[djohn]

I have the complete set of the Baseball Enquirer cards but didn't know they were listed in Beckett.

It's tough to find them because they aren't listed by player and they are under the Non-Sports section.

[djohn]

One of things I remember fondly as a kid was waiting for a wax box to get nearly empty and then buying the remaining packs, so that I could get the box with them. If you didn't collect cards in the mid to late 80s you might wonder why I would care about the box. Well, it all had to do with the bottom of the box. Card companies started putting actual cards on the bottom of the boxes, hence making the boxes desirable. They typically made a few different versions, so if you wanted them all you had to buy multiple boxes (or patiently wait from them to get low, like I did). One of my favorites was the 1988 Topps Box Bottom with Darryl Strawberry and Howard Johnson on it, as I was a huge Mets can growing up. Hence today's selection is more than just a single card, but the entire box bottom of all 4 cards including Strawberry and HoJo.

[alfredoleal2001]

One of things I remember fondly as a kid was waiting for a wax box to get nearly empty and then buying the remaining packs, so that I could get the box with them. If you didn't collect cards in the mid to late 80s you might wonder why I would care about the box. Well, it all had to do with the bottom of the box. Card companies started putting actual cards on the bottom of the boxes, hence making the boxes desirable. They typically made a few different versions, so if you wanted them all you had to buy multiple boxes (or patiently wait from them to get low, like I did). One of my favorites was the 1988 Topps Box Bottom with Darryl Strawberry and Howard Johnson on it, as I was a huge Mets can growing up. Hence today's selection is more than just a single card, but the entire box bottom of all 4 cards including Strawberry and HoJo.

I dont remember ever checking for the boxes, i guess its because i was 7 around that time. 88 was however the first set i put together with my dad just from buying packs.

[zeprock]

I did the same thing. I'd buy cards just for the boxes. I still have a pile of uncut panels lying around.

[DrMitchJ]

Box bottoms! I forgot about those.
Set #4 is pretty impressive ... Ryan, Schmidt, Henderson ... 3 HOFers!
Also Drakes had a 3 card side panel on their snack cakes ... I just remembered those! Thanks, now I have to look if I saved any of those uncut cards!

[nolan5000]

Box bottoms! I forgot about those.
Set #4 is pretty impressive ... Ryan, Schmidt, Henderson ... 3 HOFers!
Also Drakes had a 3 card side panel on their snack cakes ... I just remembered those! Thanks, now I have to look if I saved any of those uncut cards!

And Hostess and Hostess Twinkies. And Hostess Ding Dongs used to be called King Dons.

[DrMitchJ]

And Hostess and Hostess Twinkies. And Hostess Ding Dongs used to be called King Dons.

Yep, and it was probably Hostess, not Drake. I may have misremembered!

[woogie23]

Around 1990 I found a 1985? Donruss box bottom that has Ryno on it at a card show. Probably paid $5 for it then. At the time I had no way of keeping it stored, so I found a smaller picture frame and kept it in that for the longest time. heh

[nolan5000]

Yep, and it was probably Hostess, not Drake. I may have misremembered!

No, Drake had them too.

[djohn]

I always love when a card company tries something cool and different. That is one reason the 90s were one of the best times for collecting cards. One of the more annoying things card companies did in the 90s was to make parallels of inserts that were extremely difficult to tell apart unless you knew what to look for. Fleer and Score were some of the worst with this. What makes it worse is that the odds for some of these cards were insanely high, so during the 90s you might not have ever even seen one to know what to look for. In 1997 Score did a insert set called "Franchise", which in itself was a nice looking set. They also made a parallel of the insert set called "Glowing" using glow in the dark ink. Glow in the dark cards sounds really cool, and they are when you can find find them. These cards were inserted around 1 in 10 boxes, making them very difficult to find. On top of that when you did pull one you had to hold it up to a light then take it into the dark to see if it glowed. You could tell them apart if you knew the subtle difference in the ink, but if you had never seen one before you couldn't be certain until you did the light test. Today's card is the 1997 Score Franchise Glowing card of Cal Ripken Jr. If you have one of the regular ones and didn't know about the glowing parallel, you might want to try the light test to see if you got one of these rare parallels.