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The 1998 Topps Tek Thread

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corockies

New member
Mar 23, 2013
1,213
0
Colorado
I just acquired numerous new huge additions to my Rockies 1998 tek diffractor collection. Don't have time or the ability to make scans today, but I'll get them scanned tomorrow.
13 new Larry Walker diffractors, and only 2 were dupes! Incredibly stoked about this!
 

bstanwood

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2016
3,666
332
Mystic, CT
I just acquired numerous new huge additions to my Rockies 1998 tek diffractor collection. Don't have time or the ability to make scans today, but I'll get them scanned tomorrow.
13 new Larry Walker diffractors, and only 2 were dupes! Incredibly stoked about this!

Holy smokes, where did you uncover that treasure chest of goodies??
 

Fandruw25

Active member
Aug 25, 2008
3,238
0
I just acquired numerous new huge additions to my Rockies 1998 tek diffractor collection. Don't have time or the ability to make scans today, but I'll get them scanned tomorrow.
13 new Larry Walker diffractors, and only 2 were dupes! Incredibly stoked about this!

Congrats!
 

corockies

New member
Mar 23, 2013
1,213
0
Colorado
Holy smokes, where did you uncover that treasure chest of goodies??

Stopped by a local card shop to show off my Arenado collection and pick up some supplies. Was browsing through his stuff when he offered me a full box of a Larry Walker collection he had recently purchased. Most of the stuff was rather ho hum (did have a serial #33 walker in there - which I bought). At the very end of the box, in the cards just in card sleeves and no toploaders, I found all 13 diffractor Walkers. I almost swallowed my tongue. Totally forgot to purchase the supplies I needed, but I'm hopefully returning on Friday since Beckett is gonna be doing on site grading that afternoon.

The 13 patterns I got are 13, 18, 21, 22, 24, 38, 42, 52, 55, 70, 73, 77, and 80. 13 and 70 are duplicates. I now own 22/90 diffractors of Walker.
 
Last edited:

banjar

Well-known member
Mar 22, 2015
2,540
883
Lafayette, Colorado
Nice! Maybe someday that can happen to me. I need to start helping more little old ladies across the street to build up sufficient karma.

Stopped by a local card shop to show off my Arenado collection and pick up some supplies. Was browsing through his stuff when he offered me a full box of a Larry Walker collection he had recently purchased. Most of the stuff was rather ho hum (did have a serial #33 walker in there - which I bought). At the very end of the box, in the cards just in card sleeves and no toploaders, I found all 13 diffractor Walkers. I almost swallowed my tongue. Totally forgot to purchase the supplies I needed, but I'm hopefully returning on Friday since Beckett is gonna be doing on site grading that afternoon.

The 13 patterns I got are 13, 18, 21, 22, 24, 38, 42, 52, 55, 70, 73, 77, and 80. 13 and 70 are duplicates. I now own 24/90 diffractors of Walker.
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
Awesome [MENTION=9603]corockies[/MENTION]! A lil off subject but does BGS do RCR "pregrades" there?

Ryan
Will Clark / Mike Brown Collector
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
No clue, I've never been to a live on site Beckett grading. Friday will be my first. Gonna hopefully get some of my Arenado 1/1's slabbed.
Well good luck on the NAs! If you see they do offer RCR there, lmk, just curious. Thanks

Ryan
Will Clark / Mike Brown Collector
 

u2me57

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2014
3,234
63
Hendersonville, Tn.
I just acquired numerous new huge additions to my Rockies 1998 tek diffractor collection. Don't have time or the ability to make scans today, but I'll get them scanned tomorrow.
13 new Larry Walker diffractors, and only 2 were dupes! Incredibly stoked about this!

Congratulations on the Larry Walker defractors! That's awesome.
 

onionring9

Active member
Administrator
Aug 7, 2008
3,490
12
I just acquired numerous new huge additions to my Rockies 1998 tek diffractor collection. Don't have time or the ability to make scans today, but I'll get them scanned tomorrow.
13 new Larry Walker diffractors, and only 2 were dupes! Incredibly stoked about this!

