The 1998 Topps Tek Thread

togaman said:

I wonder how many 90 card mixed diffractor sets have been completed out there? Nobody has done a 90 card individual player diffractor set as far as I know and other than R Roth and the one Ive completed I dont know if anyone else has been able to complete a 90 card mixed diffractor set. I have 14 to go for a second 90 card diffractor set and 37 to go for a third 90 card diffractor set but haven't made a dent in two years other than a couple I picked up last summer in Dallas on a business trip and maybe one or two ebay buys this year.

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It doesn't appear that any player has all 90 Diffractors made for them. So we'll never know when someone has a player's complete set or not.

For example, there may not be any Diffractors for Pattern 49. If anyone has one, please post a pic.

RustyGreerFan said:

It doesn't appear that any player has all 90 Diffractors made for them. So we'll never know when someone has a player's complete set or not.

For example, there may not be any Diffractors for Pattern 49. If anyone has one, please post a pic.

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Interesting, never knew about the scarcity/elimination of 49. I'll ask around.

RustyGreerFan said:

It doesn't appear that any player has all 90 Diffractors made for them. So we'll never know when someone has a player's complete set or not.

For example, there may not be any Diffractors for Pattern 49. If anyone has one, please post a pic.

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I have no proof of this. But I also always doubted there was a complete run of diffractors for each player. Back in the the early 2000's I had almost 40 Ripken diffractors. Before I sold them off it seems like almost everyone I would see I already had. Here is a list of what I had and I have started keeping track recently of patterns I see on Ebay that I did not have back then.


Had
1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 29, 31, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48, 51, 52, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 74, 75, 77, 78, 84, 87, 88

Seen
25, 28, 34, 90

Want
2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 32, 33, 35,
36, 39, 41, 45, 46, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 70, 71, 72, 73,
76, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 89

That's very interesting. How on earth did you become aware of this particular pattern possible not being made by Topps? I checked my list of diffractors I have and a list Richard gave me about a year ago of his and there are no pattern# 49s on either list. I have 74 of the 90 diffractor patterns in the 500 or so diffractors I have in my PC and Richard has 13 of the 14 I dont have so maybe there is something to this missing Pattern # 49 theory.

togaman said:

That's very interesting. How on earth did you become aware of this particular pattern possible not being made by Topps? I checked my list of diffractors I have and a list Richard gave me about a year ago of his and there are no pattern# 49s on either list. I have 74 of the 90 diffractor patterns in the 500 or so diffractors I have in my PC and Richard has 13 of the 14 I dont have so maybe there is something to this missing Pattern # 49 theory.

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As you can imagine, I only know because of Rich's vast collection. He did the research and deserves the credit.

His collection is so big now that I think it's safe to make some other assumptions from his findings. I would not be at all surprised if each player had a different number of possible patterns. Yet another part of the 98 Tek mystique.

While its not for trade or sale as its in my one completed diffractor set the only Ripken I have is pattern # 53

brian46256qqv said:

I have no proof of this. But I also always doubted there was a complete run of diffractors for each player. Back in the the early 2000's I had almost 40 Ripken diffractors. Before I sold them off it seems like almost everyone I would see I already had. Here is a list of what I had and I have started keeping track recently of patterns I see on Ebay that I did not have back then.


Had
1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 29, 31, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48, 51, 52, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 74, 75, 77, 78, 84, 87, 88

Seen
25, 28, 34, 90

Want
2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 32, 33, 35,
36, 39, 41, 45, 46, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 70, 71, 72, 73,
76, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 89

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I am 2 away from my second base player set. I just picked up a two card lot from eBay that will put me one away. I just received the lot and the pattern I needed was not in there, it was listed wrong...grrrrrr......

I know of one private collector who has between 75-80 diffractors of David Justice from an old list I have

onionring9 said:

I don't even know if anybody has hit the 50 mark for a single player. I just hit 42 for McGwire and am ecstatic (thanks Rich)!

