2019 Topps Archives Robin Yount Checklist and Gallery

Robin is featured in the main set in the 1993 design and that includes a few parallels.  I'll add images when stuff starts showing up.  There might also be some retail parallels not listed in the original checklist.

2019 Topps Archives #295
2019 Topps Archives #295 Purple #/175
2019 Topps Archives #295 Silver #/99
2019 Topps Archives #295 Blue #/25
2019 Topps Archives #295 Gold #/1

1993 Score Select

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Score

Set: Select

Card Number: 22

Card Type: Base

The first year of the Select brand would just so happen to be the last year Robin played in the league.  Robin would have plenty of cards in early set in 1994, but sadly he didn't get a card in the 94 Select series, which was a lot cooler looking than this base set, although there are some cool inserts in the set Robin isn't featured in any of them.  We do get a great photo of Robin at bat and there is a nice quote from coach Garner on the back, but it's slim picking on any stats back there.  There is I nice back photo as well, which must be what makes this Select.

1993 Pacific Spanish

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Pacific

Set: Flagship (Spanish)

Card Number: 167

Card Type: Base

Continuing from last post...  Part of Colbey's afforable group break was a box of Pacific's inaugural release in 1993. Pacific attempted to fill niche that Topps had tried before by marketing their set specifically to the Spanish speaking markets.   I already had a couple copies of this card, but it was nice to receive a pack fresh copy for the collection as well.  I like the overall design of the card.  Pacific used shading and angles to try and give the card a more 3D feel.  The cards are colorful and bright and the back features a second player photo.  Pacific also introduced, what would become the very popular, prism cards with this set and had a couple cool inserts  that were not easy to pull falling only about 1 to 2 per box.

All About the Base - 1993 Topps

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 1

Card Type: Base

This year Robin was given honor of being card #1.  I for the life of me can't remember if there was a reason for it or not.  Regardless this would be Robin's final year in the MLB.  We'll get one more base card next year.  Topps issued the set in two series, something they hadn't done in 20 years.  And this set was big, the biggest Topps had ever issued at 825 total cards.  And the gold foil parallel cards first introduced last year were so popular Topps added one to every pack.   Topps also changed up the backs going from the classic horizontal layout to the vertical, which made for reading all those stats just a little bit harder.  They also added a headshot to the back of the card, something that would get carried over to the 1994 set.

1992-93 Pocket Pages

Year: 1992 - 1993

Manufacturer: Pocket Pages Card Show Digest

Card Set: Pocket Pages Card Show Digest Inserts

Card Number: 23

Card Type: Base Magazine Insert

I've had this card in my collection for quite awhile and I always thought it was an insert or bonus card added to packs of 9 pocket pages.  Like a 10 or 25 pack you can pick up at Wal-mart or something like that.  I was curious exactly how they were distributed and there are quite a few cards in the set.  After a little research and checking a little more closely at the copyright on the back of the card I discovered I couldn't have been farther from the truth.  This card was a magazine insert much like the cards that were put into Baseball Card Magazine.   I don't have a personal copy of an issue of Pocket Pages Card Show Digest, but I can assume from the name it was a publication that listed nation wide card shows. I've found a few images to share here and archive for posterity.  In the center of the digest 6 cards were stapled into the middle.  The checklist over at the Trading Card Database looks to be incomplete, but this set alone looks to have over 50 cards in it and there are other Series' as well.  The cards also cover at least all 4 big sports.  Robin was in the November 1992 issue featured below. If you happen to know more about these cards and the magazine/digest they were in feel free to share in the comment and/or post links.

1993 Donruss Triple Play

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Donruss

Set: Triple Play

Card Number: 188

Card Type: Base

If Donruss' flagship baseball was too expensive for you in 1993 Donruss offered and even cheaper alternative in Triple Play.  I'm sure most of us remember good old Triple Play, 1993 marks the second of the three sets released between 1992 and 1994, before Panini resurrected it in 2013.  Simple in design I think I like the 1993 set the best although the 1994 set had a more mainstream look.  There were a couple inserts you could pull, but Triple Play was pretty bare bones.  Black bordered cards are always tough to keep in mint condition and it's the same with this set.  But the black and red borders do look nice.  The back is pretty minimal as well with another player photo, but only one year of stats, a small blurb and trivia question, and sparse personal data.

1993 Topps Stadium Club

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Stadium Club

Card Number: 173

Card Type: Base

The first few years of the Stadium Club brand all kind of look a like, kind of like Upper Deck's early issues, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  The set features full bleed photograph and the player name and logo are tucked away at the bottom the card letting the great crisp photograph do it's job. We even get another great photo on the back.  The card itself begs to be slipped into a 9 pocket page for display and back in 1993 pocket pages were still relatively pricey.  

This was Topps' original premium brand and packs were not cheap compared to the flagship.  Overall a pretty great card.  

