The 1990s Baseball Card Face-off - 1991 Bowman vs. 1993 Stadium Club

Check this post to see my methodology.

Two posts in a row!

Here's where we left off:

Today's face-off doesn't look like it's going to be much of a fight.

1991 Bowman vs. 1993 Stadium Club

1991 Bowman #183 Jeff Bagwell

1991 Bowman #529 Andy Van Slyke

1991 Bowman was a Stage 1 card but with two innovations. One was gold foil stamping on some of the cards. I showed the Bagwell card as an example (he was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1991, not an MVP). Winners of the 1990 Silver Slugger award had a small crossed bat gold stamp is another example. There were a few others. The other innovation was in the presentation of player stats, but Bowman had been doing this since it's inception in 1989. Most of the cards are posed shots with the occasional action photo.

1993 Stadium Club #2 Greg Maddux

1993 Stadium Club #562 Will Clark

1993 was the third year for Stadium Club, and although it hadn't changed much since 1991, it was still pretty much the design standard. Glossy full bleed printing front and back, with a front design that worked well even on horizontal cards. The design was combined with great photography. Showing the player's first Topps card on the back was getting a little old and this would be the last year Stadium Club would have this feature. 

The Result: As I said above, not much of a fight here. With no thought at all, I'm going with 1993 Stadium Club.

The updated bracket.

Repack Madness #1

I found a new Fairfield repack package at the local Target earlier in February. The box advertised "20 packs!" and "Now Includes One Hit Per Box". For only $19.99. Since there wasn't anything new (I'd already bought all the Series 1 Topps I was gonna buy). I picked this up.  There were 290 cards in the box, since several of the packs were jumbo rack packs.

2012 Topps World Series Medallion Mickey Mantle

Normally, I wouldn't get too excited about a manufactured relic like this but at least this one was reasonably hard to get. It came as an insert to the retail 2012 Topps Factory set. No way was I buying a set just to get one of these. There are three cards in the set, this being #3. Since I think there was only one of these in each factory set (at least it was displayed on the outside of the box so you knew which one you were getting), getting the set would be pointless.

1991 Score World Series Trivia

The oldest cards in the box were two 1991 packs of Score. Topps had gum, Fleer had stickers, Donruss had puzzle pieces and Score had "Magic Motion Cards".

2007 Fleer #169 Greg Maddux

This pitiful design was the last year of Fleer, after Upper Deck bought the company. I understand that Upper Deck will release a Fleer set this year. I hope it's better than this. The worst thing about this card is the back where the player number is huge and the card number is barely readable.

2007 Fleer Soaring Stars Alfonso Soriano

Soaring Stars was a 20-card insert set. The box had a jumbo rack pack which implied that these cards were exclusive to this packaging. Since you could get them in regular packs as well, perhaps there were just a few which were only available in the rack packs. This Fleer set was all about plain. No gloss, no foil, no nothing special.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update #420 Mariano Rivera

There were several packs of this, very likely the most worthless set from 2008.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update #447 Matt Capps

The pitcher equivalent of a card featuring a batter holding a bat extended in front of him.

2012 Topps #30a Joe DiMaggio

Everything else in the box was 2012 Topps products. This came from a jumbo rack pack. After the Mantle medallion, this may be the second best card in the box. This is a veteran variation card. I bought a lot of 2012 Topps and didn't get one of these. The regular #30 features Derek Jeter.

2012 Topps Ian Desmond

Here's Ian Desmond practically taking off Justin Heywood's head while trying to turn a double play.

2012 Topps #180 Mariano Rivera

 

Over the years I collected a number of players in binders. For some reason, I never collected Rivera. I may have to go through my boxes of commons and pull Mariano cards out. I'm retired, I've got plenty of time.

2012 Topps #231 Dexter Fowler

I love cards featuring plays like this. Is he safe or out? You make the call.

2012 Topps #443 B. J. Upton

OK, one more.

Quest for 1998 - Part 2

My quest is to reach 200 different (base cards, inserts and parallels) cards for 1998. Here are the 3rd and 4th cards I've acquired.

1998 Bowman's Best Refractor #19 Gary Sheffield1998 Bowman's Best was a pretty expensive purchase, a 6-card pack set you back $5.00. The cards have a heavy gloss finish, something like the Topps Chrome finish. The refractor cards were inserted 1 in 20 packs and were serial numbered to 400. The backs of the refractor cards also have a heavier gloss than the base cards. There is another parallel, the Atomic Refractor. I've already won an auction for one of those but haven't received it yet.
I've got card #319.

1998 Circa Thunder Limited Access #19 Greg Maddux
This 15-card insert set had a lot going on. High gloss, gold foil and die cut. The cards were inserted in 1 of 18 packs. Fleer/Skybox had started the Circa set in 1996 and for some reason renamed it Circa Thunder for 1998, which will be the last year for the set.
The back of the card also had a heavy gloss finish. And if all that wasn't enough, the card opens up!
Inside is another photo and player stats.