You must be pumped! Congratulations!
 

rinkrat38

Member
Oct 14, 2012
261
0
South Deerfield, Mass.
Just got these gold pre-production's in. Anyone know how many gold sets are out there? I always thought there was only 1 set but it looks like onionring also has a gold version of P71.

Eric,

Can't speak to the McGwire gold pre-production cards (although I have a complete set of the McGwire silver pre-productions), but I do have a silver and a gold pattern of both Mondesi pattern 73 and Clemens pattern 72. I have a total of 28 Mondesi silver and 23 Mondesi gold pre-productions of the 30 patterns, and 29 of the Clemens silver and 19 of the Clemens gold pre-productions.

I have a large number of duplicate silver pre-productions of McGwire, Clemens, and Mondesi. I have never seen a duplicate gold pre-production pattern of any of the players. I've had this conversation before with Joe [MENTION=1983]onionring9[/MENTION]. He had never seen a second gold pattern of McGwire, but heard of one some years ago. I confess that I often can't tell at a glance whether I am holding a gold or silver card for many of the Tek patterns, for the most part the patterns with only thin lines or dots -- like the Mondesi and Clemens cards you scanned. The patterns with meatier designs jump right out as gold like the McGwire pattern you scanned. Earlier this summer I went through all of my pre-production cards with the aid of bright daylight and a large magnifying glass to separate the gold patterns from the silvers. Guess what I'm saying is that I can't tell from the scans whether your Mondesi and Clemens cards are gold or silver but the McGwire card looks to be gold.

I recall getting a lot of the gold patterns I have (one at a time) from Bob Graf, a Chicago card dealer who was selling them on eBay in the early 2000s. I also remember him claiming back then that his wife had completed the first set of 8100 base 1998 Teks. This would have been before I even started collecting 1998 Teks in 2000. I absolutely can't verify that, but Bob Graf was pretty well known and I have no reason to doubt it. I never saw or heard of a duplicate gold pattern back then. My gut told me that these were after-market cards. There is a slight difference in width between the gold and silver pre-production patterns. The silver patterns are identical in length and width to the base 1998 Tek cards and the 1998 Tek diffractor patterns. The gold pre-production cards are just about one millimeter narrower than the silver pre-production cards or any of the other 1998 Teks. That difference is what made me suspect that they were after-market cards. I had always suspected that Bob Graf had something to do with their alteration (and I have no clue as to how this could be done), but no real basis for the suspicion other than that he was the one making the eBay offerings. Wouldn't surprise me if Bob Graf had one or more complete sets of gold pre-production cards though! He was selling these cards quite cheaply back then, so I can't say that there was any financial motive behind this. I can't recall ever paying as much as $10.00 for any pre-production pattern. Good luck with your eBay listings. If you get anything near those prices the value of the cards I have just skyrocketed!

Rich
 

corockies

New member
Mar 23, 2013
1,213
0
Colorado
Stopped by a local card shop to show off my Arenado collection and pick up some supplies. Was browsing through his stuff when he offered me a full box of a Larry Walker collection he had recently purchased. Most of the stuff was rather ho hum (did have a serial #33 walker in there - which I bought). At the very end of the box, in the cards just in card sleeves and no toploaders, I found all 13 diffractor Walkers. I almost swallowed my tongue. Totally forgot to purchase the supplies I needed, but I'm hopefully returning on Friday since Beckett is gonna be doing on site grading that afternoon.

The 13 patterns I got are 13, 18, 21, 22, 24, 38, 42, 52, 55, 70, 73, 77, and 80. 13 and 70 are duplicates. I now own 22/90 diffractors of Walker.

