Random Ray - 1999 Fleer Brilliants

This is a shiny card that scanned poorly.  Just imagine the surface to be shiny rather than covered in little bits of whatever is on my scanner or the sleeve on the card.  

Out of the sleeve and off the scanner......

Much better look at the card.  I always like looking at the backgrounds of cards to see other players, the stadium they are playing in, fans, etc.  Typically, I am not a fan of card designs where the background is completely removed from behind the player.  However, I really like this card with the reflective material and the swirl pattern behind the player.  I like the gold font color on the bottom, but the font itself is not my cup of tea.  

It looks like it was borrowed from a map insert of Narnia book.

I am not a big fan of C.S. Lewis.  When other teachers tell me they are reading their class one of the Narnia books, I usually feel sad for the students in that class.  Maybe my dislike of C.S. Lewis is influencing my dislike of the font.  

It's a small thing.  

The back of the card scanned much better than the front.   

Yes, I read the small write-up about Ray Lankford's career above the stat line on this card.  I am going to bring that Justin Timberlake deep stare gif back down to this section of the post.  Google was not really popular yet in the late 1990s, but there were several other popular search engines.  

Where did Ray Lankford bat in the line-up in relationship to Mark McGwire?  Every Cardinals fan who watched the team in the late 1990s does not even need a search engine to answer the question.  Let's look at a few pictures with Mark McGwire and Ray Lankford.  

They are both in this picture.  Where is Ray?  

He's on-deck.  

Here is another picture of Ray Lankford and Mark McGwire.  Where is Ray?  

He's on-deck again.  

Remember, the internet can be your friend.  I really do not like when card companies miss facts that are really easy to find on the internet.  Someone wrote it, apparently no editor actually checked it.  McGwire batted third, Ray Lankford hit fourth, and some combination of Brian Jordan, Ron Gant, or Fernando Tatis batted fifth.  

On to the best part of the back, which is the small picture on the side of the card.  

This picture is from a game between the Cardinals and Braves played in 1999 where they celebrated the former Negro League teams from Atlanta and St. Louis.  The Cardinals wore the uniforms of the St. Louis Stars.  To Fleer's credit, they actually used pictures from this game on a lot of the Cardinals cards in their 1999 products.  Ray Lankford has several cards with pictures from the game, including two where it is the primary photograph used on the front.  

I will use one of them on the next Random Ray card.  

30 Year Top 50: 1997 Pinnacle Certified

#30-I've noticed a lot of people raving about their collection of "rainbows" recently.  A rainbow is the complete run of a card and all of its colored parallels.  For example, this is a complete rainbow set of a Bowman Ryan Tatusko card.  While the popularity of collecting a complete set of a cards parallels is very popular at the moment, it is hardly a new concept.  Several of the Pinnacle and Fleer products of the mid to late 90's also thrived by offering collectors a chance to complete a "rainbow" of cards from their favorite players.

In my opinion, the 1997 Pinnacle Certified set was the best of the bunch.  There are other issues of this set and there are similar sets, but I have always has an affinity for this one above all the others.  In all honesty, the Pinnacle Certified Rainbow was also a little simpler to collect to collect and had a better overall appearance and design then many of the rainbows sets of today.

The rainbow in the Pinnacle Certified set started with the base cards.  Sorry, no autographs or relics.  The design of the Pinnacle Certified set was very typical of 90s Pinnacle sets.  They added a clear protective sheet over the top of the cards which takes away a little bit from it's appeal, but looking around at other late 90s card releases, you can find several other examples of this being done.

1997 Pinnacle Certified Ray Lankford

In addition to the base set, Pinnacle issued three different colored parallel cards with a Mirror and Platinum version, or serial numbered and non-serial numbered issue.  The three colored parallels were Red, Blue, and Gold with red being the easiest to find and gold being the most difficult.  The non-serial numbered parallel of the base cards have the same picture as the base card and are labeled as a "Mirror" card on the back.  The Gold Version was limited to 30 copies.  

1997 Pinnacle Certified Red Ray Lankford 

1997 Pinnacle Certified Blue Ray Lankford

1997 Pinnacle Certified Gold Ray Lankford

The serial numbered versions of the cards varied by the color.  The Red Platinum was the most common at a print run of /3999.  The Blue Platinum print run was /1999.  Both are pretty common by today's standards, but in 1997 it was somewhat challenging.  Also notice that to the picture has changed and the card has the appearance of texture commonly found on Pinnacle issues.  

1997 Pinnacle Certified Red Platinum Ray Lankford

1997 Pinnacle Certified Blue Platinum Ray Lankford

If you are into the Topps Finest or Bowman rainbows a venture into the 1997 Pinnacle Certified set is well worth your time.  The Blue, Red, Blue Platinum, and Red Platinum cards are not a difficult find and can be yours for often a few dollars.  Even the Gold Cards aren't difficult to find.  Currently, Ebay has more than 300 for sale with the price ranging from $7.99 for a Ray Montgomery or Jay Buhner card to $999.99 for a Jeter Graded at a 9 or a Bernie Williams graded at a 10.  Really fun set to collect. 

Like the 1997 Pinnacle Certified Set?  Not in my Top 50 is the 1999 Fleer Brilliants set.  Similar to the Pinnacle Certified in style and appearance, the Fleer Brilliants set was a simple, no autographs or relics, set that offered collectors a chance to put together a set of colored parallel cards for each player.  Here's a non-Lankford look at the parallels.  The base first:

1999 Fleer Brilliants Johnny Damon 

The base set in the Fleer Brilliants set had three parallels.  One of the parallels, Blue, was not serial numbered.  The other two Gold and 24K Gold were both serial numbered, but were far harder to find then the parallels in the Pinnacle Certified set.  The Gold is numbered to 99 and the 24K Gold is numbered to 24.  Both are pretty challenging to find.  Here's a glimpse at the parallels:

1999 Fleer Brilliants Blue Pat Burrell

1999 Fleer Brilliants Gold Rusty Greer 

1999 Fleer Brilliants 24K Gold Roberto Alomar 

1999 Fleer Brilliants Gold Ray Lankford

It has been a great week for the Ray Lankford collection.  After collecting Lankford cards for more than a dozen years, it is rare when you see a new card that you need to add.  I have my favorites and will still get excited when I see a cool Lankford card that I already own, but I am ecstatic when I fill holes in my collection.  This week I have already added a 1998 Fleer EX-2001 Essential Credentials Now card numbered out of 49.  I cannot remember the time I added two new Lankford cards in a week.  It's probably been four or five years.  Anyway, here is the new addition:

1999 Fleer Brilliants Gold Ray Lankford /99

The scratches are on the case

This set was only a one year run for Fleer, but it is actually one of my favorite sets from the late 90s.  Fleer Brilliants had no autographs or game used cards, but was simply constructed on a few inserts and variations on the base cards.  There were three primary variations in the set: Brilliant Blues, Brilliant Golds, and 24 Karat Gold.  I am still missing the 24 Karat Gold version, but was happy to add this short-printed card to my collection.  Boxes of the Fleer Brilliants product can be found really cheap if you are looking for a fun and inexpensive box to bust.