1993 Topps Finest

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Finest

Card Number: 192

Card Type: Base

We are lucky that Robin played long enough to be in the inaugural release of Topps Finest. From what I've read Finest was a huge success and I guess we can infer that since Topps has been putting out a Finest set ever since. But back then there weren't 18 types of refractors there was just one and it was super popular.  As a matter of fact Baseball Cardpedia states that it's estimated that there only 30000 base cards for each player produced and about 241 refractors.  That base allocation may seem like a lot, but remember this is 1993, the height of overproduction where card companies boasted that cards were limited to just 100,000 copies!

By today's standards this card isn't rare.  But it's refractor parallels are and are highly sought after, As a matter of fact collector Phil Gold has a website documenting his hoarding quest and realized real time prices.  Robin's refractor goes for about $70 raw and almost $250 for a graded Mint 9.

Me I'm a simple man and I'm more than happy to just have Robin's base card.  Although I still keep my eye out for a reasonable refractor. 

1993 Score - 1992 Season Highlight

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Score

Card Set: Baseball

Card Number 519

Card Type: Base (sub-set)

Subset: 1992 Season Highlight

Last post I featured Robin's newest card in the collecting world honoring one of his greatest playing achievements. So lets take a time warp about to 1993 and feature a card celebrating the same feat.  Score's early baseball sets were huge and the reason they were so huge was sub-sets like this one.  Insert sets were just starting to gain popularity, but not at Score.  And while most of Scores designs from the late 80's and early 90's were fairly boring, they did have some great sub-sets.

At the time Robin would become the 17th player to reach the 3000 hit milestone.  Since then 12 other players have joined the club.  Most recently Derek Jeter in 2011 and Alex Rodriguez this year. 

1993 Fleer

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Fleer

Set: Fleer Baseball (Flagship)

Card Number: 260

Card Type: Base

Oh Fleer... The 1993 set isn't much to right home to mom about.  I think the gray borders were suppose to look like silver and give the set a touch of class.  As it is it just looks like a plain one color border.  It's a nice candid picture of Robin sitting in the dugout.  What's he doing there?  Signing autographs, telling the rookie to get out of his way, pointing at the squirrel running across the field? 

Who knows?

It's kind of sad the back of the card is more interesting than the front though.  If you had any question what Robin's last name was.. well here you go.  I do like the action shot on the back and the horizontal layout.  I'm not a big fan of the card number being in the bottom right hand corner, simply because I'm a collator and that makes collating your set in a box difficult.  It's also interesting how Fleer decided to display the stats.  Fleer only put 12 years of stats on the back and then divided those states by 5 years, 4 years, and then the 3 most recent years.  Why?  I'm sure only the graphic designer knows.

This would be Robin's last year in baseball before he retired, but Fleer would issue a 1994 card for him as well.

1993 Upper Deck

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: Baseball (Flagship)

Card Number: 587

Card Type: Base

There's really nothing like a great Upper Deck card.  I really do miss them in the baseball card market.  1993 marks a turning point for Upper Deck and a departure from what the previous 4 year's cards looked like.  Gone is the diamond logo on the front and while the cards still have a white border you can see Upper Deck inching toward using a borderless full bleed design that it's later issues would use.

The card has a great photo on the front.  Robin's obviously just hit a dinger, was it a fly out, home run, single, double, triple?  Who knows? But we can see him with his eyes on the ball and taking off for first.

The back of the cards only gives you 5 years of stats, but a nice big back photo.  This would mark the last regular issue Upper Deck card for Robin, but he would get some tribute cards the next two years.  And he has a few inserts in this year's set.

1993 Upper Deck SP

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: SP

Card Number: 72

Card Type: Base

I know I've brought this up many times, but Robin's career ended just as things were starting to heat up in the baseball card market.  The cardboard one-up-manship started right around now with card companies trying to one-up the other with different gimmicks.  They started offering higher end products, not like today, but still a lot pricier then their flagship products.  

1993 marks the inaugural year of SP, a brand that Upper Deck still puts out.  This set also has probably the most iconic rookie card of the 90's, Derek Jeter's and his rookie card carries about 95% of the value of the set.

Still Robin does have a few cards scattered around the various higher end sets from this time, SP included.

1993 Highland Mint Bronze card

Manufacturer: Highland Mint

Set: The Highland Mint Baseball Collection

Year:  1993

Number: 223

Type: Bronze Mint Card

Serial Number 1511/5000

Found another great oddball while digging through the collection. This time it's a 1993 Highland Mint - Bronze 1975 Topps Mint-Card.

The "card" comes in this neat portfolio.

You can see that the product was produced with Topps, MLB, and the MLBPA.

Another cool thing is the number on the bottom of the spine, 1511, is the serial number of the piece.

There's a little bit of wear and tear on the inside spine of the case.

