Saturday, March 20, 2010

Quest for 1998 - Part 6 Circa Thunder

With these three cards, I am up to 177 different base cards and inserts. My quest is to reach 200. Circa Thunder was published by Fleer/Skybox.

Circa Thunder Rave #259 Jose VizcainoThe Rave insert was a parallel to the base set, numbered to 150. On the base cards, the player name was a colored foil while the card logo was gold foil. On the Rave parallel, the player name and card logo were a holographic silver foil. The card design was the same. There were multiple backgrounds, mostly looking like some sort of whirlpool. The backs of the cards were exactly the same except for the serial number.

Circa Thunder Fast Track #18 Todd Helton
This was a 10-card set inserted 1:24 packs. The front features refractive foil behind the player on the left, and head shots of all 10 players on the right. Note that the little head shot of Helton is also in refractive foil. The text and card logo is in silver foil. I think this is a nice looking card.
The back features another player photo and a little write up about the player's debut.

Circa Thunder Rave Review #15 Mike Piazza
This is a pretty extravagant card. It has a copper foil background with gold foil printing. It is die cut on all four edges. The team and league names are in raised lettering. It was inserted 1 in 288 packs so it was a pretty tough pull. For what it's worth, Beckett lists this card at $25. I paid about $6 for it.
The back features a high gloss finish and another player photo.

I now have all the Circa Thunder I'm likely to get. There is another insert parallel called Circa Thunder Super Rave. These are numbered to 5. There is currently one dealer offering quite a few commons. He is asking $60 each. Or you can choose a Manny Ramirez for $400 or a Mark McGwire for $500. No thanks.

Here's the breakdown on what I have.

Circa Thunder base (300 card set) - 32
Circa Thunder Rave - 1
Circa Thunder Boss (20 card insert, 1:6) - 1
Circa Thunder Fast Track - 1
Circa Thunder Limited Access (15 card insert 1:18) - 1
Circa Thunder Quick Strike (12 card insert, 1:36) - 1
Circa Thunder Rave Review - 1
Circa Thunder Thunder Boomers (12 card insert, 1:96)

1 comment:

Ryan Cracknell said...

I loved the 1997 Circa set, before it combined with Skybox Thunder in 1998. My favorite part of the set was the quotes about the players on the front of the base cards. When that disappeared in 98, so did my interest. I'm still looking for the Jaha Super Rave, which were #'d out of 25.