1999 Topps Series 2 Baseball features a 220-card base set. The base design … I wouldn’t say it was one of the best of the ’90s. It features gold borders and gold foil player names. Not the most attractive of designs, but not far from the 1998 design either.

Back then, Topps featured a legend in each release, including reprints of their playing-era Topps cards. Nolan Ryan was the player selected for 1999. You can pull many different reprint cards in Series 2, along with the corresponding chromium Finest reprints and Refractors! There were three other inserts to find, including the amazing foil All-Matrix cards.

Were there autographs to find back in 1999? Yes. Were they easy to find? Absolutely not. The Series 2 autograph checklist features just eight cards, and they were found just once in every 501 packs!

1999 Topps Series 2 Baseball Box Break 

Cards per pack: 11
Packs per box: 36
Price paid: $50

• Shop for 1999 Topps Series 2 Baseball boxes on eBay | Amazon
• Shop for 1999 Topps Series 2 Baseball cards on eBay | Amazon | Beckett Marketplace

This one was bought a long, long time ago. Boxes today sell for around $100

Pack 1 highlights:

Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Edgar Renteria, Jose Offerman, Luis Gonzalez, Craig Biggio, Jeromy Burnitz and Paul O’Neill

Pack 2:

Travis Fryman, Chris Carpenter and Nolan Ryan Finest Reprints (1:72 packs)

The Nolan Ryan Finest Reprints are also available in Refractor parallels, which fall just once in every four boxes.

Pack 3:

Barry Larkin, David Justice, John Franco, Larry Walker and Larry Wayne “Chipper” Jones

Pack 4:

Jim Thome, Hideo Nomo, Nomar Garciaparra, Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez and Frank Thomas

Pack 5:

Bill Mueller, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou and Barry Bonds

Pack 6:

Troy Glaus and Tom Gordon

Pack 7:

Chili Davis and Jamie Moyer

Pack 8:

Tim Wakefield, Roy Halladay and Halladay All-Matrix (1:18 packs)

I was in attendance in Philadelphia in 2010 to see these two face each other. Wakefield out-dueled Halladay, throwing eight shutout innings in an 8-3 Sox win on May 23.

Pack 9:

Travis Fryman, David Ortiz, Chris Carpenter and Dwight Gooden

Pack 10:

Adrian Beltre, Troy O’Leary and Richie Sexson

Pack 11:

Pokey Reese, Bobby Bonilla, Kevin Brown, Nomar Garciaparra Record Numbers (1:8 packs) and Sammy Sosa HR Parade

Pack 12:

Wade Boggs, Richard Hidalgo, Roberto Alomar and Robin Ventura

Pack 13:

Randy Johnson, Ramon Martinez, Ken Caminiti, Bagwell/Galarraga/McGwire All-Topps and Burrell/Valent Draft Picks

Overshadowed by his younger brother, Pedro, Ramon was a good pitcher himself. Over 301 major league games, he posted a 3.67 career ERA.

Pack 14:

Miguel Tejada, Kearns/George DP, Holliday/Winchester DP, Lidge/Nannini DP and Everett/Ambres DP

I can’t imagine that collation was supposed to group all of these subset cards together.

Pack 15:

Five All-Topps subset cards. More weird collation!

Pack 16:

Eric Chavez, Mike Hampton and another five All-Topps

Pack 17:

Jay Buhner, Roger Clemens Strikeout Kings, Kerry Wood K, Curt Schilling K, Randy Johnson K, Pedro Martinez K, Al Leiter and Nolan Ryan Reprints (1:18 packs)

Pack 18:

Tim Salmon, Jeff Kent, Cal Ripken Jr. and a trio of Prospects cards including A.J. Burnett, Vernon Wells and Doug Mientkiewicz

Pack 19:

Tom Glavine, Tony Clark, Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and another trio of Prospects trios

Pack 20:

Rickey Henderson, Bernie Williams, Curt Schilling, Sandy Alomar Jr. and three more Prospects

Pack 21:

Bobby Bonilla, Kevin Brown, Pokey Reese, Richie Sexson, Troy O’Leary and Adrian Beltre

Sexson cleared the 30-homer mark six times during his career.

Pack 22:

Wade Boggs, Roberto Alomar and Sammy Sosa HR Parade

The Sosa is technically a base card. Card #461 was made in 66 different variations, one for each home run Sosa hit in 1998. Topps did the same for Mark McGwire in Series 1, but he had 70 versions.

Pack 23:

Ken Caminiti, Robin Ventura, Richard Hidalgo, Ramon Martinez, Randy Johnson and Bagwell/Big Cat/McGwire AT

Pack 24:

Miguel Tejada and four dupe Draft Picks duos

Pack 25:

Piazza/Rodriguez/Kendall AT, Clemens/Maddux/Wood AT, Kearns/George DP, Roger Clemens Record Numbers (1:8 packs) and Nolan Ryan Reprints (1:18 packs)

Pack 26:

Eight, count them, eight All-Topps subset cards in one pack!

Pack 27:

John Franco, Hideo Nomo, Eric Chavez and Mike Hampton

Pack 28:

Pedro Martinez K, Randy Johnson K, Curt Schilling K, Kerry Wood K, Roger Clemens K, Jeff Kent, Tim Salmon, Al Leiter and Jay Buhner

Pack 29:

Wally Joyner, Cliff Floyd, Mark Grace, Steve Finley, Orlando Hernandez and Raul Mondesi

Pack 30:

John Smoltz, Dante Bichette, Larry Walker, Chipper Jones and Kerry Wood Record Numbers (1:8 packs)

Pack 31:

Hideo Nomo, John Franco, Ivan Rodriguez, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, David Justice and Barry Larkin

Pack 32:

Bill Mueller, Moises Alou, Barry Bonds, Nomar Garciaparra and Mike Piazza

Pack 33:

Carlos Delgado, Troy Glaus and Orlando Hernandez All-Matrix (1:18 packs)

Pack 34:

Tom “Flash” Gordon and Jamie Moyer

Pack 35:

Chili Davis and an All-Topps Mystery Finest. These card fronts were covered by a black coating that could be removed to show the featured player

This specific card features third basemen and could be Vinny Castilla, Chipper Jones or Scott Rolen

Scott Rolen it is! These do take some muscle to remove after all these years!

Pack 36:

Roy Halladay, Tim Wakefield, David Ortiz and Doc Gooden

This is what could be expected from a hobby box back in the late ’90s. No relics. No autographs. No serial-numbered parallels. Much more simple than any release today. Which is better? That is for you to decide for yourself!

Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.

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• Penny Sleeves — Amazon | Target | eBay | Fanatics
• Top Loaders — Amazon | Target | eBay | Fanatics
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• 9-Pocket Card Pages — Amazon | Target | eBay

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