What is the history of baseball cards from about 1995-present?

Estil

Most of you here seem to have not only been around modern cards (as in late 1990s onward), but seem to know quite a bit about them. Myself meanwhile, when I collected, I just got packs here and there during the mid-1990s and I collected only 1980s to early 1990s sets around 1999-2001 or so. I'm back into collecting again, but I'll probably just stick with stuff no later than 1995. That being said, can anyone tell me what's been going on with baseball (I'm not interested in other sports cards) cards from about late 1990s to present? I know there's sets like Topps Heritage that's extremely popular on Ebay, but what about other sets? Does Topps still do their Chrome sets every year as a "tiffany" version of their regular Topps set (sort of...)? And why exactly did Pinnacle Brands go out of business in 1998 and all the other companies other than Topps/Upper Deck?

I hope someone here has the time and patience for the baseball card history lecture. I'm very eager to learn.

kcballboy

I'll take a little lesson too. I was out from about 95-04 and have stuck to mainly collecting prior to that era.

helionaut

To answer your specific questions...

Does Topps still do their Chrome sets every year as a "tiffany" version of their regular Topps set (sort of...)?

No, not exactly a Tiffany set. Starting with 1993 Finest, Topps realized that the "chrome" process was very popular, especially the refractors. They have issued a "Finest" set every year since in all sports. But in 1996 they tried out a chrome version of their base set. I can't recall which sport came out first, but the baseball was kind of a dud as it didn't have any good RCs or other special draw. The basketball set, issued only through Wal-mart, was also a dud at first, but being a basketball set it had a ton of rookies. Once those rookies, especially Kobe Bryant, took off, the combination of a great RC class and the limited production and limited distribution of Topps Chrome led to those cards being the hottest in the hobby. The Kobe at one point was selling easily for $250-300, and unopened boxes for $500 or so. In 1997, Topps figured they could apply the same principle to their rookie-centric Bowman brand. 1997 Bowman sold well based on certain RCs like Jose Cruz Jr, Lance Berkman, and Hideki Irabu, among others (it was a very good set). When Bowman Chrome came out, with all the parallels and refractors and such, it took off quickly, and ever since it's been one of the most highly anticipated sets each year. The other sports do well, but it's the brand of choice for baseball rookie collectors/speculators. Topps still makes chrome versions of its base Topps brand, too, and they are pretty popular. The last couple years they've added some value with an autographed rookie in each minibox.

Topps did the Tiffany sets as complete sets and were intended I think to be purchased as gifts or something, or at least kept complete. Until the late 90s/early 00s, they had a stigma of being "oddball" and so were not highly coveted. Once the wave of rookie speculation took hold again, these became more coveted than regular cards, being limited in production, maybe 5000 or 7500 copies of McGwire or Bonds rookies compared to hundreds of thousands for the regular cards. Player collectors also aren't afraid to add them to their collections anymore.

And why exactly did Pinnacle Brands go out of business in 1998 and all the other companies other than Topps/Upper Deck?

Pinnacle had been purchased by Donruss in 1996 (along with Score and Action Packed) and I think they went out of business because they ran out of money. If you go back and look at the kinds of products they were releasing, they were based a lot on gimmicks and special packaging. Specifically, Pinnacle X-Press, Donruss Preferred, and Pinnacle Inside probably cost a lot more in packaging and such than any other set, so they were trying to spend money to make money and spent too much. They had several sets based on very rare and obscure parallels, and they didn't save the company, either. Donruss went out of business in late 1998, and came back in 2001. They were not issued a license to produce baseball cards for 2006, for reasons that have never been made clear. This has disappointed many collectors because they made several popular products like Leaf Certified and Donruss Diamond Kings. People hope they come back next year, but there's no news yet.

Fleer went out of business last year and was purchased by Upper Deck, who has started putting out card sets with the Fleer name.

Pacific lost its license a few years ago and went out of business, or vice versa. They were not mourned by many collectors, but they are noted for their unusually intricate die-cut inserts (1996 Flamethrowers is especially notable).

Basically, after the strike of 1994 many collectors left the hobby. In 1998, the home run race brought a lot of people back. Slabbing came into prominance that year as well, as people found that a high-grade card can be sold for many multiples of its raw value. $3000 for a PSA 10 McGwire rookie, $4000 for a PSA 10 Tony Gwynn rookie, $100,000 for a PSA 10 Mantle rookie. $125,000 for a PSA 10 Sports Illustrated for Kids Tiger Woods. Not all these prices have held up. But with ebay, slabbing, and products tailored for rookie speculation, the hobby has turned into something that allows virtually every type of person to find something they like, be it historical, profitable, or strictly collectible.

tennesseebanker

Wow, Good job on the info !

