The 1990s Baseball Card Face-off - 1998 Pinnacle vs 1998 Topps Gold Label

Sorry for my lack of posts recently but your favorite retired baseball card blogger has been busy with other stuff. Let's get back to the 1990s Face-Off.

Check this post to see my methodology.

In the last post, we opened up the Babe Ruth 2nd Quartile. Here were the results.

1998 Pinnacle vs 1998 Topps Gold Label

1998 Pinnacle #67 Paul Molitor

1998 Pinnacle #83 Derek Bell

 After three straight years of Pinnacle with massive amounts of gold foil on the front of the cards, the 1998 version was a bit understated with just a small amount of holofoil on the front. Also by this time Pinnacle was in trouble and went under in 1998. No more Pinnacle until Panini revived the brand 2013. 1998 Pinnacle wasn't a bad looking set. The fronts were full-bleed and glossy. The player's position is shown in the bit of foil beneath the players name. The backs were also glossy with a player photo partially obscured by full career stats. The player's team logo appears very small along with other logos at the bottom of the back of the card, which is a little odd. As is often the case the design doesn't work as well on a horizontal card.

1998 Topps Gold Label #4 Andres Gallarraga

1998 Topps Gold Label #7 Derek Jeter

1998 Topps Gold Label is another of the very few sets from the 1990s of which I don't own any cards. I got these images from thetradingcarddb.com. Other years of this product always remind me of 1993 Flair. Good card stock, heavy gloss, double photo on the front. It's much more of a premium card than 1998 Pinnacle. I've liked every Gold Label card I've ever seen.

The Results: I was going to go against the grain here and pick 1998 Pinnacle because it's a regular old baseball card vs 1998 Topps Gold Label's top shelf appeal. But when I asked my self, which would I rather add to my collection, I have to go with 1998 Topps Gold Label.