1998 Select

Description

1998 Select was a proposed a 250-card fractured set, intended for release in September, 1998. The product was never released due to Pinnacle Brands' bankruptcy.

The base set was fractured based on what Pinnacle called the "Quasar System." The first 100 cards were to be known as the "One-Stars," with the next 75 as the "Two-Stars." The next 50 cards were the "Three-Stars," and the final 25 the "Four-Stars." It is assumed that the One-Star cards were to have been the most common and the Four-Stars the most rare. An additional five cards (known as the "Five-Star Bonus" cards) were also to have been produced, but although these cards were not to have been sequentially-numbered as part of the base set, there were to have been serial-numbered to only 50 copies. Each base card was to have also been available in a "Jersey" parallel, with each card serial-numbered to the player's respective uniform number.

There were to have been four insert sets: Diamond Dominance, Selected, Rare Form, and Select Numbers.

Bankruptcy Issues

A bankruptcy judge ordered all un-issued trading cards (including cards from this product) to be destroyed; however, a number of 1998 Select cards have made their way into the secondary market. The only authorized cards from the set that were issued before the bankruptcy filing were a 10-card promo set of the Selected insert. All other cards were backdoored.

Insertion Ratios

Cards	Total Cards	Numbered To	Hobby Odds
Base	250	-	?
One-Star	100	-	?
Two-Star	75	-	?
Three-Star	50	-	?
Four-Star	25	-	?
Jersey	250	varies	?
Five-Star Bonus	5	50	?
Diamond Dominance	10	-	1:23
Selected	10	-	1:23
Rare Form	10	-	1:99
Select Numbers	20	varies	?

Checklist

Base Set

1998 Select was to be a 250-card base set. However, to this date, only 28 base cards from the set are known to have surfaced on the secondary market. It is unclear, after all these years, what ever happened to the other 222 cards in the set. It has been estimated that less than 20 copies of each card made their way into the open market. The following is the complete checklist as set forth on the product sell sheet, with the cards confirmed to have landed on the secondary market in bold.

1 Jose Cruz, Jr.

2 Greg Maddux

3 Nomar Garciaparra

4 Mark McGwire

5 Juan Gonzalez

6 Barry Bonds

7 Cal Ripken, Jr.

8 Andruw Jones

9 Tony Gwynn

10 Frank Thomas

11 Scott Rolen

12 Travis Lee

13 Hideo Nomo

14 Alex Rodriguez

15 Kenny Lofton

16 Ken Griffey, Jr.

17 Jeff Bagwell

18 Vladimir Guerrero

19 Ivan Rodriguez

20 Mo Vaughn

21 Chipper Jones

22 Ben Grieve

23 Roger Clemens

24 Derek Jeter

82 Tom Glavine

104 Mark McGwire

109 Tony Gwynn

110 Frank Thomas

116 Ken Griffey, Jr.

118 Vladimir Guerrero

127 Larry Walker

128 Derek Jeter

134 Manny Ramirez

144 Andy Pettitte

149 Raul Mondesi

159 Gary Sheffield

169 Tino Martinez

178 Nomar Garciaparra

179 Mark McGwire

184 Tony Gwynn

229 Mark McGwire

234 Tony Gwynn

235 Frank Thomas

242 Jeff Bagwell

243 Vladimir Guerrero

246 Chipper Jones

Parallels

Jersey Numbers

Jersey Numbers was intended to be a parallel of the full 250-card base set, with each card serial-numbered to the player's respective uniform number. These are the only Jersey Numbers cards known to exist. The cards are numbered "00/00," although it has been said that some serial-numbered Griffeys have surfaced. Additionally, Griffeys have surfaced having no serial numbering and no "00/00" numbering either.

8 Cal Ripken, Jr.

49 Raul Mondesi

52 Matt Williams

96 Mark Grace

105 Juan Gonzalez

108 Andruw Jones

110 Frank Thomas

116 Ken Griffey, Jr. 24

173 Magglio Ordonez

183 Andruw Jones

185 Frank Thomas

191 Ken Griffey, Jr.

197 Ben Grieve

212 Todd Helton

230 Juan Gonzalez

233 Andruw Jones

235 Frank Thomas

241 Ken Griffey, Jr.

247 Ben Grieve

Inserts

Selected

These 10 cards were the only cards from the 1998 Select set that were released before the Pinnacle Brands bankruptcy. A pack of two cards were released to Hobby dealers along with the sell sheets. The word "SAMPLE" was printed on the back of each card.

Non-promo Selected cards have surfaced of Derek Jeter and Todd Helton.

1 Vladimir Guerrero

2 Nomar Garciaparra

3 Ben Grieve

4 Travis Lee

5 Jose Cruz, Jr.

6 Alex Rodriguez

7 Todd Helton

8 Derek Jeter

9 Scott Rolen

10 Jaret Wright

Select Numbers

Select Numbers was intended to be a 20-card insert set, serial-numbered to a player statistic. Like with the base cards and Jersey Number parallels, a limited number of Select Numbers made their way "out the backdoor;" however, the cards were NOT serial-numbered. Only 11 of the 20 cards from this set have surfaced on the secondary market.

2 Juan Gonzalez

3 Ken Griffey, Jr.

6 Frank Thomas

11 Barry Bonds

13 Derek Jeter

14 Nomar Garciaparra

15 Chipper Jones

16 Pedro Martinez

17 Hideo Nomo

18 Randy Johnson

20 Greg Maddux

Five-Star Bonus

Five-Star Bonus was intended to be a five-card quasi-parallel of the base set. The design is similar to that of the base set, but the cards are sequentially-numbered "X of 5." Each card is serial-numbered to 50 copies.

Mike Piazza was to have been card #5 in this set, but was replaced by Derek Jeter

Beginning around 2007, a number of these cards were sold (as complete five-card sets with matching serial-numbers) on eBay. Before then, singles were incredibly rare items.

• 1 Ken Griffey, Jr. 50
• 2 Frank Thomas 50
• 3 Cal Ripken, Jr. 50
• 4 Greg Maddux 50
• 5 Derek Jeter 50

Diamond Dominance

Diamond Dominance was to be a 10-card insert set. The only card from the set confirmed to have reached the secondary market is Andruw Jones.

3 Andruw Jones

Rare Form

The "Rare Form" insert set was on the original sell sheet, but no cards from the set has emerged on the secondary market. The checklist was to be as follows:

1 Ken Griffey, Jr.

2 Roger Clemens

3 Cal Ripken, Jr.

4 Juan Gonzalez

5 Nomar Garciaparra

6 Alex Rdriguez

7 Chipper Jones

8 Mike Piazza

9 Greg Maddux

10 Frank Thomas