Tabe

Pacific was still making hockey cards in 2004/05, so if they are out of business, they went out last year.

Tabe

Estil

I knew the 1994 strike did negatively impact the hobby somewhat, but I just figured that after 1996 or so there just got to be too many sets released and caused all the previous years' sets and such to go down in value. Maybe hobbyists just didn't believe their cards would ever hold up in value and just left. That was my guess anyway.

But yes, excellent history lesson so far; I'm very eager to hear more. For example, what were the hottest/most popular sets during the past ten years and which ones have held up to the hype and which have not? I also want to know more about the history of these "short printed subsets" that seem to have become popular lately, especially with the Fleer sets.

MikeyLikesIt

Can someone explain etopps to me? Are they highly sought after amongst the newer crowd?

Estil

<< <i>Can someone explain etopps to me? Are they highly sought after amongst the newer crowd? >>



I'm curious about that too. My first era of semi-serious collecting (mid 1990s) was when insertmania was at its peak (I think); what's that market like now? Also, the 1/1's were just coming out in 1997; which ones are truely sought after (I'm guessing the annual Ultra Masterpieces are) and which ones just get lost in the shuffle?

fandango

i think e-topps is a fad, not very popular in current cards...it was topps way to incorporate the stock market (which was on fire in 2000) into cards.....the most popular e-topps are (most highly traded) is the pujols 2001 /5000....other than that the etopps thing is fading fast....

ajmoeller81

<< <i>Can someone explain etopps to me? Are they highly sought after amongst the newer crowd? >>



eTopps aren't really sought after by many these days, except for the few faithful folks who have been around since the beginning. They were introduced in 2000 with a very small football set (15 cards or so), then released sets in 2001 of baseball, football, basketball and hockey. The program was still relatively new so not many people knew about it and the print runs of the cards (determined by how many buyers at IPO) were very low. Well word began to spread and the value of these cards began to skyrocket (much like tech stocks in the late 90s). Well Topps thought it's golden goose had come in and flooded the market in 2002 with print runs about 10 times what they were in 2001. The market then collapsed and ever since Topps has been degrading the product and the fan base has been declining by the year. Oh yeah, you basically purchase electronic versions of the cards either at IPO, or over ebay, or by trading through the trade post. It was a great concept at one time but Topps didn't understand the economics of how to make it work. Back in 2001, Tony Banks was released at a miniscule print run of less than 200. This caused his card to sell for close to $1000 at some points. It has long been deemed that whenever Tony was replaced as the Short Print that eTopps would be dead... and it just happened this year with A.J. Hawk's 2006 card I believe. All you've got left now are people trying to collect all of certain cards in order to artificially inflate the prices and hopefully someday get their money back.

NickM

A couple emendations to helionaut's excellent post:

Donruss went out of the baseball business in 1998, and came back in 2001. They continued to produce football cards between those years, and they issued 1 per pack cards in the 2001 baseball set that were labelled as 1999 or 2000 Donruss to provide "makeup sets" (1 year for retail packs, 1 year for hobby packs).

Pacific lost its baseball license, but continued making football cards until 2002, and hockey cards until the NHL cancelled a season.

Nick

fsjeter

<< <i>Pinnacle had been purchased by Donruss in 1996 (along with Score and Action Packed) and I think they went out of business because they ran out of money. >>



Helio et al.,

I think it was the other way around. Donruss was purchased by Pinnacle (who already owned Score and Action Packed) in 1996 and they went out of business in 1998. The rights were purchased by Playoff (who was gaining steam in the football market) and they continued to issue football sets with the Donruss name. They got the MLB Properties and MLBPA licenses in 2001 and began issuing baseball sets again. In a bonehead move, their license was stripped last year so they are out of baseball, yet again. The rest is right on the mark.

Incidently, the name Donruss came from the Thomas Weiner Candy Company, founded in 1954. Two brothers, Don and Russell Weiner inherited the company from their father and changed the name (this is not a joke either!).

Scott

LWMM

<< <i>Incidently, the name Donruss came from the Thomas Weiner Candy Company, founded in 1954. Two brothers, Don and Russell Weiner inherited the company from their father and changed the name (this is not a joke either!).

Scott >>



What, not "Wiener Candy"?

Estil

Even though Upper Deck bought out Fleer last year, is it true that they're still doing at least the Ultra set, with the now traditional gold/platnium/masterpiece paralell inserts? What about Fleer Tradition and Flair?