Cards That Really Don't Look Like Cards: 1997 Flair Showcase Diamond Cuts

Through the advent of new technologies that add extra shine, fancy die-cuts and other fan-dangled gimmicks, there's cards a plenty out there that don't at all resemble the baseball cards from yesteryear. Here's one.


1997 Flair Showcase Diamond Cuts

1997 Flair Showcase was a landmark release. It had a three levels of base sets. I guess you could call the uncommon and rare levels parallels, but I've never really seen it that way. It had tons of foil. And the foil actually looked good.

But what 1997 Flair Showcase will forever be remembered for is the introduction of the 1-of-1 with the Masterpiece parallels. They set a new standard for the hobby that hasn't looked back.

In all the years since 1997 when this set was first released, I'd never come across the Diamond Cuts inserts. They were clearly lost in the shuffle of all Flair Showcase's other gimmicks and beauty. These are some funky looking cards. Die-cut in the shape of facing diamonds, the card also features prominent holo-foil giving the top background a diamond look. The name plate and Flair Showcase logo both contain additional gold foil.  There's also a full-body player photo and a glistening baseball diamond on the card's bottom portion.

Card backs are fairy generic with a diamond photo in the background, a small photo and a generic-reading bio.

Diamond Cuts definitely don't resemble anything close to traditional baseball cards. Nonetheless, they work. For all the techno-gimmicks going on on this card, it's not overwhelming. Often, cards that take on too much look like Franken-cards that resemble something that belongs to be sewn onto the crest of a bowling shirt or like a nameplate that belongs on an office door. 

Diamond Cuts were inserted 1:20 packs. Most of the cards should be found for a couple of dollars with none going more than $5 or $6. Here's the checklist:

1. Jeff Bagwell

2. Albert Belle

3. Ken Caminiti

4. Juan Gonzalez

5. Ken Griffey Jr.

6. Tony Gwynn

7. Todd Hundley

8. Andruw Jones

9. Chipper Jones

10. Greg Maddux

12. Mark McGwire

13. Mike Piazza

14. Manny Ramirez

15. Cal Ripken Jr.

16. Alex Rodriguez

17. Frank Thomas

18. Mo Vaughn

19. Bernie Williams

20. Matt Williams

Connecting the Card With the Day

It's often a tough task figuring out the exact source of a photo from any given card set that doesn't deal directly with a particular show, movie or event. But it can happen.

Case in point, below is a card that arrived yesterday. It may show volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, but I bought it for the yuckster in the middle. For whatever reason, I hold onto cards with presidents. I'd hold onto Canadian Prime Ministers too if they made more of them.

As soon as I saw this card, I recalled back to last year when some hilarious photos surfaced of Bush getting cozy with some soon-to-be Olympians. May-Treanor and Walsh were two of them. Here's a photo from the same day:

And another:

And one more for good measure:

(Source for all three: UK Daily Mail)

By now, most of you have probably seen these pictures. I've seen them several times but they're still worth a laugh.

And now back to the topic at hand. Check out the clothes: White bikini? Check. Red and black bikini? Check! Faux light denim collared shirt? Check!!

So the photo from the card in question was taken August 9, 2008. Thanks, Internets! You make sleuthing fun. And thank you Topps for creating a memento to commemorate one of Bush's final acts of unintentional hilarity.

"The successful criminal brain is always superior."

Give yourself a cookie if you know what movie it's from.

The actor who played original on-screen nemisis of James Bond, the nefarious* Dr. No has passed away. Joseph Wiseman, a good Canadian boy, was 91.

Born in Montreal, Wiseman appeared on nearly 100 TV shows and films between 1950 and 1996. Amongst the highlights: The Twilight Zone, The A-Team, MacGyver and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. But Wiseman will forever be connected with the Bond franchise and his role as Dr. No.

Despite a huge checklist of signers over the years for their Bond-themed sets, Rittenhouse Archives was never able to produce a Wiseman autograph. But that doesn't mean there aren't any cards of the classic villain. The card below is an insert from Rittenhouse Archives' James Bond: Danger Liaisons. Art and Images is a 20-card set that features Photoshopped versions of the franchises' most notable heroes, villains and Bond girls. Printed on canvas cardstock, the cards were inserted 1:40 packs and serial numbered /350. For a complete gallery of Art and Images cards, click here.

*I felt the need to insert the word nefarious simply because it has been a long week and odd words are fun on long weeks.

Box Break: Razor Ink Vault (Part 2) or Box Break: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising

To succeed in business you need to look ahead and take risks. With the success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it led to a bunch of classic fantasy series getting adapted for the screen. Inkworks followed suit, licensing sets for several of these properties. My guess is it was a matter of throwing against the wall and seeing which ones stuck. Unfortunately it was too late once Twilight hit. With the likes of the under-performing The Golden Compass and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising causing Inkworks to take big hits, the non-sport manufacturer eventually went under. And while I'm sure they did the best they could given their own limitations, The Seeker is but a one-card chase for me.

I'm a big fan of the HBO series Deadwood. And on Deadwood Ian McShane is my favorite aspect. So when I saw that he was signing for The Seeker, I knew there was one card I really wanted to have. Unfortunately for Inkworks, one card doesn't make many sets popular.

The set is based on the theatrical adaptation of Susan Cooper's novel. Despite a solid cast of cable stars like McShane, Six Feet Under's matriarch Frances Conroy and Doctor Who's Christopher Eccleston, the movie was a muddled mess to watch and a bomb at the box office. Predictably, the set was a dud as well.

