Roberto Alomar Collector's Thread

[banjar]

Family savings? I am not familiar with this concept, unfortunately.

 

[magicpapa]

Thanks @magicpapa , so it looks like Alomar is in plain Donruss along with Griffey, Chipper, Ripken etc. Now all we have to do is convince Jarjar to gamble his life savings opening the few boxes left to pull one!

i went the other route, picked mine up back in 2007, im sure i could make my $ back


You are bidding on a rare 1998 Donruss Crusade Red Ken Griffey Jr. Numbered Parallel Card. The card is individually numbered 22 out of 25 on the back. It is card #39 out of the 100 player set and features a red and yellow refractor like front to the card. Donruss made 3 different types of Crusade Inserts back in 1998: the normal green, the purple, and the impossible to find red. Beckett Magazine has a $N/A book value for the card because it is too scarce to price. I have never seen one of these listed on eBay since I’ve been a member. These cards are VERY SCARCE and impossible to find now since they are either locked up in personal collections or still sitting in boxes that will never be opened. These cards are at the top of most player collectors want lists and while its #D to 25 the cards turn up as often as cards #D to 1/1. The card pictures Ken Griffey Jr on the Seattle Mariners. The card is in mint condition . Any lines are on the scanner and are NOT on the card. Card will be shipped in a penny sleeve and a top loader inside a team bag and will be mailed in a bubble mailer. Card comes from a smoke free home and a pet free home. If you have any questions please ask before the auction ends. Shipping and handling is $3.00 for a bubble mailer. Insurance is extra and optional. I only accept US money orders as payment.

 

[magicpapa]

Alrighty...a somewhat more interesting piccup this time. The 1998 Pinnacle Plus Team Pinnacle Gold, foil front version.

Neat card, with two HOF second basemen. And astonishingly hard to find. They are not serial numbered, but if I had to guess at the print run, I'd say 50 each of the foil front and foil back versions. Really glad to have this one. Makes me feel better about missing out on the 1998 Crusade Red that just sold at auction...I was 2nd bidder.

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never heard of a print run on the golds, but odds were

1:199

now you need the search for the mirror gold, i have never seen a card with such a "Glow" to it

 

[JVHaste]

never heard of a print run on the golds, but odds were

1:199

now you need the search for the mirror gold, i have never seen a card with such a "Glow" to it
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Hands down the best collection on this site. Big thumps up!

 

[magicpapa]

Hands down the best collection on this site. Big thumps up!

 

[banjar]

Yah, I'd like to have that mirror gold version. I've never even seen a picture of one though. And if one ever becomes available, I'm not sure I'll have the cash. We'll see!

never heard of a print run on the golds, but odds were

1:199

now you need the search for the mirror gold, i have never seen a card with such a "Glow" to it
View attachment 360214

 

[WizardofOz1982]

Waaaay back in 2017 Topps put out the "Rediscover" inserts. Old cards they would buy back and stamp with "REDISCOVER TOPPS" in either bronze, silver, gold, or blue foil (in order of increasing scarcity). Then randomly stuff them inside packs as little goodies. The other day I saw the blue version of the 1989 Topps card and snagged it.

So here are homeboy's 1989, 1990, and 1991 Topps cards in the blue foil from that issue. I decided I kinda liked them when they came out, so what the hell, right?

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Isn't there supposed to be a Red Foil version that's the rarest as well? I have it on my checklist for Jeff Frye. All of his cards I've seen from 2017 are 1993 Topps which makes it better than having to chase multiple years I guess. I have the Bronze, Silver, and Blue foil. I've never seen a Gold nor a Red for him.

 

[banjar]

Now that you mention it, there was a red foil version. I'd forgotten about that. There are a few available on ebay right now, but only a few.

Unfortunately I have never seen a single Alomar red foil card. And with Topps buyback issues I don't add a card to my checklist unless I've seen an example...

