The 1998 Topps Tek Thread

[RustyGreerFan]

So how powerful is it to use the word "diffractor(s)" when listing your 1998 Tek? It makes a big difference - you can't rely on buyers to recognize that it is a Diffractor or not.

The best example I have is to do a search of ended listings for "diffractors." You only get 7 results, but only three of those 7 are actual diffractors. People ponied up $19.50, $15, and $10 for non-diffractors of Bonds, Chipper, and Pudge simply because the listing claimed the cards were Diffractors.

Another interesting example was when a slew of individual Edgar Martinez listings hit just over a month ago (no longer in ended listings). Mixed in there was one Diffractor not listed as a Diffractor. It was a great scan and it was so obvious that it was a Diffractor that I didn't even bother bidding. I assumed it would go for around $20. I was wrong. I only went for $9 while some base went for even more! Flash forward to an auction ending today of an Edgar Martinez that IS listed as a Diffractor, and it's already up to $16.

This trickster even puts the Diffractor bv on 1998 Tek base. These two Bonds were ended early - I'm assuming the mistaken seller was paid well:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BARRY-BONDS-1998-98-TOPPS-TEK-DIFFRACTOR-SP-PATTERN-35-CARD-3-30-/261076552970?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item3cc9600d0a

So even collectors that are educated enough to know that they want Diffractors and that they should go for a premium are not educated enough to recognize the difference between Diffractors and base.

Here's an example of a Tek not listed as a Diffractor, but the scan was good enough for collectors to realize what it was. I do wonder if it would have gone for more if listed as a Diffractor, but the price seems about right:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alex-Rodriguez-1998-Topps-TEK-Acetate-Rare-SP-Insert-Yankees-Mariners-/190703655569?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item2c66d2da91

Now here's a Jeter that should have gone for more. I guess the main diff between this and the A-Rod is that the scan/photo does not do a good job of picking up the Diffractor effect:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-TOPPS-TEK-DEREK-JETER-CARD-14-PATTERN-54-/221074759583?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item3379151f9f

And here's what it looked like once I got it in hand. My pic isn't much better than the seller's. The reason is that two things affect how dazzling a Diffractor is - the lightness of the player photo and the pattern. As you can see from that Jeter, the background on the bottom half of the photo is almost all black. Not good for sparkly. The upper part has some white thanks to some shirts in the crowd. That's almost the only part of this scan that makes it look like a Diffractor Also, the pattern is mostly clear only sparsely populated with the design. Also not good for sparkly - compare that pattern with patterns 37 and 68 as shown in previous posts:

Pattern 54:



A base Jeter went for nearly that much - I'm guessing it was a couple set collectors going at it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEREK-JETER-1998-98-TOPPS-TEK-14-PATTERN-48-YANKEES-/200772717032?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item2ebefc89e8

Heck, this PSA 10 Jeter base went for less:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-TOPPS-TEK-14-DEREK-JETER-PSA-10-B1117790-/120931047507?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item1c280d5853

No offense if it was a board member, but this looks like an awful deal. Only four packs (16 cards) for $18.50. Considering Diffractors are 1:6, this looks like some pretty bad odds. That may be a better price-per-pack deal than those that paid $160 for a box, but at least in a box you're pretty much guaranteed 4 Diffractors.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-Topps-Tek-4-Unopened-Packs-/180926656263?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item2a2011af07

[DeliciousBacon]

No offense if it was a board member, but this looks like an awful deal. Only four packs (16 cards) for $18.50. Considering Diffractors are 1:6, this looks like some pretty bad odds. That may be a better price-per-pack deal than those that paid $160 for a box, but at least in a box you're pretty much guaranteed 4 Diffractors.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-Topps-Tek-4-Unopened-Packs-/180926656263?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item2a2011af07

I would have bought those 4 packs for that, no question. Even if you don't get a Diffractor, you might pull one or two base cards that a few set/player collectors are desperate for. It's not unreasonable to get $20 for a base card, that could pay for your packs right there.

[RustyGreerFan]

I would have bought those 4 packs for that, no question. Even if you don't get a Diffractor, you might pull one or two base cards that a few set/player collectors are desperate for. It's not unreasonable to get $20 for a base card, that could pay for your packs right there.

