Rodney's Cardboard:1997 Pinnacle Inside Gridiron Gold

The first Rodney of the New Year comes thanks to my friend Tim @CardpocalypseNC.

Today's card is not an easy one to find. In my almost five years of collecting Rodney, I have only seen this one twice. Once I missed, a second time I wasn't going to. Which is where Tim came in with the save.

These silver foil cards are die cut, with a gold foil touch and fall 1:63 packs or in Pinnacle Inside terms, cans.

 

The back is the same other than the parallel name.

Thanks again to Tim for the help.

Have a great Sunday!

Groundhog Day Part 2

Today will be different....today will be different.....today will be.....

Nope. So far, same routine, same day as yesterday.

Same goes for today's post, same-well sorta-post as yesterday.

Yesterday I showcased a bunch of unopened cans and promised to open one today.

I had many to choose from but I like to keep the better ones sealed so I chose the lesser of them and went with Juan Gonzalez.

Not that he was a bad player himself.

Juan was a 3X All-Star, 2X AL MVP, and is in the Texas Rangers Hall Of Fame. But still doesn't get enough hobby respect. So you know what that means, he is the chosen one here.

Inside of each can there is 10 cards with random inserts from easy to hard to find. Cans at the time were roughly $2.99 each.

In order to open one of these, you don't need to fingers, you need two hands and a can opener. Hopefully some soup isn't in here.

Make sure to only open these with Adult Supervision. I made sure my wife, a nurse, was nearby. You just never know.

Here is what you find on the inside. Won't need to make any grilled cheese today.

After pulling out the pack, we find Atlanta Braves catcher Javier Lopez as the top card. I find it interesting to see the stats on the front of the card. I actually don't mind it as the design is solid and makes the stats fit.

Now to carefully open up the pack.....

 

Card 1 was as I stated, Javier Lopez, or Javy Lopez as most of us knew him by played for the Braves for roughly 12 years and was sort of a face of the team alongside their incredible pitching aces.

The base set in 1998 Pinnacle Inside is built up of 150 cards. That included rookies, Inside Tip subset and a couple of checklists. Most of the base set is veterans.

PC HIT! Can't ever go wrong finding a Junior. Pretty sure I have this one but I like looking back at the stats of a man who did it the right way.

I always forget that Chan Ho Park played with the Yankees at one point. I always remember him as a Dodger.  It's probably because most of his career was spent there while he bounced around towards the end of it.

Painting The Corner is a subset. Nothing to special looking about the card other than it featuring one of those Braves aces I spoke about above with Greg Maddux.

And speaking of Braves aces....John Smoltz was my friends favorite pitcher on the Braves back when he was a Braves fan. He moved to Mass a long time ago and became a *gag* Red Sox fan. But I remember playing backyard baseball with him and he loved it when Smotlz came up in his "rotation". I didn't . For some reason or another the days he was Smoltz was the days I couldn't hit. We used to keep stats on all of this. Not sure where those ever went.

Barry Larkin looking pretty cool here. He was a great player who just played for the Reds and was under the radar I think because of it.

Stand Up guys insert. These fall one-per-pack. The top is the front the bottom is the back. This card may look confusing to you, but its a puzzle. You gotta find the second part and slide it into the slot to complete the card that features four players.

Seems like I saw someone who collects Edgardo

Randy Johnson, DA BIG UNIT. If you ever wondered what my father looks like, well Randy in this stage of his career is a good comparison.  The other fun fact about Randy is when I played as him in my backyard battles with my friend Brian, I would dominate. My fastball had some extra spin on it those days.

We do the Hokey Pokey Reese and turn ourselves around....

Here's the inner flyer that I found in the pack as well. If this existed today, I would so join in on Team Pinnacle. Sounded like a lot of fun. Too bad companies don't do something like this today. Once again this is just something that proves why the 90's were the best.

No big insert or parallel finds in this break, but I always enjoy a trip down memory lane.

There is a difference between revisiting a memory time and time again vs living every day the same. I hope the fact that I opened a can today and showed its contents instead of just showing off the cans again, that it will break the worldwide curse of the Groundhog Covid-19 Day.

If not, had fun regardless and wouldn't mind re-living the day again to do another.

Groundhog Day Part 1

Since the Coronavirus pandemic, I feel like my life has been similar to Bill Murray's in Groundhog Day.

Waking up with the same routines, feeling like daily life has stopped and staying home day after day after day after...well, you get the point.

There doesn't simply feel like an end to the madness. Maybe we all need to be better people to put this nightmare to an end sort of like Bill in Groundhog Day. And by being better people, that means to stay home.

Like I have been.

Luckily for now, the mail system is still going strong, but very slow. At least, for now, its there and helping keep my mind off from all of the madness. If the mail was to stop like rumors are saying it will in June, I may go crazy.

I want to at least get my daily bills and junk mail. Cards haven't been coming in at an alarming rate anymore like they once were when I was able to trade but occasionally trickle in. Something is better than nothing.

A couple of weeks ago among this madness a unique mail day arrived that brought me back. Of course I didn't open it right away because of the virus as I usually let my mail sit for a few days now. Though nothing has been proven that mail is a carrier of the virus. It's better not to test fate, let it sit and be patient even though it isn't always easy.

