I feel a little silly now after gushing on a blog & video about how much I love Pinnacle’s 1997 Totally Certified. Sure, they had some great products and they possibly even invented the “gimmick” card but sometimes their ideas fell on its ass. Two such products were Pinnacle’s 1996 Aficionado and 1998’s Mint.
For starters, let’s go into 1996 Aficionado. The card design was by no means terrible but it relied heavily on a gimmick which included a sketch-like portrait of the baseball player which stuck out physically from the rest of the card. Basically, don’t shave for a few days and that’s what these cards felt like when you rubbed the player’s faces. The problem was when you were forced to explain to your friend why you were rubbing Derek Jeter’s face.
1998 Pinnacle Mint was a product I saw only in retail outlets like Target & Wal-Mart, probably because no respectable card would carry such ugly, pointless cards. If I remember correctly, each pack contained a gold coin with a player on it, one card with a cardboard coin in the card, and a few base cards with holes where the coins should be inserted, if you had said coin. If you bought more than a couple of packs of these you’d mostly just end up with a bunch of cards with holes punched into them.
So here are two examples of Pinnacle releases that failed to live up to the hype. Sure, some of them include some wicked 90’s-style inserts but for most collectors, these are just another two, mostly forgotten releases of the late-90’s that came and went. Aficionado was a one-year product and as far as I know, so was Mint.
I did a spotlight on 98 mint with the coins! OT – i think you will hit 400k visitors by 10/12/08! how cool would that be
Thanks for the comment. It certainly is a possibility considering I quit my job and have a lot of spare time on my hands.
Make sure to visit on the anniversary!
Sorry, I am a shameless self-promoter.
pinnacle mint was also released in 1997. but i totally agree it wasn’t a great set.
Mario when is the anniversary? If you need a job,remember to reach out to me and I’ll hook things up for you in Tampa.Be well my friend.
Just about everything Pinnacle Brands released in 1997-98, with the exception of Score, Pinnacle, and Certified, fell on it’s ass.
I honestly used to skip lunch save my money and collect spare change and go buy packs of those cards when i was in middle school, i remember those good old days, thanks Mario!
Aficianado – Those cards were ok. They had a certain aroma to them when the packs were first open. Probably had to do with the type of media on which they were printed. Other than that, I don’t remember anything good out of them.
Mint – Let’s just say I passed over that set, much like the prom king passes over ugly Betty.
As far as sets from Pinnacle, my favorite(s) were 1997 Select (they finally had a decent Score-brand product), Select Totally Certified, and of course any insert with Dufex. I believe 1998 Donruss products were a Pinnacle brand, so I will have to say that 1998 Crusades were by far the best inserts of the late 90s.
“It certainly is a possibility considering I quit my job and have a lot of spare time on my hands.”
Mario, Did I miss a post or something? Did you really quit your job??
Yeah, I quit yesterday. There was no paycheck in sight and no one was talking.
At least it’s given me time to blog a little more than usual.