Why 90s/00s Inserts Still Matter in Today’s Ultra-Premium Hobby (and why they may be the best)

[mouschi]

Hey guys! Hope all you out there in FCB land are doing well. I just posted a new article, though, apparently it is too long to post here, so here is a direct link: https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2025/...emium-hobby-and-why-they-may-be-the-best.html

 

[joey12508]

way cool tanner. i only collected Bernie during his playing years. got to chase all the 90's biggies. still have a few.

 

[jmc855]

Well written and thorough. Lots of valid points. Honestly, once the Red Crusades and Gold 96 select crossed the 4 digit rubicon as an expectation of sellers for Clemens, I wrote them out of my list of pursuits. Personally I ve always thought purples were the best looking for Crusades, though gold is clearly the best for the Mirror Selects. For me, Clemens playing days are far more valuable and chase worthy than post playing, and that roughly coincides with the licensing issue, so it works out. I struggle to not view every unlicensed Panini and Leaf product as basically fake, fair or not, and I just cant get by airbrushed logos and generic texts. I feel like my shift to Jersey # matches allows me to add some sense of importance to any modern Topps stuff I collect. I basically only buy the jersey matches for the endless rainbows and multi tier PRs of the exact same autograph cards like Luminaries from Topps now, because when you have 28 foil variances ( looking at you 2023 Chrome Platinum Heritage!) They become not rare, and can border on annoying. Wonder what someone will write in 50 years about these eras of cards.....???

 

[mouschi]

way cool tanner. i only collected Bernie during his playing years. got to chase all the 90's biggies. still have a few.

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Wow, well ... those are definitely probably the two to have! GREAT looking cards!

 

[mouschi]

Well written and thorough. Lots of valid points. Honestly, once the Red Crusades and Gold 96 select crossed the 4 digit rubicon as an expectation of sellers for Clemens, I wrote them out of my list of pursuits. Personally I ve always thought purples were the best looking for Crusades, though gold is clearly the best for the Mirror Selects. For me, Clemens playing days are far more valuable and chase worthy than post playing, and that roughly coincides with the licensing issue, so it works out. I struggle to not view every unlicensed Panini and Leaf product as basically fake, fair or not, and I just cant get by airbrushed logos and generic texts. I feel like my shift to Jersey # matches allows me to add some sense of importance to any modern Topps stuff I collect. I basically only buy the jersey matches for the endless rainbows and multi tier PRs of the exact same autograph cards like Luminaries from Topps now, because when you have 28 foil variances ( looking at you 2023 Chrome Platinum Heritage!) They become not rare, and can border on annoying. Wonder what someone will write in 50 years about these eras of cards.....???

I can understand that for sure! Like everyone else, I'm not a fan of airbrushed logos ... but ... what did get me in the nostalgia feels is the 2017 Leaf Q 1/1 jumbo patch. It blatantly has airbrushed logos out, but then I remembered this ... see the airbrushed photos in the cards from the 80s/90s? Yeah ... that really got me good. I love the card as-is, but once I made the connection, it took it to another level.

 

[mrmopar]

Well written and thorough. Lots of valid points. Honestly, once the Red Crusades and Gold 96 select crossed the 4 digit rubicon as an expectation of sellers for Clemens, I wrote them out of my list of pursuits. Personally I ve always thought purples were the best looking for Crusades, though gold is clearly the best for the Mirror Selects. For me, Clemens playing days are far more valuable and chase worthy than post playing, and that roughly coincides with the licensing issue, so it works out. I struggle to not view every unlicensed Panini and Leaf product as basically fake, fair or not, and I just cant get by airbrushed logos and generic texts. I feel like my shift to Jersey # matches allows me to add some sense of importance to any modern Topps stuff I collect. I basically only buy the jersey matches for the endless rainbows and multi tier PRs of the exact same autograph cards like Luminaries from Topps now, because when you have 28 foil variances ( looking at you 2023 Chrome Platinum Heritage!) They become not rare, and can border on annoying. Wonder what someone will write in 50 years about these eras of cards.....???

I don't think i have any of the true huge cards from the 90s. I have a decent number of better inserts across a number of players i liked at the time, leading the way was frank Thomas, so that was not a bad choice on my part.

I was just going through some of them this past weekend. I remember being surprised that i had a Clemens Crusade. it was the one /100, probably the easiest one to find. i don't remember the color of it. I know I don't have any Thomas crusade cards, so that Clemens is probably the best of only a few i likely have.

That was a fun time to collect. It was also the time i was slowly realizing that pack and box busting had become a non-sustainable habit for me. i often felt defeated after spending $60-80 on a box, only to see what amounted to maybe $10-20 worth of cards after it was all over.

There were some amazing designs though. Few card designs have equaled the greatness of so many of those cards, in my opinion, even some of the 1 per box sets that were not impossible to find.

 

[joey12508]

I don't think i have any of the true huge cards from the 90s. I have a decent number of better inserts across a number of players i liked at the time, leading the way was frank Thomas, so that was not a bad choice on my part.

I was just going through some of them this past weekend. I remember being surprised that i had a Clemens Crusade. it was the one /100, probably the easiest one to find. i don't remember the color of it. I know I don't have any Thomas crusade cards, so that Clemens is probably the best of only a few i likely have.

That was a fun time to collect. It was also the time i was slowly realizing that pack and box busting had become a non-sustainable habit for me. i often felt defeated after spending $60-80 on a box, only to see what amounted to maybe $10-20 worth of cards after it was all over.

There were some amazing designs though. Few card designs have equaled the greatness of so many of those cards, in my opinion, even some of the 1 per box sets that were not impossible to find.

the chase for those gems and the impossible obscure, was the most fun i had in collecting.