This mail day brought back some great memories. Those memories from 1998.

Much simpler times in my life then.

I was in my freshman year of high school. My father and I were still collecting heavily together and did our weekly check-ins at the local arts and crafts store that carried product for us. As soon as payday hit, we went there.

So it was a Friday in 1998 and we were headed to town to run errands for my mother. And by errands on a pay day, I know what we were really doing so I was more than happy to tag along. As I expected, we had to make a stop at that arts and crafts store. As we looked the shelving unit over that held the cards upfront, we noticed that the middle shelf had a product we recognized from the year before. The one and only card in a can, Pinnacle Inside.

1997 Pinnacle Inside was a product we sought out heavily. We bought so many cans we were able to complete the entire can set opened. Except one can, we kept our Ken Griffey Jr can sealed which I still have sealed today along with the rest of the can set. So we knew what we were in for when we saw the 1998 version.

First can we bought for 1998, was Junior just to keep it sealed. We then grabbed a McGwire and Sosa cans to open. Which led to two problems, one how in the world were we going to sneak these into the house past my mother who hated collecting and us buying cards. Two, how were we going to open them in the car without a can opener? Fortunately, my grandmother lived just a few minutes away so we went there and borrowed her can opener.

Now I know many collectors thought it was a stupid idea and concept. I actually was in support of the idea and enjoyed the uniqueness it brought. The uniqueness that the 90's brought is like no other.

If you haven't picked up on what I am getting at, that mail day I spoke above about is some unopened cans of 1998 Pinnacle Inside. Well, there was also some bonus can as well.

There was 8 unopened 1998 Pinnacle Inside cans overall and one from Pacific. I never knew up until recent that a Upper Deck and Pacific had their own variation of the cans as well. But neither touched what Pinnacle brought forth.

Here was the design of the front of the can. It also gives away what the base card design is as well. Each can came with 10 cards.

This is what I was thought was ingenious about these cans, for ingredients they put "Product Facts" and broke down odds, etc.

The other side of the can.

Here are the other cards that were in the lot,

Mark McGwire...nostalgia overload!

Remember when they arrived?

Cal Ripken jr

Mike Piazza

Greg Maddux

Remember when the Marlins were good? Feels like decades ago.

I should have stuck Clemens next to Piazza....

And the one Pacific can. I believe it is just a set which isn't even as cool as a real product being packed into a can. At least it has Griffey Jr....

Another side of that can.

and another side of it. Really bland in comparison to Pinnacle Inside.

What's next for these cans? Most will be used for display but I will open one. Which is why this is Part 1 of my Groundhog Day.

So don't fret if you see my next post and see something about 1998 Pinnacle Inside cans. It's done on purpose. You aren't reading a repeat and living the same day over. Well, maybe you are if you are me or simply you just clicked the same link to read this again.

Random Card On My Desk:1998 Pinnacle Inside Janeth Arcain

That 90's Card:1997 Pinnacle Inside Fourth&Goal Dan Marino

Featured NY Giants Card

 

Tiki Barber

Pinnacle Inside 1997 (RC)

Card # 121

Random Card Of The Day: Pinnacle Inside Cans 1997

Cards in a can you ask? Why yes... I know some people thought the innovations of the 90's were sometimes crazy and most didn't care for them. But what you gotta look at is the fact that this was a very popular era of collecting and one in which I joined the collecting world. This is an innovation I really enjoyed. I tried to chase down any of them I could find.

They did these cans for baseball (I have the set) , Football, WNBA. and hockey. The cans also came in gold parallel versions. The cards were unique inside with a variety of parallels and inserts. I wished some of the innovations like this would come back to now-a-days. The cans were only made in 1997-1998.

Card Show Breaks: Pinnacle Inside 97, Upper Deck Holo GR Fx 99 and 98 Fleer Tradition Football

Along with the great singles I bought..I found some 50 cent packs. Here is a break of 13 cans of Pinnacle Inside Football, 1 pack each of Upper Deck Holo GR fx 99 and 98 Fleer Tradition Football.

Loved the design on some of these

Big Odds of landing this..1:63

Worth $30!!

Upper Deck Holo GR Fx break 99:

 

Never realized that this Fleer Tradition was 98 til after opening it..I landed a top picks rookie..too bad it wasn't the first overall pick and instead was the 2nd..Ryan Leaf...

Overall, not bad looking cards. I was and still am a huge fan of the "cards in a can".

Flashback: Pinnacle Inside Baseball

John Smoltz is the '97 version and Ripken Jr is '98

Gold Can Version of Vlad Guerrero

Each can came with a pack of cards inside. You would have to open the can like a can of soup. Each pack came with roughly 5 cards and cans ran around $2.99 at that time. There were randomly inserted autograph cards, inserts and more.

This was one innovation I loved and I wished could be brought back. The first year they came out, I collected every can from the set. The '98 set I could not put together.But I did managed to find a Gold can that were randomly inserted and hard to find. I still own 4 cans that are not opened. Sometimes the temptation is there....but don't think I will ever do it.

Do any of you own these unique items? Do you wish they could come back? Do you wish companies had the same kind of innovations now?