1999 Black Diamond Hobby Box Break

1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hobby Box
30 packs, 6 cards per pack

This set has just 120 base cards, so with 180 in a box I ended up pulling a lot of doubles.

Each top card in my packs had a tiny nick on the bottom border.  I'm not sure if that is typical with this product or just bad luck.

 

I had a real tough time capturing the in person look of these cards.  My scanner made them look hideous so I tried with my camera.

Out of the 180 cards in the box, 82 are star cards.  When you add in the inserts it ended up being 52% stars.  Pretty good ratio.

The Diamond Debut subset consists of 30 rookies.  None however are official rookie cards and most are players who did not go on to have memorable careers.

Diamond Debut cards are seeded one in four packs.  I ended up with nine DD cards (two were serial numbered).  This also explains why there were so many doubles from the rest of the set.

Parque, Greisinger, Arrojo, and Matt Anderson.  Ouch.  The only other decent players in this subset (besides Jenkins, Drew, and Wood) are Glaus, Washburn, Chavez, and Aramis Ramirez.

This Ruth card has a classic look to it, although it feels completely out of place in a set that contains only rookies and players from 1999.

Now for the inserts...

While the main inserts looks nice enough, I find the effort uninspired and lazy.  The red cards like this Giambi are called Black Diamond Double and are serial numbered to 3,000.

But the pictures used are exactly the same as the base set.

You can pull this insert for any of the 120 cards in the set.

The Black Diamond Triple inserts look just like the base as well but are yellow.

These are serial numbered to 1500.

You can also pull a green version of this insert serial numbered to just 150.  Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky.

Here's a Travis Lee Diamond Debut Double insert.  The Diamond Debut inserts have a slightly lower print run.  The red one here is serial numbered to 2,500 (instead of 3,000).

A Jim Parque Diamond Debut Triple serial numbered to 1,000 (instead of 1,500).  The green version for Diamond Debut inserts have a print run of 100 (instead of 150).

 

This Mystery Numbers insert set is pretty cool.  The pictures are different than the base pictures, and the print runs vary from 100 to 3,000.  This Biggio is serial numbered to 3,000.  It is the most common.

The print runs start at 100 (Ruth) and ascend by 100 through the set (ending with Biggio at 3,000 printed).  This is a nice concept.  Griffey has just a 200 card print run; Wood 300, McGwire 400, Arod 500 etc.  This Sosa is serial numbered to 1,600.

Interestingly there's also a Mystery Numbers Emerald version of this set.  The print runs are amazingly low.  Just 1-30.  So there is just one Emerald Ruth card somewhere out there, two Emerald Griffeys...on up to Biggio at 30 printed.  

There's a handful of the Emerald versions on Ebay.  The general cost is $100-300 bucks.  Wow.  You'd have to be a hardcore player collector to shell out that much.

My final insert is a Kerry Wood Diamond Dominance card numbered to 1,500.  This insert set contains 30 cards (all serial numbered to 1500).  Some of the best players include Ruth, Arod, Ripken, Maddux, Clemens, Griffey and many more stars.  

There are also Emerald versions of Diamond Dominance.  Those are all serial numbered to just 1. 

In the final analysis, the base set looks great in person.  That was the main reason I wanted a box of Black Diamond.  Nonetheless I am a bit disappointed with this box overall.  A set this small can't afford to have so many inserts that use the same pictures as the base.  It gets boring really fast.  

Of the last four box breaks I've posted this one was the least enjoyable. 

1999 Topps Finest Series 2 Hobby Box Break

 

1999 Topps Finest Series 2 Hobby Box

24 packs, 6 cards per pack

 

When this set came out the packs cost a steep $5 each.  Nowadays you can get them for about $1.25 a pack if you shop around.

The backs of the base may lack a lot of season by season stats, but they do have plenty of other cool information.

 

Series 2 has 150 cards and it's stuffed with base stars and subset stars, not to mention the inserts that seem to pop up every few packs.  

Out of the 144 total cards from my box, 60 are stars (counting inserts, subsets).  So you are looking at about 42% of the cards being something good.  Careful player selection goes a long way in a product holding up through the years.  Finest picked 'em right.

 

You can see here the difference between a scanner shot (top Henderson) and a digital camera picture (lower Henderson).  These cards have a nice shine to them in person.

I have to admit I am glad the trend of the plastic protectors is over.  Most people don't want to peel the plastic off because it's a hassle.  Also there may be a perception it lowers the value of the card.  I peeled one off a common and of course they do look much better without the protector writing interfering with the photos.