The cards come in a thick lucite holder and are very nicely done.  The bronze edition is limited to 5000.
There is also a silver edition of this card according to the Standard Catalog.  The silver card are limited to 1,000 copies and have 4.25 troy ounces of silver in them. I thought that there was also a gold level issued, but I that might just have been for the 1994 Michael Jordan set.

Each piece come with it's own COA as well.

The MSRP for these was $50 for the bronze back in 1993 and $235 for the silver. Both cards can go for much less now, with bronze cards ranging in book price from $15 to 50 depending on the player.  Robins card back in the 2011 Catalog booked for about $40.

1993 Diamond Marks Inserts Terry Smith Collection

Card Manufacturer: Colla Collection

Card Set: Diamond Marks - Bookmarkers by Terry Smith

Year: 1993

Card Number: NNO

Card Type: Base

These cards were inserted into packs of Diamond Marks Bookmarkers, And they fell one per 48 count box.  You might recognize the art work from the 1991 and 1992  Fleer Baseball Provisions insert.  The artist is Terry Smith, who produced a lot of art for Fleer sets in the 90's. You can see his website HERE.

The set consists of only 8 players and the Standard Catalog has these priced pretty high. The whole set books for about $50. Yeah I know, I don't put much value in book value, but it's just a guide folks. I guess falling one per box is a pretty decent hit.

1993 Donruss Masters of the Game Postcard

Card Manufacturer: Donurss

Card Set: Masters of the Game

Year: 1993

Card Number: 15

Card Type: Postcard

I had previously talked about that I house my main collection in two, three row monster boxes. But I have lots of odd ball Yount items that I have to put in other locations.  I've been reorganizing and trying to get most of the oversized oddball stuff together and make sure it's been logged on my inventory spreadsheet and on my collections page here.  And then while digging I always seem to find a cool card that I forgot about. And while I may have forgotten about this card, I did have it inventoried.

According to the Standard Catalog these cards were retail exclusives available only at Wal-Mart in 1993. The set consists of 16 players and all the big names from 1993 are here. Ripken, Griffey, Thomas to name a few, and of course Robin.  I'm a huge fan of Dick Perez and I've slowly been trying to put together a set of Diamond Kings from 1982 forward.  These cards are standard postcard size of 3.5 x 5 inches and even have a place on the back to write a note and put a stamp. These remind me of the Action All-Stars from the 80's, but these look a lot better.  

1993 Diamond Marks

Card Manufacturer: Colla Collection

Card Set: Diamond Marks 

Year: 1993

Card Number: NNO

Card Type: Base

If you're like me, you like reading. And when you stop reading you need to mark your page. Sure you can dog ear a page or lay the book open, but most of us like using bookmarks. And what better way to mark you page than with a bookmark featuring a baseball star in 1993?  

Well Barry Colla made that possible with his Diamond Marks.  These were marketed as bookmarks not baseball cards, but lets be honest, they're baseball cards. Around the same time we saw the return of the tall boy format cards with Gameday Football and Basketball and widevision cards. These really were no different and we knew it.  I don't ever remember seeing these on the shelves and they only came out in 1993. They are sharp looking cards though. Great photography, book theme on the back.

There are 120 cards in the set and there are  Terry Smith Art card inserts falling about one per box. However none of the cards are numbered. So most checklists have these cards numbered how they fall alphabetically. Sometimes you see them grouped by team and numbered.  The Standard Catalog has this as number 93, COMC has it listed as 119.

Barry Colla put out other sets in the early nineties as well. The Standard Catalog list 13 other issues not counting the Diamond Marks, mainly postcards.

Teeny Tiny Younts

If you read this blog or my main blog, Collector's Crack, you know I'm a sucker for oddballs and mini's.

I've got a few examples of micro and super micro cards from the Yount collection.

From 1991 to 1993 Topps put out a set of Micro cards.  These came out as a factory set in a tiny little box.

In 1991 Cracker Jacks also put mini cards in it's boxes.

On the left we have the Topps Micro and on the right the Cracker Jacks card, I've put the regular Topps card in the middle for reference.

In 1992 Cracker Jacks decided to do another baseball card offering, but this time with Donruss cards.  You can see that the Cracker Jacks cards used different photos for their cards than the base Donruss set.

Here we have the 1992 Topps Micro Cards.  

In 1993 Topps also inserted 12 Prism cards with each set and if you have a favorite player from this set, he's got a micro prism parallel.

There you go, by far the smallest Yount cards I own.  Topps had put out mini cards before and even super jumbo cards, but this 3 year experiment saw Topps work that far end of the size spectrum.  But then again back in the early nineties going micro was all the rage.  I'm glad Topps got away from these micro cards.  There hard to enjoy being so small and I can see them getting lost in a collection.  The 1993 set also introduced a new technology that we still see to day, but oddly enough Topps didn't reuse for quite a long time. Opting to go the foil route instead.