The Baseball Card that Changed Collecting Forever
There have been a handful of moments in the trading card and collectibles hobby that changed the hobby forever. The inclusion of the first trading cards in packages of cigarettes in the late 1800’s. The first ‘packs’ of cards in the 1930’s. Topps entering the hobby in the 1950’s. Etc…
The early 1990’s had 2 of these moments almost at the same time right in the midst of the overproduction of the ‘junk wax’ era. The first pack-inserted autograph was one of these moments. But collectors had been having their favorite players sign cards for decades at this point, so this was probably an inevitable evolution of the hobby.
The other moment? The refractor.
For decades sets had one version of each card (ignoring the errors, international or otherwise). That changed when the 1993 Topps Finest set landed with 2 versions of each card, a base card and a shiny refractor parallel. This was the first time a variation of a collectible card made it’s way to the hands of collectors.
Collectors today are well-accustomed to all sorts of parallels that range from colors of the rainbow (gold, purple) to animal print (snakeskin, zebra) to natural phenomena (ice, lava, prism, mojo?) and others.
The set was otherwise unspectacular, but the hobby significance of the first refractor parallel and the short-printed nature of the card (limited to an estimated 241 copies each) has kept the set in high demand more than 30 years later. There are no significant rookies in the set, but the chase cards are the usual suspects for 1993 - Griffey Jr., Ryan, Ripken Jr., Piazza, etc.
The 1993 Topps Finest set has had a lasting impact on the trading card and collectibles hobby. The introduction of the refractor parallel opened the floodgates for a new era of creativity and innovation in card design, paving the way for the diverse and vibrant landscape of parallels we see today.
Patrick is a lifelong sportscards and collectables fan. He's passionate about the Mets and Eagles (yes, really), pre-war tobacco and caramel cards, and writing. You can follow his often neglected account at @pg.sportscards