It's really quite rare to be able to get $20 for a base card. The stars kinda have to align. It's gotta be of the right player and it's gotta be a card that two player collectors are going for at the same time. The only two in ended listings are that Jeter I listed and a Ripken that sold for a $19.99 BIN. Not all Jeters will sell for even $10 - it just happened to be that one particular that sold for $24.

Same with Edgars. When I first realized his base was going for $5 a pop, just about any pattern you threw out there would get the $5-$6. Now, the two or more guys that were fighting over them have fewer holes in their collection. Some go for just 99 cents now.

[RustyGreerFan]

I want to break down the checklist by team to try to get an idea of Topps' thinking when they created this checklist. Obviously they wanted to be like the All-Star game and have at least one player from each team. It looks like they also wanted to include some younger guys even over potential HOF veterans. There are probably a couple errors in here because I can't remember who was on what team when, but I did do at least a little double-checking:

7 - Braves
6 - Astros
5 - O's, Rox, Yanks
4 - Angels, Indians, M's, Marlins, Mets
3 - Blue Jays, Cards, Cubs, Pads, Red Sox, Twins, White Sox
2 - A's, D-Backs, Expos, Mets, Phils, Pirates, Reds, Rangers
1 - Brewers, D-Rays, Giants, Royals, Tigers

Angels - Edmonds, Erstad, Glaus, Salmon
A's - Grieve, Hinch
Astros - Biggio, RJ, DBell, Alou, Bags, Hidalgo
Blue Jays - Clemens, Delgado, Cruz Jr
Braves - Glavine, Justice, Chipper, Andruw, Maddux, Javy, Galarraga
Brewers - Burnitz
Cardinals - McGwire, BJordan, Lankford
Cubs - KWood, Sosa, Grace
D-Rays - McCracken
D-Backs - MWilliams, TLee
Dodgers - Karros, Sheff, Beltre, Mondesi
Expos - Vlad, Fullmer
Giants - Bonds
Indians - Sandy, Lofton, Manny, Thome
M's - A-Rod, Griffey, Edgar, Buhner
Marlins - Kotsay, Dunwoody, Renteria, DLee
Mets - Olerud, Piazza
Orioles - Brady, Palmeiro, Ripken, RAlomar, Mussina
Padres - Gwynn, Caminiti, KBrown
Phils - Schilling, Rolen
Pirates - Aramis, Kendall
Rangers - Pudge, Juan
Reds - Larkin, Konerko
Red Sox - Nomar, PJ, Mo
Rockies - Dante, LWalker, Vinny, Burks, Helton
Royals - JKing
Tigers - TClark
Twins - TWalker, Molitor, Knoblauch
White Sox - Frank, Ventura, Belle
Yanks - Bernie, Jeter, Tino, O'Neill, OHernandez

[DeliciousBacon]

There are 21 players I collect in the 1998 Tek checklist. That's 1890 base and 1890 Diffractors I need to have a complete PC set. Right now, I think I have maybe 35-40 base and 0 Diffractors. Ouch.

[thelesquad]

I am curious as to why Ryno didn't make the set. In a way I'm glad, but in a way it would have been a fun hunt.

[RustyGreerFan]

Now that we have 14 years to reflect on this release, we have the ability to Monday morning quarterback Topps for the decisions they made about what players they included and excluded. I don't really blame Topps. At the time (and really still to this day) there was a lot of pressure from collectors to include the hot prospects. This meant that some pretty popular players had to be excluded.

Taking into consideration careers and popularity with collectors, just think of how valuable unopened product would be in this scenario...

Remove the following 12 players:

AJ Hinch
Derek Bell
Richard Hidalgo
Brad Fullmer (although he seems to have at least one or two collectors)
Quinton McCracken
Mark Kotsay
Todd Dunwoody
Jeff King
Tony Clark
Jeromy Burnitz
Ellis Burks
Javy Lopez

(There are quite a few young guys that would be easy to cut in retrospect, but would have been awfully hard to cut at the time - Erstad, Grieve, Cruz Jr, TWalker, TLee, OHernandez, for example)

Add in the following 12 players:

Mariano Rivera
Rickey Henderson
Ryne Sandberg
Jose Canseco
Hideo Nomo
Wade Boggs
David Ortiz
Will Clark
Roy Halladay
Lance Berkman
John Smoltz
Fred McGriff

Some other guys w/ good careers or fan favorites (that played in 1997) left out in the cold - Cliff Lee, CCarpenter, Deion, Hoffman, Garret, SGreen, Gaetti, JCarter, Giambi, Hershiser, Eck, Pettitte, Daulton, and of course, Rusty Greer

Actually, with how long and strong the Nomo craze lasted, would there be any unopened Tek left?

