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The 1998 Topps Tek Thread

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RustyGreerFan

Active member
Jun 10, 2010
2,496
4
Gastonia, NC
Well he didn't know that he had them. I asked him about the Belle patterns and he said they were patterns 46 and 84, neither of which I needed. I asked him if either happened to be a diffractor and he has no clue what that was, so I told him what they look like without blowing it out of proportion for what they are or what value might be and he said he found four but no Belle's. He must have switched them over and then you picked them up, congrats. I probably would have jumped on them if he came back and was like "Yea, found a McGwire, Griffey, etc."

So this means that some of the people who have already placed orders might be getting Diffractors! Right?
 

rinkrat38

Member
Oct 14, 2012
261
0
South Deerfield, Mass.
Just got in the 2nd misc. '98 Tek lot. Very fast shipping. Paid for it Monday, got it today. Cards were very neatly and safely packaged, each in a sleeve and plastic protector with groups of six in a team bag with everything taped together. There were two diffractors, a Fullmer and a Robbie Alomar. I needed both of them. The Sheffield card that folks thought was or might be a diffractor was a very heavily spotted base card. Only other card with spotting was a Mark Grace card, but not as bad as the Sheffield. Again, a very nice lot marred only be those *%$## scans.

Matched what I got in the first two lots against a few want lists and didn't see anything people needed. Anyone wants any of these, each for $1.00 + 50 cents for a PWE if you pay me via PayPal gift (except $3.00 for the Gwynn and Sosa cards + the 50 cents) to PayPal UserId rinkrat38. If you want two or more, same card price but add $2.50 for a bubble mailer. Won't mail two cards in a PWE. PM me first before you pay me. I'll make sure it's still available.

4 Olerud p.84; 11 Karros p.48; 15 Nomar p.84; 17 Guerrero p.28; 23 Gwynn p.19; 24 T.Walker p.44; 27 S. Alomar pp. 26, 77; 28 Sosa p.55; 29 Sheffield p.58 (spotted); 31 A. Ramirez p.30; 34 L. Walker p.17; 38 Castilla p,78; 39 Johnson p.71; 40 Palmeiro p.10; 42 D. Bell p.36; 43 Delgado p.63; 44 M. Williams p.56; 49 Beltre p.22; 53 Burks p.90; 55 Alou p.43; 56 Mondesi pp.32,53; 58 T. Clark pp. 24,77; 59 T.Lee p.18; 61 Glaus p.72; 68 Caminiti p.89; 71 Brown p.3; 75 Jordan p.52; 77 Fullmer p.3; 78 Grace p.67 (spotted); 80 Mussina p.53; 83 Hinch p.53; 86 Piazza p.70.

Rich
 

brian26

Member
Nov 12, 2010
679
10
Well he didn't know that he had them. I asked him about the Belle patterns and he said they were patterns 46 and 84, neither of which I needed. I asked him if either happened to be a diffractor and he has no clue what that was, so I told him what they look like without blowing it out of proportion for what they are or what value might be and he said he found four but no Belle's. He must have switched them over and then you picked them up, congrats. I probably would have jumped on them if he came back and was like "Yea, found a McGwire, Griffey, etc."

This must have happened. I asked him about the patterns for two Venturas he had posted, and he PM'd me back with "5 and 46", which I didn't need. I now see he only had one listed...Mans, did you pick up one of these?
 

MansGame

Active member
Sep 25, 2009
15,324
20
Dallas, TX
This must have happened. I asked him about the patterns for two Venturas he had posted, and he PM'd me back with "5 and 46", which I didn't need. I now see he only had one listed...Mans, did you pick up one of these?

I didn't get anything from the seller. Both belle cards I had.
 

DeliciousBacon

Well-known member
Apr 23, 2011
3,444
94
Warwick, RI
So this means that some of the people who have already placed orders might be getting Diffractors! Right?

Yes they are! Got my package in today, and I could see a Diffractor clearly in the middle of the pile! Ended up being a Curt Schilling, Pattern 42. I did well just blind buying; out of the 19 base Teks I ended up with, I needed 18 of them. [MENTION=11460]u2me57[/MENTION] the two Thomes I got were patterns 40 and 46.
 

rinkrat38

Member
Oct 14, 2012
261
0
South Deerfield, Mass.
This must have happened. I asked him about the patterns for two Venturas he had posted, and he PM'd me back with "5 and 46", which I didn't need. I now see he only had one listed...Mans, did you pick up one of these?

