Unreleased 1998 Select, Pinnacle Certified Baseball Cards Create Feast for Player Collectors
When Pinnacle Brands went under in 1998, the bankruptcy came suddenly to some. Several products were working their way though the production pipeline in varying states of completion. Some of those unreleased 1998 Pinnacle baseball sets were almost done — at least to the point where they were actually printed.
Not surprisingly, a small number of those cards have surfaced on the secondary market in the two decades since the company closed. Usually, it’s a trickle coming to light here and there.
A sizeable stash of unreleased 1998 Select, 1998 Pinnacle Certified and 1998 Epix baseball cards have landed on eBay.
And player collectors are circling, hoping to fill in some gaps with cards that are near mythical in their scarcity.
Listed on consignment through PWCC, the 1998 Pinnacle bankruptcy test issue cards highlight a couple of different brands with base cards, parallels and inserts.
Leading the early bidding is a 1998 Pinnacle Certified Mirror Gold Derek Jeter, which quickly surged past $3,000. Not far behind is a 1998 Select Rare Form Ken Griffey Jr. Well over a dozen cards and lots have surpassed $500 already. Bidding doesn’t end until Wednesday, December 13.
In total, PWCC has 50 listings of post-bankruptcy Pinnacle cards. Most are singles, but there are some three-card lots and sets of unreleased 1998 Epix inserts.
“This is the most unique and intriguing assembly of modern cards we’ve brokered in recent years,” said PWCC’s Brent Huigens. “Offerings like this simply don’t surface very often.”
As per company policy, Huigens wasn’t able to reveal who the consignor was but did say that what is currently listed is all of their collection as far as he understood.
In case you were wondering what might have been with 1998 Certified Baseball and 1998 Select Baseball, here are some samples from the PWCC auction.
1998 Pinnacle Certified Baseball
Base
Certified Future
Certified Legends
Mirror Gold
Mirror Red
Red
1998 Select Baseball
Quasar System
Rare Form
Also listed were a handful of three-card lots of 1998 Epix inserts as well as full sets. These were cross-brand inserts found in a handful of different 1998 Pinnacle baseball releases. The ones here have different images and were never offered in packs. The were likely set to appear in 1998 Pinnacle Certified.
Comments? Questions? Contact Ryan Cracknell on Twitter @tradercracks or by email.
I bought a Roberto Alomar Mirror Red from the test issue shortly after they went BK. There are some base score 1/1’s floating out there too.
These are incredible– especially for collector’s who remember the mid to late 1990’s.
I wish modern card brands would find other ways of giving collectors rarity and value without having game-used, autographs, or thirty-five different parallels in one product.