Isn't there supposed to be a Red Foil version that's the rarest as well? I have it on my checklist for Jeff Frye. All of his cards I've seen from 2017 are 1993 Topps which makes it better than having to chase multiple years I guess. I have the Bronze, Silver, and Blue foil. I've never seen a Gold nor a Red for him.

 

[banjar]

Well I found three cards recently, all of them pretty rare. The first one to arrive was the 2004 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Autograph Blue /10. Alomar has 19 cards in this run, with the base and six mirror parallels in red, blue, white, gold, emerald, and black. And each of these parallels has a base, bat, and autograph version. Clear as mud?

So I'm a bit over halfway on this run, missing of course the emerald and black parallels numbered to 5 and 1 respectively, and the autograph parallels, numbered to 10, 5, and 1. Or now I should say, almost all of the autograph parallels. Because I finally got one - the mirror blue version /10. Even though I'll never get all six auto parallels, I'm glad to have one example.

So here it is in all its undiluted glory:

 

[banjar]

Another one arrived yesterday, after languishing in the mail for weeks. 2003 Donruss Team Heroes Master Set /20. I already had one of these, but you see, it was SN 6/20 whereas the new arrival is SN 11/20. Why does that matter? Turns out this parallel had two variations. SN1-10 were printed in gold foil and SN11-20 were printed in silver foil. I think I learned about this variation here on good ol' FCB. Glad to have the silver one now!

 

[magicpapa]

Another one arrived yesterday, after languishing in the mail for weeks. 2003 Donruss Team Heroes Master Set /20. I already had one of these, but you see, it was SN 6/20 whereas the new arrival is SN 11/20. Why does that matter? Turns out this parallel had two variations. SN1-10 were printed in gold foil and SN11-20 were printed in silver foil. I think I learned about this variation here on good ol' FCB. Glad to have the silver one now!

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Another one arrived yesterday, after languishing in the mail for weeks. 2003 Donruss Team Heroes Master Set /20. I already had one of these, but you see, it was SN 6/20 whereas the new arrival is SN 11/20. Why does that matter? Turns out this parallel had two variations. SN1-10 were printed in gold foil and SN11-20 were printed in silver foil. I think I learned about this variation here on good ol' FCB. Glad to have the silver one now!

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[banjar]

Nice!

A bit before my time here, but still really cool.

 

[banjar]

Last in the line of 3 recent low numbered pickups from the early-mid 2000's, a 2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Black /5.

Robbie had 3 base cards in this set, each with 7 different colored foil "impressions" parallels, plus a smattering of game-used relic versions. Of these 24 base / foil parallel cards I have 19, including two of the /5 "black" foil issues. The black foil is hard to distinguish from the base foil, but it's definitely a darker color....and numbered to 5 on the back.

 

[banjar]

So here's one that most of you PC'ers from the 90's and 00's may know about, but I'll bet some don't. It's the 2003 Playoff Absolute red foil parallel. The pack-issued cards had the base, plus the spectrum parallel, but there was also this one with red foil printed on front. Where did these come from? The Signing Bonus framed box topper thingies.

Not all of the Signing Bonus issues had a red foil parallel card attached to them. Some of them only had autos and GU pieces and so forth. But a good number of them had cards attached, and all of those cards had red foil. I have two of the three 2003 Signing Bonus issues for Alomar, but I never noticed that the foil was different until I saw an ebay listing saying 2003 Playoff Absolute Red Foil. So I did a head scratch and then immediately submitted an offer that was accepted. And I'm glad to have it.

To find an issue between 1988 and 2005 that I didn't know about, well, that's incredibly rare these days. And that's the kind of thing that keeps me engaged in this silly hobby!

 

[banjar]

In 1998 the Fleer Showcase set had 4 versions of each card, labeled Row 0 through Row 3. And each of these had a Legacy parallel numbered to 100, plus a 1/1 Masterpiece. The Legacy cards were printed in blue foil, including the card serial number and player's name on the back.