Oneof the four diffractors I picked up from that seller on Sportslots was a Ventura. No idea of the pattern number, but I need both pp. 5 and 46.

Turned out to be p. 5.
 
Last edited:

brian26

Member
Nov 12, 2010
679
10
Oneof the four diffractors I picked up from that seller on Sportslots was a Ventura. No idea of the pattern number, but I need both pp. 5 and 46.

I'm confused though. How did you know they were diffractors? Did this guy take down listings and then re-list them as diffractors?
 

togaman

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2008
1,298
26
Houston
I actually found one of my missing condition upgrades . but will only know if is is an upgrade when it comes in.

Do any of you have guys have any of the card 1998 Topps TEK cards below for trade? I am doing condition upgrade to my completed 8100 card set of all 90 pattern of all 90 players and can use about 30-40 in near mint condition

I will also trade for ANY 1998 TEK Same Card# pattern# cards or any Pattern# 1s for second and third separate sets Ive been putting together of those 98 TEK cards separate from the 8000 card Master set

I have 1350+ dupe 1998 TEKs plus around 450 diffractors(not for trade or sale though). I havent really been trying but am going to try to finish up my second 90 card diffractor set
You guys seem to have created a demand amongst yourselves and bidding wars for the Diffractors on ebay with the notices etc about when new one are found or listed.

I dont think Ive knocked one off my list (16 to go for 98 TEK Diffractor set # 2) but Im too cheap to pay inflated $20 to $30 prices nd get involved in bidding wars for $6 common diffractors. But I get it. that its the fun of the chase so knock yourself out.

Any of you you guys have any of the following 1998 Topps TEK cards?

My 1998 TEK Condition Upgrade Want List ..Must be near mint with no scratches, spotting, water marks, peeling of the ovals on the back (that has the card #/ pattern #) and misalignment of the card number/pattern # within the silver oval on back

Ivan Rodriguez....Card # 5 Pat # 47
D Bichette…….…… Card # 8 Pat # 36
Derek Jeter........Card # 14 Pat # 44
Brady Anderson..Card # 16 Pat # 34
David Justice......Card # 18 Pat # 25
Chipper Jones.....Card # 19 Pat # 28
Todd Walker.......Card # 24 Pat # 61 (Coming in mail)
Tino Martinez......Card # 25 Pat # 38
Curt Schilling......Card # 32 Pat # 7
T Dunwoody.......Card # 36 Pat # 36
Paul O' Neill........Card # 37 Pat # 24
Randy Johnson....Card # 39 Pat # 11,21,27
Albert Belle.........Card # 47 Pat # 36
Jeromy Burnitz....Card # 48 Pat # 21,36
Jason Kendall......Card # 52 Pat # 15
Ellis Burks..........Card # 53 Pat # 25
Barry Larkin.......Card # 57 Pat # 28
Paul Konerko......Card # 63 Pat # 8
Javy Lopez.........Card # 65 Pat # 31
Knoblauch..........Card # 70 Pat # 36
Kevin Brown.......Card # 71 Pat # 36
Tim Salmon........Card # 72 Pat # 30
Jeff Bagwell........Card # 74 Pat # 78
AJ Hinch.............Card # 83 Pat # 56
Jim Thome..........Card # 89 Pat # 46


Same Card #/ pattern # Want List (Set # 2)
13p13(McGwire),21p21(Clemens),41p41(P Martinez),51p51(Ripken),61p61(Glaus),63p63(Konerko),66p66( M Ramirez)

Same Card #/ pattern # Want List (Set # 3).....2,5,6,7,8,9,13,14,15,21,23,23,29,30,31,
33,39,41,45,48,49,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,60,61,63,64,66, 67,69,74,76,78,81,
82,83,84,86,90
 
Last edited:

rinkrat38

Member
Oct 14, 2012
261
0
South Deerfield, Mass.
I have 330 different, extra '98 Tek diffractor patterns available for trade for other diffractors. I have 3121 of the 8100 diffractor patterns in my collection. If you have one I need, I'll trade in your favor, but will consider any diffractor trades. I'm not interested in selling any diffractors at this time. PM me or e-mail to [email protected]. Interested in any of these?