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And no wonder I cant find a McGwire for one of 14 cards needed for second mixed 90 card diffractor set

I have pattern 48 for Belle but not 49... that is SO strange... odd.

togaman said:

I know of one private collector who has between 75-80 diffractors of David Justice from an old list I have

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http://www.justice1of1.com/justice/diffractors.html

Note no pattern# 49 there

brian46256qqv said:

I have no proof of this. But I also always doubted there was a complete run of diffractors for each player. Back in the the early 2000's I had almost 40 Ripken diffractors. Before I sold them off it seems like almost everyone I would see I already had. Here is a list of what I had and I have started keeping track recently of patterns I see on Ebay that I did not have back then.


Had
1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 29, 31, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48, 51, 52, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 74, 75, 77, 78, 84, 87, 88

Seen
25, 28, 34, 90

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I have 30 Ripken diffractor patterns, and have eight that you did not have or haven't seen: patterns 3, 9, 17, 22, 27, 55, 70, and 79.


I have 56 Manny Ramirez diffractor patterns and 52 of Roger Clemens. Those are my top collections. When Eric asked me about having all 90 diffractor patterns, I compared those two sets, then my Schilling, Nomar, and Mo Vaughn diffractor patterns from my collection inventory (I started out just collecting the Red Sox players regardless of the laundry). That comparison left out pattern 49. I then looked down my list and was very surprised that I didn't have a p. 49 diffractor pattern of any player. This wasn't a massive research project; took less than 10 minutes. I have 3160 different diffractor patterns. On average, I should have about 35 of every diffractor pattern. I have 70 different p. 1 cards, but no p. 49 at all.

I didn't really start collecting diffractors until after I finished the set of 8100 base cards ten years ago, but I did have a bunch of them even back then. I am absolutely convinced there is an uneven distribution of the diffractor patterns. When I compare what I have for a given player with a player collector who also has a lot of diffractors of his player, we have an almost total overlap of our collections. Onionring9 has 42 McGwire diffractors; I have 30. We compared numbers some time ago and between us we didn't have 50 different patterns. I compared notes with Griffey collector, Chris Kurdelski a while ago. At the time, he had 34 Griffey diffractor patterns and I had 39. Between us, we had 50 different patterns. I have about 30 Bonds diffractor patterns and 30 of David Justice. That's after I traded any patterns they needed to Jeff Mazur, the Bonds collector and Stu Thomas, who has that neat graphic chart of what he needs to complete his Justice diffractor set. I believe that both of them have 70 or so different patterns of their player after years of very determined collecting.

Anyone interested in trading to add to their diffractor collection, I do have extra diffractors of almost all players in the set. PM me.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KEN-GRIFFEY...1484926248?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item19f504f928

This card was even graded by BGS and then mislabeled a diffractor. Am I missing something?

Man, I wish I could trade my Belle Diffractor double for one that I do not have.

Here is what extras I have for trade. Looking primarily for Brady Anderson but would consider other Orioles Diffractors.

Diffractors for Trade (only interested in Diffractor for Diffractor trades)
8 Dante Bichette p87
36 Todd Dunwoody p63
71 Kevin Brown p48

Base for Trade
11 Eric Karros p26
16 Brady Anderson p4,26,30,33,40,41,46,51,57,60,70,72,73,77
58 Tony Clark p62
72 Tim Salmon p69

Update on the "black dots" griffey. I received the card in the mail yesterday and the black dots are definitely missing ink from the printing process not anything that was on the card. Almost like some debris prevented those parts from being printed. So overall I am happy to throw this in my collection as an oddball griffey.

I was disappointed as well, when I saw the diffractor lot get pulled down early, I was going to put in a strong bid, but probably not as strong as the previously mentioned snipe. At least a board member got them. If you want to part with the griffey please let me know.

rinkrat38 said:

I have 30 Ripken diffractor patterns, and have eight that you did not have or haven't seen: patterns 3, 9, 17, 22, 27, 55, 70, and 79.

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Thanks I will update my list between your eight and togamans one that puts it at 52 Ripken patterns I had or have seen/heard about.

I must say pattern 49 would look amazing as a diffractor:



Do you think maybe they never made this pattern a diffractor because the background is so filled in compared to many other patterns? I haven't seen a pattern 90 diffractor ever and was wondering what a full background card pattern diffractor such as pattern 90 would actually look like.

Here are some pretty "filled" ones - a light background also makes a difference