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.

Distribution

Reviews

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

The following 32 cards are the only known base cards to have surfaced on the secondary market. It is unclear, after all these years, what ever happened to the other 218 cards in the set.

It has been estimated that less than 20 copies of each card made their way into the open market.

4 Mark McGwire
13 Hideo Nomo
14 Alex Rodriguez
24 Derek Jeter
82 Tom Glavine
104 Mark McGwire
116 Ken Griffey, Jr.
128 Derek Jeter
149 Raul Mondesi
159 Gary Sheffield
169 Tony Gwynn
178 Nomar Garciaparra
179 Mark McGwire
184 Tony Gwynn
229 Mark McGwire
234 Tony Gwynn
235 Frank Thomas
242 Jeff Bagwell
243 Vladimir Guererro
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. Only the Griffey is serial-numbered -- the rest are numbered "00/00".

8 Cal Ripken, Jr.
116 Ken Griffey, Jr. 24
173 Magglio Ordonez
110 Frank Thomas
185 Frank Thomas
235 Frank Thomas

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.

Unlike the base set, it is unclear if any non-promo Selected cards were even printed, as none have surfaced on the secondary market.

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
11 Barry Bonds
13 Derek Jeter
14 Nomar Garciaparra
15 Chipper Jones
16 Pedro Martinez
17 Hideo Nomo
18 Randy Johnson
20 Greg Maddux
6 Frank Thomas

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

Unreleased Inserts

Two inserts that were on the original sell-sheets were called "Diamond Dominance" and "Rare Form." In the years since Pinnacle's bankruptcy, no cards from either one of these sets have emerged on the secondary market. It can be assumed that these sets were never printed.