Baseball cards with real gems inbedded. Anyone remember those on Shop at Home or HSN?

Austin · Aug 18, 2016

Back in the '90s, Don West and Ken Goldin (I think it was them) sold sports cards with actual gems embedded in them on Home Shopping Network or Shop at Home.

I used to think they were so cool when I was younger, and I want to get one just for the hell of it for the nostalgia. But I can't find a picture or information about them online anywhere.

Does anyone remember those, or know what they were called?
They were cards made specifically for selling on TV.

cbrandtw · Aug 18, 2016

I don't know about those you are referring to but the first I remember something like this was 1994 Action Packed. I believe there was a 10 card baseball set that was a redemption where they only made 100 of them. I attempted to put the set together years ago but my focus changed and sold all of them except for the ARod. The entire set was very cheap with the exception of the Alex. That card is by far Alex's toughest early issue. Not baseball related: I believe they also made some racing cards where the driver had a diamond stud as an earring. Good luck. I'm curious to know about the cards you are referring to.

clarkfan · Aug 18, 2016

1996 Zenith with diamond chip was another, pretty cool for the time they were released

mchenrycards · Aug 18, 2016

cbrandtw said:
I don't know about those you are referring to but the first I remember something like this was 1994 Action Packed. I believe there was a 10 card baseball set that was a redemption where they only made 100 of them. I attempted to put the set together years ago but my focus changed and sold all of them except for the ARod. The entire set was very cheap with the exception of the Alex. That card is by far Alex's toughest early issue. Not baseball related: I believe they also made some racing cards where the driver had a diamond stud as an earring. Good luck. I'm curious to know about the cards you are referring to.

Action Packed also made a football version of the diamond embedded card. I used to have a Jerry Rice but that is so long gone.

joey12508 · Aug 19, 2016

https://youtu.be/w-FQKcqIGas?list=PLgc11V0INTwmCJWJcwxYaPpHg1zCTbIq7

brian26 · Aug 19, 2016

joey12508 said:
https://youtu.be/w-FQKcqIGas?list=PLgc11V0INTwmCJWJcwxYaPpHg1zCTbIq7

I would literally pay money for a show like this to be broadcast again today. I used to spend hours, coming home late, with the tv on in the background listening and watching this.

bigunitcards · Aug 19, 2016

brian26 said:
I would literally pay money for a show like this to be broadcast again today. I used to spend hours, coming home late, with the tv on in the background listening and watching this.

Same here, stayed up so late watching that loon. It was appointment television to listen to him holler about every product. He was the Alex Jones of Shop at Home.

Fun factoid: Ken Goldin used to play high buy-in poker tourneys on Pokerstars back before it got shut down. His name was 'isuck123'.

Brewer Andy · Aug 19, 2016

ALL ROOOOOKIE CARDS!!!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

rsmath · Aug 20, 2016

brian26 said:
I would literally pay money for a show like this to be broadcast again today.

All Topps, MLB and MLBPA need to do is quit sucking and make cards popular again so home shopping channels will have a motivation to devote airtime to selling them.

the recent thing I've found that reminds me of this type of selling we saw with cards iis the infomercial shilling the state quarters.

Austin · Aug 20, 2016

They weren't Action Packed cards.
I think they may have been made by Ken Goldin's company, Scoreboard, but I'm not 100% sure.

It was mid-to-late '90s.
This is really bugging me. I need to find out what these gem cards were.

BunchOBull · Aug 21, 2016

The only other cards with gem stones I can think of are the early '90s ProMint promo cards. I have a couple of complete sets, I'll try to take a couple of pictures tomorrow.

Austin · Aug 21, 2016

Aha, found them!
BunchOBull's post about ProMint gold cards made me remember that the gem cards were gold cards too.

So I did some more searching, and here they are!
Made by Bleachers in 1998, they contain the birthstone of each player.

Hideous cards (Nolan Ryan's eyes freak me out), but still kind of cool to have an actual gem inside.
Anyone have any of these?

cbrandtw · Aug 21, 2016

I've never seen those and now I wish I never did. Those things are hideous . Just kidding. Glad you resolved it . I was curious myself.

BunchOBull · Aug 21, 2016

Frank isn't part of that set, so that's new to me as well. The quality of the debossment on those old gold foil cards isn't always equal.

bigalbert · Aug 21, 2016

There is another version of that same type of card.
I have a Ripken regular version and then the version with a gemstone in it.
I don't remember who made them tho.
And it is way buried.

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Baseball cards with real gems inbedded. Anyone remember those on Shop at Home or HSN?

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