The base set consists of 72 cards broken down into several confusing subsets. Outside of your standard profile and storyline subsets, there's a bunch at the front of the set that lay out the film's mythology. The checklist choice makes it all somewhat confusing as the story part normally lays out the plot so that the various subsets that go a little more in depth at least have some context.

One thing the subsets do achieve is showcase many different sorts of card designs, some of which are gorgeous and others are plain ugly. My favorite cards in the set are those of the Agents of the Light profiles. They mix striking images with a light-colored background and a simple yet affective text bar at the bottom. These are in contrast to the horrible looking story cards that waste a ton of space on two sets of borders. This leaves little room for the picture itself. With these cards all my eyes see are the wasted space.

The chase aspect of the set is highlighted by one autograph and one Pieceworks costume card per box. Although this wasn't formally announced, I haven't seen any breaks that didn't follow this pattern. The autograph design is typical Inkworks: horizontal layout with plenty of room for the signature. My autograph was of Gary Entin as Paul Stanton. I haven't heard of him. His filmography thus far isn't exactly spectacular either. Among his film credits are Rest Stop, Color Me Olsen, Whore and Rest Stop: Don't Look Back.

My favorite cards in the set are the Pieceworks. Although I don't chase after too many costume cards, the ethereal design of these cards standout amongst an otherwise bland set. I pulled a swatch of a jacket worn by Frances Conroy as Miss Graythorne. 

The Seeker follows the Inkworks insert formula to a tee. Signs of Light is your nine-card foil puzzle. Eternal Enemies is the slightly tougher to pull six-card set and Hidden Symbols is the one-per-box set. While I don't mind consistency, Inkworks followed the same pattern for a decade with almost every release. Occasional exceptions existed but they're not the norm. I can't tell you how many times I've busted a box of Inkworks products and gotten a puzzle piece of someone's arm, or in this box, half of someone's hair. The puzzles look good completed but I'm rarely motivated to do so with the underwhelming assortment I generally start out with. I received the predictable amount of predictable inserts. In fact, I beat the odds slightly and got two Eternal Enemies cards instead of the expected one. 

The Seeker is one of those sets hobby history can use to illustrate the company's demise. It's a set that required a risk to even be made. But in the end it followed the same predictable pattern as many of Inkworks' other releases. While there is little Inkworks could have done to make the set a hit based on the poor performance of the film, perhaps a little shakeup in the construction of the set might have brought a few more collectors into the mix. This is a boring set that, for me, was all about chasing a single card.

Inserts

• Autographs:1 (A-GE. Gary Entin as Paul Stanton)
• Pieceworks Costume Cards: 1 (PW5. Jacket worn by Frances Conroy as Miss Greythorne)
• Eternal Enemies (1:17): 2 (E3, E4)
• Hidden Symbols (1:23): 1 (H1)
• Signs of Light (1:11): 2 (S7, S8)

 To see further breakdown stats and more images, click here.

My Favorite Cards of 2009

There's still a few months left in the year but I'm starting to think about my highlights of the year. Honestly, baseball hasn't caught much of my attention this year. There's some bright spots, but by and large it has been much of the same old stuff. A couple of weeks ago I received an insert set in the mail that contains my favorite cards of 2009 and they're from a subject I don't really consider myself to be a fan of. These scans do not do the cards justice:

The cards come from Press Pass' KISS 360. They're a six-card insert set titled Transformation, which uses lenticular technology to show band mates go from  their regular selves and into their rock n' roll personas.

I'm a sucker for lenticular cards but Press Pass truly hit it here. It's using the technology to enhance the subject matter rather than just using it as a gimmick. To top it off, the cropping of the matching photos is spot on for almost all of them. So when you tilt Gene Simmons, his head stays in the same spot and his make-up and tongue simply appear.

KISS scared me as a youngster and I haven't totally forgiven them yet. However these cards are a perfect example of how card companies can still use old technology to make something cool.

The Transformation cards aren't hard to come by, especially considering a lot of the dealers busting KISS 360 are busting lots in hopes of landing the autographs. I picked up the entire set for under $10, or roughly how much two or three packs would have cost me.

Griffey Eats Cake and Squishes Alex Rodriguez

Something about this card makes me think of Alice in Wonderland. Either that or some recently fed baby sitting in his playpen. But it's been a long time since one could look at Ken Griffey Jr. and really think of him as "The Kid."

The card in question comes from 1996 Pinnacle Summit Baseball. I'd actually forgotten that the Summit brand made it past its first year. Although 1995 Pinnacle Summit had a clean design, it wasn't exactly memorable. But at least I remember how they looked. I can't say the same for the 1996 follow-up off the top of my head.

Ballparks is an 18-card insert set that I'd assume would be used to showcase various stadiums. But then you have the Godzilla-looking ballplayers doing their thing and scaring the bahooey out of everyone in attendance (except for the Gwynn below who appears to be playing to only a handful in San Diego).

Each of the cards in the set are serial numbered /8000 copies and were inserted 1:18 packs.

Here's the complete checklist:

1. Cal Ripken Jr.

2. Albert Belle

3. Dante Bichette

4. Mo Vaughn

5. Ken Griffey Jr.

6. Derek Jeter

7. Juan Gonzalez

8. Greg Maddux

9. Frank Thomas

10. Ryne Sandberg

11. Mike Piazza

12. Johnny Damon

13. Barry Bonds

14. Jeff Bagwell

15. Paul Wilson

16. Tim Salmon

17. Kirby Puckett

18. Tony Gwynn