But seriously, instead of $160 a box, how much would this product be going for now?!

[DeliciousBacon]

Cliff Lee in 1998 Tek? Can I have some of what you're smoking?

[schillingfan]

I have around 15-20 different patterns of Schilling. I need to get around to selling them.

[RustyGreerFan]

Cliff Lee in 1998 Tek? Can I have some of what you're smoking?

Oops - must be Carlos Lee!

[RustyGreerFan]

I said earlier today it's funny how things run in bunches...

After picking up my first Derek Jeter Diffractor (thanks to a poor listing) after having not even seen one go at auction since I've been paying attention, I found two more.

Pattern 45 - I'll call this pattern Mitsubishi since it's got the Mitsubishi logo repeated over and over.



I was shocked to see it pop up on Sportsbuy. I rarely check Sportsbuy. I had to pay $38 after a painful $4.45 shipping fee, but I still think it's an okay price for Jeter. Some seller called Grandma's Sports Cards even though I don't think there's a grandma in the picture. They actually have a slogan on their seller page - "You can trust your Grandma!" Somehow that made me feel less comfortable with my purchase

Pattern 3 - I can't think of a good name for this one.



I paid a ridiculous $60 for this one, but since it came in a lot of cards I figured I could resell the rest of the lot and make some of my money back.

[RustyGreerFan]

I think this is the first Ripken I've seen since I've been paying attention. And a PSA 10, no less.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-TOPPS-T...item41697e542b

[RustyGreerFan]

Pattern 55 - Maybe the most "filled in" pattern of them all. Almost all white.

[tpeichel]

I have a smattering of these through some trades. PM me if you need anything.

PLAYER	YEAR	DESCRIPTION
ALOMAR,ROBERTO	1998	Topps Tek #67 Pattern 04
ALOU,MOISES	1998	Topps Tek #55 Pattern 89
ANDERSON,BRADY	1998	Topps Tek #16 Pattern 47
BELL,DEREK	1998	Topps Tek #42 Pattern 86
BELLE,ALBERT	1998	Topps Tek #47 Pattern 17
BELTRE,ADRIAN	1998	Topps Tek #49 Pattern 13
BICHETTE,DANTE	1998	Topps Tek #08 Pattern 88
BIGGIO,CRAIG	1998	Topps Tek #12 Pattern 23
BROWN,KEVIN	1998	Topps Tek #71 Pattern 06
BROWN,KEVIN	1998	Topps Tek #71 Pattern 31
BUHNER,JAY	1998	Topps Tek #81 Pattern 17
BURKS,ELLIS	1998	Topps Tek #53 Pattern 59
BURNITZ,JEROMY	1998	Topps Tek #48 Pattern 21
CAMINITI,KEN	1998	Topps Tek #68 Pattern 65
CASTILLA,VINNY	1998	Topps Tek #38 Pattern 05
CLARK,TONY	1998	Topps Tek #58 Pattern 75
CRUZ JR,JOSE	1998	Topps Tek #62 Pattern 74
DELGADO,CARLOS	1998	Topps Tek #43 Pattern 38
DUNWOODY,TODD	1998	Topps Tek #36 Pattern 57
EDMONDS,JIM	1998	Topps Tek #20 Pattern 49
ERSTAD,DARIN	1998	Topps Tek #35 Pattern 86
FULLMER,BRAD	1998	Topps Tek #77 Pattern 17
FULLMER,BRAD	1998	Topps Tek #77 Pattern 57
GLAUS,TROY	1998	Topps Tek #61 Pattern 69
GLAVINE,TOM	1998	Topps Tek #10 Pattern 55
GRIEVE,BEN	1998	Topps Tek #01 Pattern 13
GUERRERO,VLADIMIR	1998	Topps Tek #17 Pattern 73
HELTON,TODD	1998	Topps Tek #69 Pattern 15
HERNANDEZ,ORLANDO	1998	Topps Tek #73 Pattern 17
JONES,ANDRUW	1998	Topps Tek #26 Pattern 40
JORDAN,BRIAN	1998	Topps Tek #75 Pattern 31
KENDALL,JASON	1998	Topps Tek #52 Pattern 89
KING,JEFF	1998	Topps Tek #79 Pattern 60
KNOBLAUCH,CHUCK	1998	Topps Tek #70 Pattern 77
KONERKO,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #63 Pattern 55
KOTSAY,MARK	1998	Topps Tek #22 Pattern 86
LANKFORD,RAY	1998	Topps Tek #90 Pattern 57
LANKFORD,RAY	1998	Topps Tek #90 Pattern 76
LEE,DEREK	1998	Topps Tek #76 Pattern 05
LOFTON,KENNY	1998	Topps Tek #45 Pattern 82
LOPEZ,JAVY	1998	Topps Tek #65 Pattern 56
MARTINEZ,PEDRO	1998	Topps Tek #41 Pattern 65
MCCRACKEN,QUINTON	1998	Topps Tek #82 Pattern 15
MOLITOR,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #54 Pattern 31
MUSSINA,MIKE	1998	Topps Tek #80 Pattern 59
OLERUD,JOHN	1998	Topps Tek #04 Pattern 89
O'NEILL,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #37 Pattern 02
O'NEILL,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #37 Pattern 16
O'NEILL,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #37 Pattern 46
O'NEILL,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #37 Pattern 53
O'NEILL,PAUL	1998	Topps Tek #37 Pattern 68
PALMEIRO,RAFAEL	1998	Topps Tek #40 Pattern 65
PIAZZA,MIKE	1998	Topps Tek #86 Pattern 38
RENTERIA,EDGAR	1998	Topps Tek #46 Pattern 27
ROLEN,SCOTT	1998	Topps Tek #88 Pattern 60
SHEFFIELD,GARY	1998	Topps Tek #29 Pattern 15
SOSA,SAMMY	1998	Topps Tek #28 Pattern 43
VAUGHN,MO	1998	Topps Tek #87 Pattern 73
WALKER,TODD	1998	Topps Tek #24 Pattern 06
WILLIAMS,BERNIE	1998	Topps Tek #07 Pattern 40
WILLIAMS,MATT	1998	Topps Tek #44 Pattern 09
WOOD,KERRY	1998	Topps Tek #02 Pattern 70

