UPDATED: Weird Pack Break - 1993 Baseball Aces Playing Cards - Odd/Amazing Hit?
 

So I had this pack of 1993 Baseball Aces Playing Cards sitting around for forever -- and a friend wanted to play some cards. Not being able to locate a deck of playing cards, I figured, what the heck.

The deck is set up with different players representing different cards. Now the interesting part: the two wild cards:

[IMG]http://www.foundationcharityauctions.com/J1.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://www.foundationcharityauctions.com/J2.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://www.foundationcharityauctions.com/C1.jpg[/IMG]

I've done some research, and can't find either any other examples of a signed card coming out of this release -- or any proof they did a special insert set with this. (The one wild card was also in the center of the deck, which is extremely odd for playing card collation.)

Any thoughts/comments? I thought it was pretty cool. But would love more information if anyone had it!

I have no idea, but a great place to find people who might know about this card is the PSA boards. There are a handful of crazy Cal collectors there that might have an idea

Can I ask you for the link to that board?

Wouldn't it be something if it was accidentally inserted -- an aborted marketing attempt?

Hopefully it's not against policy here on these boards to post links to other sites, but I've found the people there to be very useful in getting information about rare issues:

[url=http://www.psacard.com/message_boards.chtml]PSA Message Boards[/url]

If you go to the set registry board, there's usually a thread on the first page for Cal Ripken. In fact, here's a link to that thread:

[url]http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=579324[/url]

There are autographs in this! I'm not sure they came with COA's so you may have a super pull!

Any idea how rare / how many of them there were? I can't even find an article on their being autos in this set, let alone an example of someone selling one.

Thanks - I love this board, you guys are fantastic.

in my big beckett it states

"A few players signed some limited cards for this set. Due to market scarcity, those cards are unpriced but more information is greatly appreciated."

It lists autographs of Ripken (Wild Card), Pendleton (3 Diamonds), and Fred McGriff (Jack of Clubs)

It might even be worth an email submission to beckett.

That sucker is rare, I know a big time / big mouth Ripken collector and he didn't know it existed until I sent him this link.

Thanks for the heads up on Beckett -- do I just use their general Customer Service address, or is there a special email to use?

crazy pull!

[QUOTE=esaslo;508732]Thanks for the heads up on Beckett -- do I just use their general Customer Service address, or is there a special email to use?[/QUOTE]

general email I would assume.

Is there a chance that this is Cal's first authorized autographed insert card? I was doing some research and couldn't find anything from him prior to 1997.

(Wouldn't it be something if this was _the_ first; i.e., he only signed one of these for Baseball Aces?)

I sent an email to Beckett -- sent it to the editor, rather than customer service -- figured it'd have a better chance of not being lost in the ether.

wow, that is pretty amazing. I wonder if he signed 1 wild card or 2... would be interesting to track down some information on this product.... very cool

I remember this pack of playing cards back in the day I had about five decks of these and I ended up giving them to my cousin's. My luck I gave away an auto lol!!!!. Congrats on the great pull that is going to be worth a hole lot of greenbacks.

BOPG doesn't show a value for the Ripken AU.

Interesting -- none of the Autos has been graded by PSA -- around 8 of the non-auto'd Ripkens have been graded.

[QUOTE=esaslo;508948]Is there a chance that this is Cal's first authorized autographed insert card? I was doing some research and couldn't find anything from him prior to 1997.

(Wouldn't it be something if this was _the_ first; i.e., he only signed one of these for Baseball Aces?)

I sent an email to Beckett -- sent it to the editor, rather than customer service -- figured it'd have a better chance of not being lost in the ether.[/QUOTE]


He actually had a Donruss Elite auto before then. It was either 91 or 92 (the gold ones)


This card is awesome though.....I remember when Big Lots used to have those decks for 25 cents each....wish I wouldve known there were autos in them!

At 25 cents each it would have been better than lottery tickets!

It's just awful there's no clean information on the autos anywhere.

Thanks for the direction on the other autos -- found one on eBay, 92.

[QUOTE=iluvfish2;508709]in my big beckett it states

"A few players signed some limited cards for this set. Due to market scarcity, those cards are unpriced but more information is greatly appreciated."

It lists autographs of Ripken (Wild Card), Pendleton (3 Diamonds), and Fred McGriff (Jack of Clubs)

It might even be worth an email submission to beckett.[/QUOTE]

I sold a Greg Maddux on ebay about 4 years ago... it was not a Wild card, but I can't remember what the card number/suit was. I sold it as having been issued, but I could find no offical substantiation, so I offered a 45 day refund to allow for authenticity, and never got the card back; I suspect the purchaser still has a VERY rare card. If anyone ever finds out all of the cards that were "decked out", I believe that a completed set would be extremely difficult to assemble.

Can I inquire as to how much you sold the Maddux for?

Does it say anywhere on the card that it is autographed? Or is the autographed one any different than the non-auto? Besides the graph that is.

Just what you see in those two pictures I posted -- they're exactly the same, save for the autograph.

That's awesome. Who said you can't get stuff out of early 90's wax.......... at least on a rare occasion!

[QUOTE=esaslo;509972]Can I inquire as to how much you sold the Maddux for?[/QUOTE]

Like your Avatar, it was for peanuts... lol -I don't remember exactly, but I am thinking between $25-35...

[QUOTE=MoonlightGraham;510235]Like your Avatar, it was for peanuts... lol -I don't remember exactly, but I am thinking between $25-35...[/QUOTE]

I guess I should seriously consider the offer I got of $4,000.00 then?