Revision as of 20:59, 10 March 2011

Description

1998 Finest is a 275-card set released in two series of 150 and 125 cards, respectively. Topps shed the fracturing scheme of the past two years, and went back to a simpler Finest base set. This would also be the last time all Finest base cards would be printed in equal quantities.

Distribution

Reviews

Insertion Ratios

Cards	Total Cards	Numbered To	Wax Odds	HTA Odds
Base	275	-	?	?
No-Protector	275	-	1:2	1:1
Refractor	275	-	1:12	1:5
No-Protector Refractor	275	-	1:24	1:10
Power Zone (S1)	20	-	1:72	1:32
Centurions (S1)	20	500	1:153	1:71
Centurions Refractor (S1)	20	75	1:1020	1:471
Stadium Stars (S2)	24	-	1:72	1:32
The Man (S2)	20	500	1:119	1:55
The Man Refractor (S2)	20	75	1:793	1:367
Mystery Finest	90	-	1:36	1:15
Mystery Finest Refractor	90	-	1:144	1:64

Checklist

Promos

PP1 Nomar Garciaparra
PP2 Mark McGwire
PP3 Ivan Rodriguez
PP4 Ken Griffey, Jr.
PP5 Roger Clemens

Base Set

Series One

1 Larry Walker
2 Andruw Jones
3 Ramon Martinez
4 Geronimo Berroa
5 Dave Justice
6 Rusty Greer
7 Chad Ogea
8 Tom Goodwin
9 Tino Martinez
10 Jose Guillen
11 Jeffrey Hammonds
12 Brian McRae
13 Jeremi Gonzalez
14 Craig Counsell
15 Mike Piazza
16 Greg Maddux
17 Todd Greene
18 Rondell White
19 Kirk Rueter
20 Tony Clark
21 Brad Radke
22 Jaret Wright
23 Carlos Delgado
24 Dustin Hermanson
25 Gary Sheffield
26 Jose Canseco
27 Kevin Young
28 David Wells
29 Mariano Rivera
30 Reggie Sanders
31 Mike Cameron
32 Bobby Witt
33 Kevin Orie
34 Royce Clayton
35 Edgar Martinez
36 Neifi Perez
37 Kevin Appier
38 Darryl Hamilton
39 Michael Tucker
40 Roger Clemens
41 Carl Everett
42 Mike Sweeney
43 Pat Meares
44 Brian Giles
45 Matt Morris
46 Jason Dickson
47 Rich Loiselle RC
48 Joe Girardi
49 Steve Trachsel
50 Ben Grieve
51 Brian Johnson
52 Hideki Irabu
53 J.T. Snow
54 Mike Hampton
55 Dave Nilsson
56 Alex Fernandez
57 Brett Tomko
58 Wally Joyner
59 Kelvim Escobar
60 Roberto Alomar
61 Todd Jones
62 Paul O'Neill
63 Jamie Moyer
64 Mark Wohlers
65 Jose Cruz, Jr.
66 Troy Percival
67 Rick Reed
68 Will Clark
69 Jamey Wright
70 Mike Mussina
71 David Cone
72 Ryan Klesko
73 Scott Hatteberg
74 James Baldwin
75 Tony Womack
76 Carlos Perez
77 Charles Nagy
78 Jeromy Burnitz
79 Shane Reynolds
80 Cliff Floyd
81 Jason Kendall
82 Chad Curtis
83 Matt Karchner
84 Ricky Bottalico
85 Sammy Sosa
86 Javy Lopez
87 Jeff Kent
88 Shawn Green
89 Joey Cora
90 Tony Gwynn
91 Bob Tewksbury
92 Derek Jeter
93 Eric Davis
94 Jeff Fassero
95 Denny Neagle
96 Ismael Valdes
97 Tim Salmon
98 Mark Grudzielanek
99 Curt Schilling
100 Ken Griffey, Jr.
101 Edgardo Alfonzo
102 Vinny Castilla
103 Jose Rosado
104 Scott Erickson
105 Alan Benes
106 Shannon Stewart
107 Delino DeShields
108 Mark Loretta
109 Todd Hundley
110 Chuck Knoblauch
111 Todd Helton
112 F.P. Santangelo
113 Jeff Cirillo
114 Omar Vizquel
115 John Valentin
116 Damion Easley
117 Matt Lawton
118 Jim Thome
119 Sandy Alomar, Jr.
120 Albert Belle
121 Chris Stynes
122 Butch Huskey
123 Shawn Estes
124 Terry Adams
125 Ivan Rodriguez
126 Ron Gant
127 John Mabry
128 Jeff Shaw
129 Jeff Montgomery
130 Justin Thompson
131 Livan Hernandez
132 Ugueth Urbina
133 Scott Servais
134 Troy O'Leary
135 Cal Ripken, Jr.
136 Quilvio Veras
137 Pedro Astacio
138 Willie Greene
139 Lance Johnson
140 Nomar Garciaparra
141 Jose Offerman
142 Scott Rolen
143 Derek Bell
144 Johnny Damon
145 Mark McGwire
146 Chan Ho Park
147 Edgar Renteria
148 Eric Young
149 Craig Biggio
150 Checklist 1-150

