Worth their weight in gold

I’m sure many of us have come across these Danbury Mint 22K gold cards at some point. For me, I was familiar with them at a young age, as there were frequently ads in the Sunday paper for them. You know the ones; they usually came as a standalone ad with all of the other week’s sales. Sometimes it was for a Babe Ruth plate or collectible figure, and others, for 22K gold baseball cards.

One of the coolest items in my collection is a set of these honoring the 1998 Yankees. My grandma got it for me for Christmas one year, although it only came half full, and then she would receive a couple in the mail each month until the binder was full.

Before my eBay spending hiatus (which is going well!), I won a lot of two Tino Martinez gold cards – one from 2003, and one from 2007 (above). I like the ’07 because it has all his career stats.

These cards are deceptive. They seem like they’d be pretty solid, but in fact are very flimsy. The gold must be a very, very small coating. I don’t even know how much gold is actually there. I will say, 1996 Collector’s Choice Gold Medallions play the role a bit better and feel a lot more substantial. Plus, they are one of my favorite parallel sets ever.

 

Still, fun additions to my Tino collection, and cards you don’t come across too often.