So far I've found 4 variations of the Row 0 Legacy card. After I first posted this tonight, I went down a rabbit hole and learned a lot about the origins of these variations. A lot of what I thought I knew was wrong, so I've edited my comments accordingly. Interesting stuff...

Variation #1: Card with serial number and name on back. This is the legit pack issued version. Note the "0" in the serial number is narrower and more rounded than the "O" in the word OF.



Variation #2: Serial number field is blank. Possible a factory replacement for a damaged card? This Baseballcardpedia page lists this variation as an "unstamped proof".

1998 Flair Showcase - BaseballCardPedia.com

www.baseballcardpedia.com

Variation #3: No name or serial number on back. I got this one from a seller who cuts up legit pre-production sheets (Leximo, I think). It's also a bit oversized than a regular card. That same Baseballcardpedia page lists this as a "proof".



Variation #4: Player name missing. This one is counterfeit. Sheets of unfinished Row 0 Legacies (and apparently some Row 3 Masterpeices) were stolen from Fleer, and fake serial numbers were added. The thieves didn't go to the effort of stamping the player names, they just added serial numbers...with the wrong font. The giveaway is that the "0" in the numbers looks like the "O" in the word OF. Also, these counterfeits don't have shiny lamination on the front of the card. And on some cards, they even put the serial number stamp in the wrong location on the card.



BTW there was also a thread on FCB about these cards waaaaay back in 2008:

1998 Flair Row 0 Legacy Different Backs??

What exactly is the story with these? This is my Griffey, which is missing the foil lettering above the stats. But I saw this auction tonight.. http://cgi.ebay.com/98-Flair-Showcase-H ... dZViewItem The back on this one is vertical so now I'm completely confused.

www.freedomcardboard.com

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I didn't know that one of my variations was counterfeit until tonight, but I'm actually happy to own a copy. That makes two known counterfeits in my collection, the other one being a really bad 1991 Desert Shield knock-off.

 

[banjar]

Just got the "marble gold" parallel in today, which completes this little 2004 Leaf Certified Cuts run. In order there's the base, marble red /100, marble blue /50, marble gold /25, and marble emerald /5.

 

[JVHaste]

Just got the "marble gold" parallel in today, which completes this little 2004 Leaf Certified Cuts run. In order there's the base, marble red /100, marble blue /50, marble gold /25, and marble emerald /5.

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Marble Gold looks really nice.

 

[banjar]

In keeping with my recent tradition of picking up early 2000's hole fillers, I just completed the little rainbow from 2004 Donruss Team Heroes (the silver arrived today). There's the base, showdown bronze /150, silver /50, and the gold /10.

Side note: Both 2004 Topps and 2004 Donruss Team Heroes used the exact same picture on the front of their cards, and it popped up again on the back of 2004 Leaf Certified Cuts. There's also another picture of him in his new D-Backs uniform from the same photo shoot that was recycled on multiple cards.

 

[banjar]

Guess what? Another early 2000's pickup of negligible value! Just the stuff I like. Seriously...

So 2003 UD 40-man had a whopping 990 cards, each of which had a Rainbow parallel numbered to 40. 111 of those 990 cards also had an unnumbered Red/White/Blue parallel. So in this set, Alomar had a base card with the Rainbow and also a Red/White/Blue parallel. He was also featured on the Mets checklist and its Rainbow parallel.

So until last week, I had 4 of these 5 cards, but was missing the checklist Rainbow parallel. It was surprisingly hard to find, in part because what do you search for? Player name? Well, even though Alomar was the only player featured on the front of the card, his name wasn't on the checklist. So do you search for the card number (985)? Or just Mets checklist? Or what?

Turns out when I finally stumbled on a listing, that listing did not have the player name or card number. Sheesh. In any case, here's that middling little rainbow, completed at last. Ahhhhhhh.