[ricky williams 34]

The difference is a little more than that. The 1998 "No Protector" Refractor does not have the coating, however, if this was the only difference than you could just remove the coating and call it the "No Protector" refractor which was a little more rare. The best way to tell the difference is to look at the back of the "Refractor" and "No Protector Refractor." The back of the "Refractor" has a refractor print while the back of the "No Protector" has a foil-refractor print. If they are side by side you could tell the difference.

Damn those '98 cards. Thanks for clarifying the years for me elway! The site is lagging so badly right now I didn't want to take enough time to look everything up. Should have just checked elsewhere...
(...but now you have me wondering why I've seen some of the 99 Finest slabbed as "no protector." Now that I've seen the 98 base has a no-protector subset as well, and it's not just the refractors, why would the 99's be like that?? Someone at Beckett and PSA was confused apparently.)
Those were some of the last years we actually had small differences like that. Whatever happened to those? Now it's 17 versions of foil and serial numbers?? I like the little details.