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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A Platinum Diamond Griffey!....Sort of....

One of my biggest disappointments in 2011 was the fact that Topps introduced a card design that immediately became one of my all-time favorites - the Platinum Diamonds along with the various parallel colors - and they did it the frickin' year after Griffey retires, so there isn't a single Griffey to be found in the entire damn set....

(As an aside, what is the rule on when a retired player can start appearing in sets again?  This year's Topps set had SP cards of players like Frank Thomas and Paul O'Neill, but not a single Griffey, not even in insert sets.  I miss that feeling of excitement from seeing my boy in a freshly opened pack!!)

However, I was able to score a small victory with the acquisition of a Griffey that is kind of like a Platinum Diamond.  I recently discovered the 1993 Topps Mini Prism cards, and they almost look like a precursor to the Platinum Diamond design. The Mini Prisms were found in the 1993 Topps Mini factory sets; there were 12 Prisms per box.  Luckily I was able to locate the Griffey from that set on eBay.

These cards are really very cool, and not just because they are sparkly.  You might have noticed that the quality of the image isn't that great - well, there's a reason for that.  Back in 1993, when they said "mini" card, dammit, they meant MINI!:

Yep, that is the 1993 Griffey Prism resting on top of the Hank Aaron from this year's Kimball Champions mini set.  The small Aaron card still manages to dwarf the Griffey Prism by comparison!  Quite a neat (and tiny) addition to my Griffey Collection.

Previous Trivia Question:
 
Through the 2011 season there have been 107 World Series - how many were won by the National League?
 
A:  The National League has won 45 out of 107 World Series titles
 
Today's Trivia Question:
 
What franchise became the first team to lose 10,000 games in 2007?
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3 comments:

  1. Mariner1December 20, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    That would be the Phillies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kbrewster/90December 20, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    You also might like the Pacific Prisms, in particular Griffey's 1994 version.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 20, 2011 at 2:09 PM

    Phillies it is!

    That card is sweet. Imagine if they'd have done that to their regular cards in 1993 instead of just Topps Gold! It would have been like Museum Collection from Pinnacle - people would have gone gaga over it.

    Oh - also, I think the retired player rule is literally just if they have signed them to a contract to use their likeness. Since Topps has announced they'll be doing Griffey autos in 2011, I'm guessing he'll be in some other sets as well.

    ReplyDelete