Here are all of my Walker diffractors:

Q2Ktv6sl.jpg


9Wa5HBzl.jpg


iK08zual.jpg
 

Fandruw25

Active member
Aug 25, 2008
3,238
0
Eric,

Can't speak to the McGwire gold pre-production cards (although I have a complete set of the McGwire silver pre-productions), but I do have a silver and a gold pattern of both Mondesi pattern 73 and Clemens pattern 72. I have a total of 28 Mondesi silver and 23 Mondesi gold pre-productions of the 30 patterns, and 29 of the Clemens silver and 19 of the Clemens gold pre-productions.

I have a large number of duplicate silver pre-productions of McGwire, Clemens, and Mondesi. I have never seen a duplicate gold pre-production pattern of any of the players. I've had this conversation before with Joe [MENTION=1983]onionring9[/MENTION]. He had never seen a second gold pattern of McGwire, but heard of one some years ago. I confess that I often can't tell at a glance whether I am holding a gold or silver card for many of the Tek patterns, for the most part the patterns with only thin lines or dots -- like the Mondesi and Clemens cards you scanned. The patterns with meatier designs jump right out as gold like the McGwire pattern you scanned. Earlier this summer I went through all of my pre-production cards with the aid of bright daylight and a large magnifying glass to separate the gold patterns from the silvers. Guess what I'm saying is that I can't tell from the scans whether your Mondesi and Clemens cards are gold or silver but the McGwire card looks to be gold.

I recall getting a lot of the gold patterns I have (one at a time) from Bob Graf, a Chicago card dealer who was selling them on eBay in the early 2000s. I also remember him claiming back then that his wife had completed the first set of 8100 base 1998 Teks. This would have been before I even started collecting 1998 Teks in 2000. I absolutely can't verify that, but Bob Graf was pretty well known and I have no reason to doubt it. I never saw or heard of a duplicate gold pattern back then. My gut told me that these were after-market cards. There is a slight difference in width between the gold and silver pre-production patterns. The silver patterns are identical in length and width to the base 1998 Tek cards and the 1998 Tek diffractor patterns. The gold pre-production cards are just about one millimeter narrower than the silver pre-production cards or any of the other 1998 Teks. That difference is what made me suspect that they were after-market cards. I had always suspected that Bob Graf had something to do with their alteration (and I have no clue as to how this could be done), but no real basis for the suspicion other than that he was the one making the eBay offerings. Wouldn't surprise me if Bob Graf had one or more complete sets of gold pre-production cards though! He was selling these cards quite cheaply back then, so I can't say that there was any financial motive behind this. I can't recall ever paying as much as i $10.00 for any pre-production pattern. Good luck with your eBay listings. If you get anything near those prices the value of the cards I have just skyrocketed!

Rich

Rich,
All I had to go with pricing wise was worthpoint and the most recent auction I was able to find was in 2012 where a mcgwire went for $177. In 2008 there weren't any pre-production golds going for $10 but a few "cheap" Clemens BIN's were hit. I ran out of free searches for older listings but by all means feel free to look them up. The last listings I found were 5 and 9 years ago....

The gold version are clearly gold in the picture circle of the card. The semi-circle is gold, the player is gold and the pattern is gold. When side by side with normal cards it's pretty obvious. I'm not sure why you needed outdoor light + a magnifying glass....that probably created false illusions.

At the end of the day, they are still extremely rare with 1-2 copies in existence.
 

rinkrat38

Member
Oct 14, 2012
261
0
South Deerfield, Mass.
The gold version are clearly gold in the picture circle of the card. The semi-circle is gold, the player is gold and the pattern is gold. When side by side with normal cards it's pretty obvious.

Eric, You are absolutely correct about the identification of the gold vs silver cards. The large semi-circle on the portrait side is silver for the silver cards and gold for the gold cards. How did I not notice that over the years? I did go back through all of my gold and silver pre-production cards of Clemens and Mondesi and my silver cards of McGwire, and they are all properly identified. But it was harder to identify them after ignoring the obvious! As they say, learn something new every day!

Rich
 

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