Gimme an A…and another A.

There’s a decent chuck of time from the late 90s to early 00s where I wasn’t collecting much at all. I’d buy a discount box at Kmart every now and then, but that was about it. It’s a shame because I love a lot of what card companies did during the 90s. A lot of these inserts appeal more to me than my 100th card with a swatch of a player’s jersey in it. In my latest package from CheckOutMyCards, I picked up a few of those inserts.

I actually have a Ken Griffey Jr Spellbound in my collection and while I like Griffey, he’s not a player that would motivate me to go out and collect all of the letters from his name. Mike Piazza, a player that I just happen to collect, is another of the players to have his name spelled out in the Spellbound insert set. These four cards were on COMC at a good price, so I decided that I start on my way.

What’s not to love about these cards? There’s a big picture of the player framed by foil and etched foil. You’ve got different pictures on the front and back which is always a nice touch. Putting this set together is also a very realistic goal since it is only six cards.

When Expired Redemption Cards Don’t Suck

I know that you’ve all had to put up with my redemption cards rants back when I opened my case of Masterpieces. It’s mostly due to the fact that one of those redemptions cards was for a $50 and once expired was just an ugly looking piece of paper with an area to be scratched off. What if that wasn’t the case?

Check out this beauty from 1994 Pinnacle Baseball. This card could have been redeemed for a Stan Javier Museum Collection card. I’m not sure if I forgot to send this in, pulled it after the expiration or liked the card and decided to keep it this way (this is so much cooler than a Dufexed Stan Javier and you know it). How cool would it be if all redemption cards looked this cool?

Card manufacturers seem to be just fine with collectors pulling worthless, expired redemption cards from packs so why not make them a little more pleasing to the eye so that it’s not just going to get pitched into the trash. How about a picture of the player that the redemption is for? It’ll never happen because it’s all about keeping the cost of production as low as possible, but it’s a nice idea.

As far as the conditions of the redemption card, check it out:

• You had to write your name and address on the back of the card (which was glossy) and then physically mail it in.
• The redemption card expired on December 31st, 1994. I’m not sure of the release date of the set, but that was less than a year. Imagine if card companies tried that these days?
• You didn’t get this card returned to you. Pinnacle took the time to make the redemption card nice, applied Dufex to it and then you don’t get it back. They should have punched a hole in it or stamped it and returned it to the collector.

This card makes me wonder what the circumstances might have been that caused this card not to be included in the packout. It’s not the only card either. There are three or four other cards that were also redemptions. I’ve got to think that these would be pretty rare. Collectors didn’t participate in a lot of mail-in offers in the 90s even when it was for things like autographed Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez jumbo cards. I blame the 1992 Topps Gold Winners.