Series Two

151 Frank Thomas
152 John Wetteland
153 Mike Lansing
154 Pedro Martinez
155 Rico Brogna
156 Kevin Brown
157 Alex Rodriguez
158 Wade Boggs
159 Richard Hidalgo
160 Mark Grace
161 Jose Mesa
162 John Olerud
163 Tim Belcher
164 Chuck Finley
165 Brian Hunter
166 Joe Carter
167 Stan Javier
168 Jay Bell
169 Ray Lankford
170 John Smoltz
171 Ed Sprague
172 Jason Giambi
173 Todd Walker
174 Paul Konerko
175 Rey Ordonez
176 Dante Bichette
177 Bernie Williams
178 Jon Nunnally
179 Rafael Palmeiro
180 Jay Buhner
181 Devon White
182 Jeff D'Amico
183 Walt Weiss
184 Scott Spiezio
185 Moises Alou
186 Carlos Baerga
187 Todd Zeile
188 Gregg Jefferies
189 Mo Vaughn
190 Terry Steinbach
191 Ray Durham
192 Robin Ventura
193 Jeff Reed
194 Ken Caminiti
195 Eric Karros
196 Wilson Alvarez
197 Gary Gaetti
198 Andres Galarraga
199 Alex Gonzalez
200 Garret Anderson
201 Andy Benes
202 Harold Baines
203 Ron Coomer
204 Dean Palmer
205 Reggie Jefferson
206 John Burkett
207 Jermaine Allensworth
208 Bernard Gilkey
209 Jeff Bagwell
210 Kenny Lofton
211 Bobby Jones
212 Bartolo Colon
213 Jim Edmonds
214 Pat Hentgen
215 Matt Williams
216 Bobby Abreu
217 Jorge Posada
218 Marty Cordova
219 Ken Hill
220 Steve Finley
221 Jeff King
222 Quinton McCracken
223 Matt Stairs
224 Darin Erstad
225 Fred McGriff
226 Marquis Grissom
227 Doug Glanville
228 Tom Glavine
229 John Franco
230 Darren Bragg
231 Barry Larkin
232 Trevor Hoffman
233 Brady Anderson
234 Al Martin
235 B.J. Surhoff
236 Ellis Burks
237 Randy Johnson
238 Mark Clark
239 Tony Saunders
240 Hideo Nomo
241 Brad Fullmer
242 Chipper Jones
243 Jose Valentin
244 Manny Ramirez
245 Derrek Lee
246 Jimmy Key
247 Tim Naehring
248 Bob Higginson
249 Charles Johnson
250 Chili Davis
251 Tom Gordon
252 Mike Lieberthal
253 Billy Wagner
254 Juan Guzman
255 Todd Stottlemyre
256 Brian Jordan
257 Barry Bonds
258 Dan Wilson
259 Paul Molitor
260 Juan Gonzalez
261 Francisco Cordova
262 Cecil Fielder
263 Travis Lee
264 Kevin Tapani
265 Raul Mondesi
266 Travis Fryman
267 Armando Benitez
268 Pokey Reese
269 Rick Aguilera
270 Andy Pettitte
271 Jose Vizcaino
272 Kerry Wood
273 Vladimir Guerrero
274 John Smiley
275 Checklist 151-275

Parallels

Dual-Sided No-Protectors

Each of the 275 base cards is available as a "Dual-Sided No-Protector" parallel. The difference is that the hated peel-away coating is missing off the card, and that BOTH sides of the card are printed on chromium stock. DSNP's are also available as Refractors.

Refractors

All 275 base cards are available as Refractors.

Oversize

These sixteen, 3" X 5" cards were inserted into every third box as a box topper. Each card is sequentially-numbered "X of 8." We have arbitrarily assigned an "A" prefix for Series One and a "B" prefix for Series Two cards.

