I've mentioned a time or two that back when we received free samples in the mail at the newspaper, I would periodically land a card or two from baseball or football sets.
This was the late 1990s, and the cards were always Pacific or Pinnacle (brands I knew nothing about, by the way). So the designs were wild and strange to me. And, weirdly, most of the cards featured the word SAMPLE in giant letters traveling across the card.
I was familiar with sample cards and knew they could be "exclusive," but thought it bizarre that they would effectively ruin the picture by stamping SAMPLE across it.
Whatever, it was the '90s, I'm not going to pretend I understand much about cards then. I was just reminded of this by yet another mailing from Stephan of Vintage Twins. In the envelope contained a sealed pack of 1995 Pinnacle Zenith sample cards.
There they are, eight players all trying to do their work with giant letters floating in front of them.
This set of sample cards was sent to dealers in 1995 by Pinnacle, trying to drum up business for its new brand. I felt a bit of privilege by opening these once exclusive items, meant only for dealers, for the first time.
Naturally since they were 20-plus year-old cards from the '90s, opening them wasn't easy. They all stuck together and I had to gently pry them apart. I'm happy to say that the surface of the cards is intact on all of them, although a couple edges and corners were dinged in the prying.
The Nomo card received the worst, as the back is now peeling off, but I have a few extras of that card anyway (I love it, even with the SAMPLE screaming at me).
The rest of the cards in the package covered quite the spectrum.
Shawn Green cards from his Blue Jays days, for example. I was just updating a single Green card in my database a couple days ago and I decided that Green is the most tedious player to update in my collection. So. Many. Cards. So adding these will be fun.
Sakes alive, I recognize this Metal Universe Adrian Beltre card but I can't find it in my collection anywhere. This is a happy discovery.
I appreciate oddball cards even when it's neither a player nor a team I collect. These were the fun Toys R Us days, before it started overcharging for purple cards.
An O-Pee-Chee sticker of the Garv, very nice. Steve Garvey's been making some appearances during the World Series. Brings back a lot of nice memories even if he's calling today's game "Millenial Baseball".
Super pleased about this card. Sure, it's got issues on the Rosen half of the card, but it's in much better shape than the version currently in my Dodger binder, which harkens back to the first cards I ever pulled. I can now put that oldie gem into my binder honoring those first cards and this card in the Dodger binder.
I know nobody read the above paragraph, but I don't care. Too happy over this card.
Lastly, the best card in the entire package.
It's a key addition to my 1975 buyback frankenset! Bill Lee! I wanted this the minute I saw it on Stephan's Twitter feed. Spaceman becomes card No. 189 that I've accumulated so far. I'm in a holding pattern right now during this very cash-conscious time of year. But get ready for a revitalized chase in 2018!
Also, that's how to do it, '90s Sample cards. If you've got to stamp something on the photo (and really I'd prefer you didn't), make it a bit more inconspicuous.
I know that's a difficult concept for '90s cards to grasp.
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