1998 Tek Diffractors to Trade

B. Grieve 1– 1, 18, 55, 63, 70, 74, 80
K. Wood 2– 10
B. Bonds 3–
J. Olerud 4– 12, 79, 84
I. Rodriguez 5– 37, 40, 79
F. Thomas 6– 37
B. Williams 7– 18, 29, 38, 56, 79, 84
D. Bichette 8– 15, 25, 39, 63, 70, 74, 77
A. Rodriguez 9– 18, 24
T. Glavine 10– 24, 56, 75, 87
E. Karros 11– 7, 78
C. Biggio 12– 4, 5
M. McGwire 13– 10, 28, 45, 70
D. Jeter 14– 3, 56, 70, 72
N. Garciaparra 15– 2
B. Anderson 16– 74
V. Guerrero 17– 42
D. Justice 18– 63
Ch. Jones 19– 4, 17, 31
J. Edmonds 20– 15, 20, 43
R. Clemens 21– 1,12, 44, 55, 72, 77
M. Kotsay 22– 45, 52, 54, 56, 75, 86
T. Gwynn 23– 1, 9, 25, 52
T. Walker 24– 3, 87
T. Martinez 25– 10, 65
A. Jones 26–
S. Alomar 27– 72, 74
S. Sosa 28–
G. Sheffield 29– 10, 13, 48, 65, 67
K. Griffey 30– 1
A. Ramirez 31– 80
C. Schilling 32– 1, 17, 27, 32, 42, 43, 51, 80
R. Ventura 33– 52, 67
L. Walker 34– 10, 31, 65
D. Erstad 35– 20
T. Dunwoody 36– 1, 15, 17, 38, 39, 63, 79
P. O’Neill 37– 70, 74, 77
V. Castilla 38– 42, 48, 52, 65
R. Johnson 39– 38, 45, 59
R. Palmeiro 40– 1, 10, 40, 63, 72
P. Martinez 41– 1, 20, 27, 42, 45, 48, 67, 77, 79
D. Bell 42– 11, 17, 63
C. Delgado 43– 1, 9, 30, 40, 77
M. Williams 44– 54
K. Lofton 45– 1, 38, 79
E. Renteria 46– 13, 18, 40, 66, 86
A. Belle 47– 1, 29, 69
J. Burnitz 48– 32, 51, 79
A. Beltre 49– 12, 39, 51, 54, 55
G. Maddux 50– 5, 32, 65
C. Ripken 51– 77
J. Kendall 52– 44, 70, 75, 80
E. Burks 53– 1, 26, 27, 31, 42, 84
P. Molitor 54– 10, 39, 72, 75, 84
M. Alou 55– 38, 63, 70
R. Mondesi 56– 7, 10, 20, 21, 30, 36, 37, 45, 50, 52, 59, 63, 72, 77, 84
B. Larkin 57–
T. Clark 58– 1, 6, 9, 11, 18, 20, 25, 37, 44, 48, 63, 65, 83, 88
T. Lee 59– 1, 17, 29, 60
J. Gonzalez 60–
T. Glaus 61– 1, 4, 6, 40, 78
J. Cruz 62– 12, 25, 31, 37
P. Konerko 63– 29, 52
E. Martinez 64– 37, 66, 70, 73, 81
J. Lopez 65– 10, 15, 28, 40, 42, 54, 87
M. Ramirez 66– 36, 46, 55, 58, 72, 74, 78, 79, 86
R. Alomar 67– 1, 52
K. Caminiti 68– 31, 50, 74, 86
T. Helton 69– 77
C. Knoblauch 70– 15, 31, 43, 73, 78
K. Brown 71– 6, 21, 25, 37, 39, 48, 52, 63, 75
T. Salmon 72– 56, 63, 73
O. Hernandez 73– 10, 12, 23, 58
J. Bagwell 74– 79
B. Jordan 75– 1, 13, 15, 27, 36, 39, 75, 85, 88
D. Lee 76– 1, 15, 45, 55
B. Fullmer 77– 5, 52
M. Grace 78–
J. King 79– 17, 25, 59, 65, 77, 84
M. Mussina 80– 73, 79, 89
J. Buhner 81–
Q. McCracken 82– 1, 6, 15, 20, 32, 38, 61, 68, 79
A.J. Hinch 83– 1, 10, 16, 45, 59, 68, 84, 86
R. Hidalgo 84– 1, 12, 27, 66, 75
A. Galarraga 85–
M. Piazza 86– 1
M. Vaughn 87– 21, 37, 66, 80
S. Rolen 88– 10, 85, 86
J. Thome 89– 42, 63
R. Lankford 90– 79
 