But the photography in this set is very bland anyway, so it doesn't matter much.  What makes this set so great is the weighty card stock (27 pt),  the shine,  the subsets, and the extremely well-done inserts.

There are also some notable rookie cards.  Technically the Beltran and Lee shown here aren't rookie cards, but Series 2 does have true rookie cards of C.C Sabathia and Alfonso Soriano.

The 15 card Sterling subset is almost all big names.  

I pulled these five but some of the other big players in this subset include Jeter, Arod, and Griffey Jr..  The worst player is Greg Vaughn (who was pretty darn good for several years).

The Gamers subset is smaller (11 cards) yet I ended up with more of these.  I like this subset quite a bit because of the shiny silver baseball diamond in the background.

I pulled eight Gamers, one of which is a refractor (I'll show that with the inserts).

I also pulled a Grace, Mo Vaughn (2), and Ivan Rodriguez.

This Home Run Kings card is not really part of a subset or an insert.  It is however one of the coolest front and back combos in the set.  It's also the last card of the set.

Now for the inserts.

 

The Hank Aaron Award Contenders insert set has nine cards.  You can pull either the standard version like this Griffey, or the refractor version.  The interesting thing is odds stated on the pack wrapper list all 18 possible pulls (9 non-refractors, 9 refractors), and they often differ drastically.  

The odds of pulling this Griffey (non-refractors, #HA8) are 1:81 packs.  Those aren't the odds of pulling any Hank Aaron Award Contenders insert, those are the specific odds for pulling the Griffey non-refractor Hank Aaron insert.  It's a somewhat confusing seeding concept.

  

The odds of getting the Arod non-refractor HA insert are 1:93 packs.  So there are more Griffey versions of this card than Arod.

Adding to this confusion is that Beckett lists different odds for these cards, putting the chance of a Griffey at 1:27 packs and the Arod at 1:31 packs (for Hobby Boxes).

Other players in this very sharp insert set include Juan Gonzalez, Vlad Guerrero, Nomar, Albert Belle, Frank Thomas, Sosa and...

Big Mac.  This one is the refractor version.  Both the pack wrapper and Beckett list the chances of pulling this card at 1:216 hobby packs.  This was the rarest card I pulled.  You can see how the digital camera reflects light off it much more than the non-refractor Griffey.  This McGwire came in my first pack.

 

The base refractor cards fall 1:12 packs.

 

Mo Vaughn refractor.  So I did get the two base refractors as expected.

Here's a sweet Guererro/Jones refractor/non-refractor from the Complements insert set.  Half and half.  You can get a non-refractor/refractor version and a refractor/refractor version as well.  Finest cracks me up with how complicated they made their sets.  Hobby Box odds for pulling any Complements insert are 1:56 packs.  

This seven card insert set also includes a Nomar/Jeter combo, Piazza/I. Rodriguez, Gwynn/Boggs, Woods/Clemens, Juan Gonzalez/Sosa, and McGwire/Frank Thomas.

 

 

Ripken Milestones Hits insert s/n to 3,000.  

The Milestones insert set is broken into four categories:  Milestones Hits, Milestones Home Runs, Milestones Runs Batted In, and Milestones Doubles.  Each category has ten cards.

The Milestones Hits insert is the most common (and as a result has the highest production run).  Seed rates for Hobby Boxes are 1:29 packs (for any Milestones Hit insert).

Bonds Milestones Runs Batted In insert s/n to 1400.  

The Runs Batted In inserts fall 1:61 packs.  This card was in the same pack that the McGwire Hank Aaron refractor was part of.  That was a pretty amazing pack.

Biggio Milestones Doubles insert s/n to 500.  

The Milestones Doubles inserts fall 1:171 hobby packs.  

I must say I am completely baffled as to how I ended up with this many hard to pull inserts.  It was particularly surprising to get the McGwire, Guererro/Jones, and Biggio all in the same box.

Was this an extra lucky box?  I can't say.  The insert distribution is complicated.  I've also never opened this product before today so I have no prior experience.

Even if a few of the inserts disappeared, I'd still be more than content with this experience.

This box must have sold for 80-100 bucks when it was first released.  Ten plus years later, even though the cost is now only $30, the cards still feel high end.  

I definitely recommend picking one of these up if you are looking to bust some late 90's stuff at a decent price.