[RustyGreerFan]

This is not a "feeler." I just sent the following email to FCB:

Name/Board Username - Eric A. Johnson/RustyGreerFan

Age: (must be 18 and over) - 38 tomorrow

Product to be broken - 1998 Topps Tek

Type of break (ex. pack/box/case) - one box break

How you plan on running the break. - I have broken the set into lots - see bottom of email. I am taking Lot 4.

Slot pricing? - $20 dlvd via PayPal only

When you want to start the break? - a week or less. Might fill up fast.

Where you are purchasing the product? - I have already purchased this sealed box on ebay and have it in hand.

Other - may I allow a small window for participants to "trade players" before the box break?

Lot 1
Astros - Biggio, Randy Johnson, DBell, Alou, Bagwell, Hidalgo
Braves - Glavine, Justice, Chipper, Andruw, Maddux, Javy Lopez, Galarraga

Lot 2
Cardinals - McGwire, BJordan, Lankford
Cubs - KWood, Sosa, Grace
Brewers - Burnitz
D-Rays – McCracken
Blue Jays - Clemens, Delgado, Cruz Jr
A's - Grieve, Hinch

Lot 3
Giants – Bonds
Indians - Sandy, Lofton, Manny, Thome
Reds - Larkin, Konerko
D-Backs - MWilliams, Travis Lee
Dodgers - Karros, Sheff, Beltre, Mondesi

Lot 4
M's - A-Rod, Griffey, Edgar, Buhner
Rangers - Pudge, Juan Gone
Marlins - Kotsay, Dunwoody, Renteria, DLee
Expos - Vlad, Fullmer

Lot 5
Orioles - Brady, Palmeiro, Ripken, RAlomar, Mussina
Padres - Gwynn, Caminiti, KBrown
Phils - Schilling, Rolen
Pirates - Aramis, Kendall
Royals - JKing

Lot 6
Yanks - Bernie, Jeter, Tino, O'Neill, OHernandez
Red Sox - Nomar, Pedro Martinez, Mo
Rockies - Dante, LWalker, Vinny, Burks, Helton

Lot 7

White Sox - Frank, Ventura, Belle
Mets - Olerud, Piazza
Angels - Edmonds, Erstad, Glaus, Salmon
Twins - TWalker, Molitor, Knoblauch
Tigers - TClark