MansGame

Active member
Sep 25, 2009
15,324
20
Dallas, TX
^It's amazing you have three Belle diffractors for trade and I happen to have all three ugh... I only have like a dozen... just so strange.

In other news, I have two Belle diffractor pattern 15's. I would LOVE to trade that to someone who has a Belle diffractor but doesn't care about the pattern #. Like if someone is going after just a diffractor set but not paying attention to the pattern #. I'd even kick something in to make it worth the trade.
 

athletics07

Member
Nov 10, 2013
883
0
^It's amazing you have three Belle diffractors for trade and I happen to have all three ugh... I only have like a dozen... just so strange.

In other news, I have two Belle diffractor pattern 15's. I would LOVE to trade that to someone who has a Belle diffractor but doesn't care about the pattern #. Like if someone is going after just a diffractor set but not paying attention to the pattern #. I'd even kick something in to make it worth the trade.

It would be amazing - and probably impossible to ever prove - if Topps had SP'd some patterns.
 

MansGame

Active member
Sep 25, 2009
15,324
20
Dallas, TX
It would be amazing - and probably impossible to ever prove - if Topps had SP'd some patterns.
Here is a question, if we put all our Tek cards together, would we be close to a complete master set? What about every Tek we know about between various boards? Do any of you set collectors mark that a certain diffractor exists or has sold previously or is owned by another collector?
 

rinkrat38

Member
Oct 14, 2012
261
0
South Deerfield, Mass.
Here is a question, if we put all our Tek cards together, would we be close to a complete master set? What about every Tek we know about between various boards? Do any of you set collectors mark that a certain diffractor exists or has sold previously or is owned by another collector?

Mac,

I've compared diffractor collections with just about every player collector with large diffractor collections. For example, Joe, onionring9 and I both have over 30 McGwire diffractors each, but almost 100% correlation in what we have. We also both needed only patterns 86 and 89 from the 30-card '98 Tek McGwire pre-production set. Same kind of correlation with Bonds, Justice, Grace, and Griffey collections. Chris Kurdelski had 34 Griffey diffractors; I have 43 Griffey diffractors. He only has 9 that I don't have. I need more than 60% of the diffractor patterns, but seemingly 80% or more of everything that shows up on-line is a duplicate for me. Not sure of the explanation. May well be uneven print distribution.

Rich
 

brian26

Member
Nov 12, 2010
679
10
Here is a question, if we put all our Tek cards together, would we be close to a complete master set? What about every Tek we know about between various boards? Do any of you set collectors mark that a certain diffractor exists or has sold previously or is owned by another collector?

Would be a fun experiment!
 

gt2590

Super Moderator
Aug 17, 2008
38,617
3,198
Near Philly
Mac,

I've compared diffractor collections with just about every player collector with large diffractor collections. For example, Joe, onionring9 and I both have over 30 McGwire diffractors each, but almost 100% correlation in what we have. We also both needed only patterns 86 and 89 from the 30-card '98 Tek McGwire pre-production set. Same kind of correlation with Bonds, Justice, Grace, and Griffey collections. Chris Kurdelski had 34 Griffey diffractors; I have 43 Griffey diffractors. He only has 9 that I don't have. I need more than 60% of the diffractor patterns, but seemingly 80% or more of everything that shows up on-line is a duplicate for me. Not sure of the explanation. May well be uneven print distribution.

Rich

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