The 1998 Topps Tek Thread

If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound? Just because they are not on eBay does not mean they don't exist.

Go to the Natty, talk to the dealers, hell even talk to Steve from BBCE, nice guy, and you will see and here of wax that is just hidden away. In the grand scheme owners of some stuff don't have time to research eBay for see what is selling and what is not. Again, I think the number is unknowable but I think there are a lot of sealed boxes to be had.

George_Calfas said:

If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound? Just because they are not on eBay does not mean they don't exist.

Go to the Natty, talk to the dealers, hell even talk to Steve from BBCE, nice guy, and you will see and here of wax that is just hidden away. In the grand scheme owners of some stuff don't have time to research eBay for see what is selling and what is not. Again, I think the number is unknowable but I think there are a lot of sealed boxes to be had.

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Fair enough but I still want a guess from you

Hi Everyone! I was at my LCS a couple weeks back for their meet and greet with Topps and Dave Riehl (sp?) said that a new Topps Tek set is in the works. Not sure if this old news or not so I thought I'd share.

At what I believe the pack-stated #s are:
4 cards per pack, 1 diffractor per 6 packs, 20 packs per box -> 23 base cards per diffractor; 8,100 cards per full diffractor set; 2,430 boxes per diffractor set.

If you assume 10 of each diffractor, you get 24,300 boxes produced. That seems like a relatively short print run, as for 1993 Finest, I believe:
4,000 cases; 12 boxes per case -> 48,000 boxes

Has anyone ever asked someone in the know at Topps about print run for '98 Tek? If they really don't care about the secondary market impacting their current sales, seems like it shouldn't bother them to give up the details.

Edit/addition: '93 Finest had 7 cards per pack.

Would rather trade for 1998 Tek diffractors than purchase at inflated prices. I have approx. 2830 of the 8100 1998 Tek diffractor patterns. Odds are about 2 out of 3 that I need what you have. I will trade for what are duplicates to me of approx. equal value to help someone out. I am NOT interested in selling any of these cards right now. I am looking to TRADE. I have some set aside for pending trades. I have the following 1998 Tek diffractors available for trade right now:

RinkRat38 -- 1998 Tek Diffractors to Trade

B. Grieve 1– 1, 18, 55, 63, 74, 80
J. Olerud 4– 79, 84
I. Rodriguez 5– 37, 40, 79
F. Thomas 6– 37
B. Williams 7– 29, 65, 75, 79, 84
D. Bichette 8– 15, 25, 39, 63(2), 70, 74, 77
A. Rodriguez 9– 18
T. Glavine 10– 75, 87
E. Karros 11– 7, 78
C. Biggio 12– 4, 5
M. McGwire 13– 10, 28
N. Garciaparra 15– 28
B. Anderson 16– 64, 88
V. Guerrero 17– 42
Ch. Jones 19– 1, 45, 48
J. Edmonds 20– 15, 20
R. Clemens 21– 1(2),12, 44, 77(2)
M. Kotsay 22– 45, 52(2), 54, 75, 86
T. Walker 24– 68
T. Martinez 25– 10, 65
S. Alomar 27– 72(2), 74
G. Sheffield 29– 10, 13(2), 48, 65, 67
C. Schilling 32– 1, 27, 40, 42, 43, 51, 80
R. Ventura 33– 52, 67
L. Walker 34– 10
D. Erstad 35– 17, 20, 77
T. Dunwoody 36– 1, 15, 39, 63, 79
P. O’Neill 37– 53, 59, 70, 74
V. Castilla 38– 48, 65(2), 68
R. Johnson 39– 38, 45, 59, 68
R. Palmeiro 40– 1, 10, 40, 63, 72
P. Martinez 41– 1(2), 20, 27, 42, 45(2), 48, 67, 77, 79
D. Bell 42– 11, 17(2), 63
C. Delgado 43– 1, 9, 40, 77, 79
M. Williams 44– 54
E. Renteria 46– 13, 18, 40, 66, 86
A. Belle 47– 1, 69
J. Burnitz 48– 32, 51
A. Beltre 49– 12, 39, 51, 54, 55
G. Maddux 50– 32, 65, 68
J. Kendall 52– 44, 70, 75, 80
E. Burks 53– 1(2), 26, 27, 31, 42, 84
P. Molitor 54– 39
M. Alou 55– 38, 63, 70
R. Mondesi 56– 84
B. Larkin 57– 70
T. Clark 58– 1, 6, 9, 18, 20, 25, 37, 44, 48, 63, 65, 83, 88
T. Lee 59– 29
J. Gonzalez 60– 42, 63, 67
T. Glaus 61– 4, 5, 6, 78
J. Cruz 62– 12, 31, 37
P. Konerko 63– 52, 70
E. Martinez 64– 37, 66, 70, 73(2), 81
J. Lopez 65– 10, 28(2), 54, 87
M. Ramirez 66– 36, 46, 55, 58, 74, 78, 79, 86
R. Alomar 67– 52
K. Caminiti 68– 31, 74
T. Helton 69– 1, 32, 48, 74
C. Knoblauch 70– 15(2), 31, 43
K. Brown 71– 6, 21, 25, 37, 39, 52, 63, 75
T. Salmon 72– 63(2), 73
O. Hernandez 73– 10, 23, 58
J. Bagwell 74– 79
B. Jordan 75– 1, 13, 15, 27, 36, 39, 75, 85, 88
D. Lee 76– 1, 15, 45(2), 55
B. Fullmer 77– 5, 52, 63
J. King 79– 17, 25, 59, 65, 77
M. Mussina 80– 89
Q. McCracken 82– 6, 15, 20, 38, 61(2), 79
A.J. Hinch 83– 1, 10, 16, 45, 59, 68, 84(2)
R. Hidalgo 84– 1, 12(2), 27, 66, 75
M. Piazza 86– 1
M. Vaughn 87– 1,10, 21, 37, 66
S. Rolen 88– 10(2), 85
J. Thome 89– 63

