Friday, February 26, 2010

Quest for 1998 - Part 1

Last year I set out with a collecting goal of getting to 200 unique cards for 1996. I needed about 50 cards to accomplish the goal. Along the way I made a series of posts of all the different 1996 cards that I owned. I never did complete that series because I got bored with it. And I never showed any of the new cards I had acquired. I did reach my goal, making it to 203 of the 307 different cards (base sets, parallels and inserts) issued in 1996. My goal this year is to reach 200 1998 cards (there were 588 different cards issued in 1998). I need 41 new cards. And instead of trying to show every 1998 card I own, I'll just post the new cards I acquire.

1998 Aurora Pennant Fever Silver #12 Wade Boggs
This was a 50-card insert to 1998 Aurora. The Pennant Fever insert set came in 5 flavors, regular, red, copper (numbered to 20), platinum blue (numbered to 100) and silver (numbered to 250). I already had the regular and the red. The other two are going to be tough to get.
This set was produced by Pacific and this was the inaugural year for the Aurora set. If you look closely to the bottom left of the back of the card (click on the image to get a larger picture), you will see that that the Aurora set is not authorized by Major League Baseball. Pacific had been producing cards under an MLB license since at least 1991, and would continue to until 2001. For some reason, this particular set was not authorized. 1999 Aurora was authorized.

1998 Bowman Minor League MVP's #6 Derek Jeter
This 11-card set was inserted 1 in 12 packs in Bowman. The card has a Dufex background. Of all the many different finishes that have been used on baseball cards, Dufex is my least favorite. I don't like the appearance that much and the cards tend to really show off fingerprints. And they generally don't scan well, although this one did.
According to the back, Jeter was voted MVP of the 1994 Florida State League. The back of the card has a very low glossy finish.

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