As I’ve been reacquainting myself with 1990’s and early 2000’s baseball cards – the cards from my heyday of collecting as a kid and teenager – I’m realizing just how many amazing and spectacular cards were in this era! The base cards may be considered by some to fall under the junk era category, but certainly there are variations, parallels and inserts galore that are just beautiful, and often rare. The quality of design and print techniques from this era is perhaps still unrivaled. This post will be a living post as I come across what I deem to be the best, coolest, and most interesting cards from the era of approximately 1993 to 2004. Not necessarily most valuable or rare! I will avoid the extremely rare 1 of 1’s, or super low numbered just because I’d rather highlight what is actually attainable.
1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold
1996 Select Certified contained a staggering (for the time) SIX levels of parallels, becoming one of the first sets that allowed collectors to “chase the rainbow.” It was the first set that introduced VERY low print run parallels which created a huge following and demand, with market prices still holding high even today. In a time before the influx of 1 of 1’s, #/10, etc., the Mirror Golds (#/30) were the cream of the crop. And given their extreme shine and retractability, they were prone to damage and surface issues, making high grade near impossible. The Mirror Gold’s are about as holy grail as they come for this era.
Attainability difficulty: 8/10 due to market price. It’s not hard to find these on ebay and the secondary market, but good luck getting one cheap, especially if you’re looking for high grade.
2001 Stadium Club Beam Team
Numbered to 500, which was pretty rare, but not nearly the rarest, for this era, you’d think a lot more of these would be floating around to this day. But these cards were so cool and shiny and just plain badass, that I don’t think many see the light of day. I’d hang on to them tight if I had any. By the way, I NEED the Todd Helton and Larry Walker from this set. Wink wink, hint hint.
Attainability difficulty: 3/10. These are super affordable, often anywhere from $10 to $70 depending on the player, and there’s usually a handful of them at any given time on eBay. That said, if you’re picky about a player, team, or high grade, it might be a while before one for your PC surfaces.
1998 Bowman’s Best Mirror Image Fusion Atomic Refractor
Die cut. Extreme sparkle. Blindingly shiny. Numbered to 25, these are among the most rare that you’ll see on this list, but only because they do pop up from time to time. 1997 and 1998 Bowman’s Best was revolutionary at the time with what they did with their atomic refractors, so it was fitting to add the coolest of the cool atomics to this list. Even the non-atomic, “regular” Fusion Refractors (#/100) are absolutely gorgeous.
Attainability difficulty: 9/10. These just plain almost never surface. To date, I’ve only seen a couple on ebay. At the time of this post, there is a raw Mark McGwire on eBay with a BIN price of $1250 (marked down 50% from $2500).