A1 Mark McGwire
A2 Cal Ripken, Jr.
A3 Nomar Garciaparra
A4 Mike Piazza
A5 Greg Maddux
A6 Jose Cruz, Jr.
A7 Roger Clemens
A8 Ken Griffey, Jr.
B1 Frank Thomas
B2 Bernie Williams
B3 Randy Johnson
B4 Chipper Jones
B5 Manny Ramirez
B6 Barry Bonds
B7 Juan Gonzalez
B8 Jeff Bagwell

Inserts

Power Zone

Each of these 20 Series One inserts is printed with "flop ink," which changes color from purple to blue when viewed at a different angle.

P1 Ken Griffey, Jr.
P2 Jeff Bagwell
P3 Jose Cruz, Jr.
P4 Barry Bonds
P5 Mark McGwire
P6 Jim Thome
P7 Mo Vaughn
P8 Gary Sheffield
P9 Andres Galarraga
P10 Nomar Garciaparra
P11 Rafael Palmeiro
P12 Sammy Sosa
P13 Jay Buhner
P14 Tony Clark
P15 Mike Piazza
P16 Larry Walker
P17 Albert Belle
P18 Tino Martinez
P19 Juan Gonzalez
P20 Frank Thomas

Centurions

Randomly inserted in Series One packs, cards from this 20-card set are each serial-numbered on back to 500 copies. Unfortunately, an unknown quantity of unnumbered Centurions made their way into the secondary market in 1999. It’s believed that these cards were quality control extras. To further compound this situation, some unscrupulous parties attempted to serial-number the cards. The fake cards have flat gold foil numbering. The real cards have bright foil numbering.

This set is also available in a Refractor parallel, serial-numbered to 75 copies.

C1 Andruw Jones
C2 Vladimir Guerrero
C3 Nomar Garciaparra
C4 Scott Rolen
C5 Ken Griffey, Jr.
C6 Jose Cruz, Jr.
C7 Barry Bonds
C8 Mark McGwire
C9 Juan Gonzalez
C10 Jeff Bagwell
C11 Frank Thomas
C12 Paul Konerko
C13 Alex Rodriguez
C14 Mike Piazza
C15 Travis Lee
C16 Chipper Jones
C17 Larry Walker
C18 Mo Vaughn
C19 Livan Hernandez
C20 Jaret Wright

Stadium Stars

This 24-card, Series Two set features a selection of the majors top hitters set against an attractive holographic stadium background.

SS1 Ken Griffey, Jr.
SS2 Alex Rodriguez
SS3 Mo Vaughn
SS4 Nomar Garciaparra
SS5 Frank Thomas
SS6 Albert Belle
SS7 Derek Jeter
SS8 Chipper Jones
SS9 Cal Ripken, Jr.
SS10 Jim Thome
SS11 Mike Piazza
SS12 Juan Gonzalez
SS13 Jeff Bagwell
SS14 Sammy Sosa
SS15 Jose Cruz, Jr.
SS16 Gary Sheffield
SS17 Larry Walker
SS18 Tony Gwynn
SS19 Mark McGwire
SS20 Barry Bonds
SS21 Tino Martinez
SS22 Manny Ramirez
SS23 Ken Caminiti
SS24 Andres Galarraga

Stadium Stars Oversize

These six 3" X 5" oversize cards were randomly seeded into Series Two HTA boxes at the rate of 1:24.

1 Ken Griffey, Jr.
2 Alex Rodriguez
3 Nomar Garciaparra
4 Frank Thomas
5 Mike Piazza
6 Mark McGwire

The Man

Each of these rather gaudy looking cards are exclusive to Series Two packs and serial-numbered to 500 copies. Unlike the Series One Centurions, it does not appear that surplus The Mans were "backdoored."

This set is also available in a Refractor parallel, serial-numbered to 75 copies.

TM1 Ken Griffey, Jr.
TM2 Barry Bonds
TM3 Frank Thomas
TM4 Chipper Jones
TM5 Cal Ripken, Jr.
TM6 Nomar Garciaparra
TM7 Mark McGwire
TM8 Mike Piazza
TM9 Derek Jeter
TM10 Alex Rodriguez
TM11 Jose Cruz, Jr.
TM12 Larry Walker
TM13 Jeff Bagwell
TM14 Tony Gwynn
TM15 Travis Lee
TM16 Juan Gonzalez
TM17 Scott Rolen
TM18 Randy Johnson
TM19 Roger Clemens
TM20 Greg Maddux

Mystery Finest

Cards from this 90-card set feature color action photos of top players on double-sided cards. Each player is matched with three different players on the opposite side or another photo of himself in each series. Each side is covered with the Finest opaque protector that must be fully removed on both sides.