Thanks for checking out the list.

That's amazing. Shockingly I have the two Belles you have dups of, which means there are at least 3 versions of every diffractor


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Looking for Albert Belle cards! PM me!

I hope to be trading you for your Pattern 68s someday! I just gotta keep finding Diffractors you need...

RustyGreerFan said:

I hope to be trading you for your Pattern 68s someday! I just gotta keep finding Diffractors you need...

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I have a pattern 1 he needs, I just need a Lankford

My two new ones

Holy Cow! It wasn't too long ago a seller couldn't sell his PSA 10 Diffractor for $100 and took a BO of $75.

1998 Topps Tek Cal Ripken Jr Diffractor RARE | eBay

RustyGreerFan said:

Holy Cow! It wasn't too long ago a seller couldn't sell his PSA 10 Diffractor for $100 and took a BO of $75.

1998 Topps Tek Cal Ripken Jr Diffractor RARE | eBay

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That's nuts.

Wow again! This time even higher!

Cal Ripken Jr $120 Orioles Diffractor SP 1998 98 Card 51 Pattern 44 Topps Tek | eBay

I remember finding a Ripken Diffractor on Sportsbuy for like 3 bucks. I waited anxiously to see if I got it. Sure did. Sold it for 50. That was 2-3 years ago... Should have held it!

Man this is getting old!

I have seen a total of 9 different mcgwire diffractors in the last 1.5 years: Haven't needed any of them. 9 duplicates in 1.5 years!!! (9th just popped up today)

onionring9 said:

Man this is getting old!

I have seen a total of 9 different mcgwire diffractors in the last 1.5 years: Haven't needed any of them. 9 duplicates in 1.5 years!!! (9th just popped up today)

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Damn. How many different do you have?


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Looking for Albert Belle cards! PM me!

MansGame said:

Damn. How many different do you have?


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Looking for Albert Belle cards! PM me!

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I think 40. Maybe 1 or 2 more.

Trying a different approach to 98 Tek diffractor collecting. No one seems to want to trade this summer.

Purchased six 1998 Tek patterns on Beckett from the same dealer to replace six that are less than M/NM in my collection of 8100. They came Saturday. To my surprise, two of those $1.00 Teks were diffractors, a Kenny Lofton and a Robbie Alomar. Both are tough cards to get. Looked at the dealer's web site. They don't specialize in baseball cards. So I bought the rest of the guy's 98 Tek inventory listed on Beckett, about 130 cards for about $160.00 (and free shipping). That included some Bonds, Griffey, Ripken, and McGwire cards and a good mix of other stars. Bit of a gamble, but I think less of a gamble than these group box breaks. I'm sure I won't get one out of three diffractors from that lot, but I figure these are the remains of a couple of boxes that the dealer or a customer broke. Maybe a few more diffractors, and maybe some tough ones. Maybe he had one of those "hot boxes". I'll pass along the results when I get the cards.

Mac was asking onionring9 about McGwire diffractors. I have 31 of the McGwire patterns myself (and extras of pp. 10 and 28). Joe and I compared lists earlier this year, and it was amazing how much overlap there was between the two lists. We also both only need pp. 86 and 89 to complete the McGwire 98 Tek pre-production series. We had compared notes a couple of years ago and both still needed those same pre-production patterns. This really makes me wonder about how even the pattern distribution of the Tek diffractors (and the pre-production patterns) has been. I have a bit over 1/3 of the diffractor series in my collection, but about 80% of what I see for sale are duplicates to me.

Interesting... I have wondered the same thing about sportlots... with no pictures, how many of the Tek cards listed on there are diffractors? Odds are there are some but who knows...

MansGame said:

Interesting... I have wondered the same thing about sportlots... with no pictures, how many of the Tek cards listed on there are diffractors? Odds are there are some but who knows...

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I'm sure there are a few diffractors buried with all those commons on Sportslots, but Mike Brown, pkerplyr has about 75% of the listings for 98 Teks on that website, and I'll guarantee he knows the difference between a diffractor and a common. I would have thought the same thing though about the dealers listing on Beckett.

[MENTION=8009]rinkrat38[/MENTION] - Let us know what comes in that lot you snagged. I'm sure you'll get a few diffractors!