In 1997, every company was doing their part to revolutionize the Hobby. Donruss continued with their one per pack autograph brand, while Upper Deck’s “game-used” relic made its debut. Fleer was all about “Showcase” and the one of one and Pinnacle, well let’s just say they were not ones to sit around and rest on their laurels.
That year, Pinnacle released the first ever product with Printing Plates randomly inserted into packs. Today, this gimmick is dead and bloated as one would expect after several hundred releases have used the idea but in 1997 this was an interesting and quite genius move by Pinnacle Brands. What made the plates even more endearing was that every single one was hand-signed by Pinnacle Brands’ C.E.O, Jerry Meyer.
There is currently an eBay auction of one of these plates of none other than Edgar Martinez. While not the most exciting player to ever step foot on the diamond, this auction is up to $100 dollars with eight days left to bid (LINK). Considering boxes of 1997 New Pinnacle go for dirt cheap and slow, boring players like Martinez can bring in big money on the secondary market one would have to wonder why more people are not busting Pinnacle looking for a Jeter, Griffey Jr., or Arod.
Either way, it’s yet another example of Pinnacle thinking outside of the (wax) box.
The Baseball Card Blog 
What’s funny is, with all your talk about the Pinnacle brand, UD is sure to release a high end Pinnacle set. They own the name right?
chemgod – Donruss-Playoff owns the Pinnacle brand since they bought them out of bankruptcy in 1998.
Mario – you can give Pinnacle credit for the “one per pack autograph brand” too because Pinnacle owned Donruss at the time.
Playoff/Donruss owns the Pinnacle name. They already do a Score football set.
There is no way a Printing plate should ever be a card of the day. Anywhere.
no Pinnancle cards ever held their value because the reported quantities they said they made were B.S. Once the you know what hit the fan over the reported quantities made for the 1996 Mirror Red (90), Blue (60) and Gold (30) no collector ever trusted Pinnancle again. It is a fairly wide known fact among hobby insiders that there are more Mirrors than 1993 Finest Refractors. There were only 241 1993 Finest Baseball Refractors of each player made ( not including the supposed shortprints ) and they sell for 5 times as much as a Mirror Gold even though they are supposedly 8 times rarer. Anyone who attended the 1997 or 1998 National’s and was chasing after the Mirror’s will probably attest to this as there were a few very large distributors/dealers that had thousands of mirrors and 10-15 of the same card of the golds
Bruce, if you ever read this please email Waxheaven@gmail.com.
I have a few questions for you. Thanks!
so that edgar card isnt truly a 1/1?
and who you calling slow and boring?? 😉