbow. That big foil Ultra logo made it onto the front and back of this one.

1994 Ultra Award Winners #6

Here is one of my earliest Griffey inserts and a long-time favorite for one reason alone: that excellent “A.L. Top Glove” shield with the little fleur de lis. Is that thing official? As in used by MLB? Because it’s awesome. It’s a thoughtful, well-written blurb, too. Just a great card in general.

1994 Ultra Home Run King #2

Here is yet another full-bleed clip art background, this time in black with a brightly-colored neon silhouette. Also another totally sweet insert logo.

1994 Ultra On-Base Leader #6

On-Base Leaders is far and away the toughest get here, being a relatively big checklist and seeded at 1:36 packs. That’s the same insertion ratio as the Home Run Kings insert, but this insert could only be pulled from Series 2 pre-priced packs, effectively boosting the scarcity. While all the other Griffeys of 1994 Ultra can be had for a couple of bucks a piece, don’t be surprised if the price of an On-Base Leaders Griffey reaches into the double-digits.

While there aren’t any insanely rare or iconic cards from ’94 Ultra, it remains a great relic of 90’s cardboard with a lot of solid photography and some memorable designs.