Sunday, November 8, 2020

Pacific even had a strong checklist game

I've mentioned a bunch how much I love the Pacific brand of cards. More so the late '90s Pacific versus the early '90s stuff, bit it's all good stuff in my book.

Growing up, I sort of looked at them as a second-tier brand. Most probably did as well. Most still do. For me, that started to change with some of their incredible looking insert sets later in the decade.

One that was really hard for me to chase down for some reason was the 1998 Pacific Invincible Checklist. This was an insert card that featured five(!) players, with Tino front and center. He's joined on the front by Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, although Tino is the focal point after coming off his 1997 AL MVP runner up campaign.
The back has shots of staff ace Andy Pettitte, as well as Mariano Rivera. I'm surprised Paul O'Neill or Hideki Irabu didn't make it on this card, but there's only so much space.
What's cool about this checklist is that it's a full team checklist, from base cards to insert cards. They pack a lot of punch onto one card between five players and the full team checklist. It's a pretty great idea, if you ask me. I've never been one to like checklists, so something like this appeals to me more than a standard card listing names with check boxes. 

I'm not sure why this card was hard to pick up. I think I actually have it somewhere but didn't have it marked as a "have", so I snagged it (again) when it popped up for a low price.


4 comments:

  1. That is a very cool checklist. I've never seen one of these but I collected Pacific football and hockey cards, so I'm familiar with some of their fantastic TC designs.

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  2. This is a brilliant checklist. Congrats on picking it up!

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  3. Pacific was an off brand when they first started, but by the late 90's they were one of the best, certainly better than Topps and Upper Deck.

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  4. Nice pickup. I'll have to see who is on the A's and Padres checklists.

    I wasn't the biggest Pacific supporter back in the 90's, because they utilized the gold foil a bit too much for my liking. But my opinion has changed over time. These days I have a deeper appreciation for their ingenuity. They have some of the best photography cropping around and their use of acetate with Invincible was a game changer. I also really liked the net inserts and other things like these team checklists.

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