Bargain Archives

I have been slowly working on assembling a few Topps Archives Cardinals autographs from this past season.  I posted a copy of my Andres Galarraga Archives card a few weeks back featuring the Big Cat with the Birds on the Bat.  As I pointed out at the time, the Cardinals players that were included in this year's Topps one per autograph box (one card per box too) were really known for playing elsewhere.

Maybe you do remember some of these players as Cardinals, so I can at least safely say that their best days were spent elsewhere.  Probably a safer statement.  My latest Cardinals Archives autograph fits that description well.  Here is the card.....

Sorry the scan is a little fuzzy.  My scanner seems to not like these cases.....

Mulder is best remembered for his time with the Oakland A's, but was traded to the Cardinals before the 2005 season.  He helped the team reach the playoffs that year before falling to the Astros in the National League Championship Series.  He started out as the ace of the Cardinals rotation in 2006 even hit the first home run at the current Busch Stadium....

At some point Mulder's shoulder pretty much fell off and he was not really ever heard from again.  He did get a ring for being on the Cardinals roster that year.  The pitching challenged team also ended up adding spare part Jeff Weaver from the Angels to deal with injuries to players like Mulder.  

Not that I am ever happy to see a player get injured, but that whole Jeff Weaver rental worked out pretty well as I recall....

Needless to say the Mulder Cardinals year's were not his best, but he was still apart of a World Series winner, so it's nice to add a copy of a Cardinals autograph to the collection.  As an added bonus, the person selling this card had a few other Archives autographs on the cheap.  

Here are my other three cards.....

Damon on the Rays is kind of cool.  As a Durham Bulls guy I kind of have become a pretty big Rays fan.  Similar to Mulder, Johnny's best days were spent elsewhere, but it's not like he was terrible during his time in Tampa.  I am pretty sure that his Rays cards in Archives are his only certified autographs in that uniform.  Cheap card, can't pass it up.  

The next two are cool 80s players....

I remember Baines as a White Sox, A's player, and with the Rangers.  He and Willie McGee, briefly, were also my favorite players on the 1990s A's teams.  Truth be told, at the time, I was not really a huge fan of McGwire and Canseco.  Especially Canseco.  Annoyed the hell out of me in Middle School.  Baines was cool though.  

Tony was in the humongous Fred McGriff, Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter trade, plus he was on the Blue Jays when I was a kid.  The Blue Jays were always a cool team in my book.  I liked the unis and a bunch of the players on that team.  Tony kind of bounced around for awhile, again always liked him.  I am pretty sure he has some other autographs out there besides this one.  This card was just kind of there....

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