Dare To Tear

I gotta admit, some of my biggest influences for what I purchase or trade for comes from other collectors. Just when I think I have my mind set on finishing up a project, I will see a card or hear a whisper and I jump. So instead of finishing up or trying to head that way with a project, I continue to create more projects than I can handle. But, isn't that the fun of the hobby?

This happened to me just a month or so ago when Mario from The Baseball Card Blog and Wax Heaven fame, tweeted out about 1998 Zenith baseball and its Dare To Tear program and my 90's radar went off. I had to look up the product as I didn't remember what was involved since it has been over 20 years since I had opened a pack.

In every pack of 1998 Zenith, there were three 5x7 cards. Inside of each of those cards embedded was a standard size card and there you have FIRST EVER RIP cards in the hobby industry. Move over Allen and Ginter. It was up to you whether you wanted to keep the jumbo card as is, or explore and rip it open to see what treasure could be hiding inside which included multiple inserts and levels of them.

The fact alone I have always wanted a RIP card and it being from the 90's, I had to grab a pack at least. But, looking for a pack actually ended up landing me a whole box. Yup. I went crazy.

The problem was, once I got the box in hand, I couldn't figure out how I wanted to approach having these packs. Did I want to open them all? Keep some sealed for the memories? Keep them all sealed as a collectible? Well, I decided in the end, I had to at least open a pack. I had to dare to tear the pack open.

Here's my rip,

 

In every pack of 1998 Zenith baseball, you found three 5x7 cards with each one having a card inside of it.  Packs in the 90's went for $5.99 each. Mine was definitely under that cost.

Here is the back of the pack with all the odds info

First card, Larry Walker. You can see/feel the card embedded within.

Second card is Jeff Abbott

Final Card was Tony Gwynn. So not a bad RIP.

Now the question becomes, did I DARE TO TEAR.......

 

Here is the DARE TO TEAR program paper inside

  

Followed by the tear instructions on the back

After much deliberation, I decided I had to keep the card intact. I just simply cannot destroy a card even though the thoughts of possibly finding a Z-Team or a Epix insert eat me up on the inside. What happens if it's a Griffey Jr need??! 

For now, I did not Dare To Tear. Could I down the road, well, maybe.....or maybe not.

I did mention there were some Bonus cards that came with the box.

A Nomo standard size Z silver parallel card from a ripped one

Bichette standard size base card

Then four 5x7's

 

 

All of these appeared to be unripped.

Cool extras :) just in case by some miracle I decided to rip one.

Some collectors at the time of this products release didn't even RIP the cards as instructed, they used a blade on the back of the card and made a slit long enough to remove the inside card. I don't think my hands are careful enough with my arthritis to try such an adventure. Once again, that would be damaging the card and I wouldn't want to do that.

This kind of technology is why I loved the 90's. We had the first acetate, the first cards on wood, the first RIP cards, holograms, and even the first cards in a can. We even had game used jersey cards...GAME USED. Not to mention all  ON CARD AUTOGRAPHS. This is why I will continue to explore cards from my beginnings more than cards from today. The mid to late 90's had some of the greatest cards around.

Stay tuned as I have another break of another Pinnacle 90's product soon.