In the first series, 50 Mystery Finest cards were randomly inserted; while in Series Two, another 40 cards were produced. Unfortunately, Topps re-numbered the Series Two cards as its own distinct set, with a similar design and the same card numbering scheme. to distinguish between the two series of Mystery Finest cards, all 50 Series One cards have a "wave" design, while the Series Two cards have an "arch."

Each card is also available as a Refractor.

Series One

M1 Frank Thomas / Ken Griffey, Jr.
M2 Frank Thomas / Mike Piazza
M3 Frank Thomas / Mark McGwire
M4 Frank Thomas
M5 Ken Griffey, Jr. / Mike Piazza
M6 Ken Griffey, Jr. / Mark McGwire
M7 Ken Griffey, Jr.
M8 Mike Piazza / Mark McGwire
M9 Mike Piazza
M10 Mark McGwire
M11 Nomar Garciaparra / Jose Cruz, Jr.
M12 Nomar Garciaparra / Derek Jeter
M13 Nomar Garciaparra / Andruw Jones
M14 Nomar Garciaparra
M15 Jose Cruz, Jr. / Derek Jeter
M16 Jose Cruz, Jr. / Andruw Jones
M17 Jose Cruz, Jr.
M18 Derek Jeter / Andruw Jones
M19 Derek Jeter
M20 Andruw Jones
M21 Cal Ripken, Jr. / Tony Gwynn
M22 Cal Ripken / Barry Bonds
M23 Cal Ripken / Greg Maddux
M24 Cal Ripken, Jr.
M25 Tony Gwynn / Barry Bonds
M26 Tony Gwynn / Greg Maddux
M27 Tony Gwynn
M28 Barry Bonds / Greg Maddux
M29 Barry Bonds
M30 Greg Maddux
M31 Juan Gonzalez / Larry Walker
M32 Juan Gonzalez / Andres Galarraga
M33 Juan Gonzalez / Chipper Jones
M34 Juan Gonzalez
M35 Larry Walker / Andres Galarraga
M36 Larry Walker / Chipper Jones
M37 Larry Walker
M38 Andres Galarraga / Chipper Jones
M39 Andres Galarraga
M40 Chipper Jones
M41 Gary Sheffield / Sammy Sosa
M42 Gary Sheffield / Jeff Bagwell
M43 Gary Sheffield / Tino Martinez
M44 Gary Sheffield
M45 Sammy Sosa / Jeff Bagwell
M46 Sammy Sosa / Tino Martinez
M47 Sammy Sosa
M48 Jeff Bagwell / Tino Martinez
M49 Jeff Bagwell
M50 Tino Martinez

Series Two

M1 Nomar Garciaparra / Frank Thomas
M2 Nomar Garciaparra / Albert Belle
M3 Nomar Garciaparra / Scott Rolen
M4 Frank Thomas / Albert Belle
M5 Frank Thomas / Scott Rolen
M6 Albert Belle / Scott Rolen
M7 Ken Griffey, Jr. / Jose Cruz, Jr.
M8 Ken Griffey, Jr. / Alex Rodriguez
M9 Ken Griffey, Jr. / Roger Clemens
M10 Jose Cruz, Jr. / Alex Rodriguez
M11 Jose Cruz, Jr. / Roger Clemens
M12 Alex Rodriguez / Roger Clemens
M13 Mike Piazza / Barry Bonds
M14 Mike Piazza / Derek Jeter
M15 Mike Piazza / Bernie Williams
M16 Barry Bonds / Derek Jeter
M17 Barry Bonds / Bernie Williams
M18 Derek Jeter / Bernie Williams
M19 Mark McGwire / Jeff Bagwell
M20 Mark McGwire / Mo Vaughn
M21 Mark McGwire / Jim Thome
M22 Jeff Bagwell / Mo Vaughn
M23 Jeff Bagwell / Jim Thome
M24 Mo Vaughn / Jim Thome
M25 Juan Gonzalez / Travis Lee
M26 Juan Gonzalez / Ben Grieve
M27 Juan Gonzalez / Fred McGriff
M28 Travis Lee / Ben Grieve
M29 Travis Lee / Fred McGriff
M30 Ben Grieve / Fred McGriff
M31 Albert Belle
M32 Scott Rolen
M33 Alex Rodriguez
M34 Roger Clemens
M35 Bernie Williams
M36 Mo Vaughn
M37 Jim Thome
M38 Travis Lee
M39 Fred McGriff
M40 Ben Grieve

Mystery Finest Oversize

These three 3" X 5" cards were seeded randomly into every sixth Series Two HTA box. Every twelfth Series Two HTA box had a Refractor.

1 Ken Griffey, Jr. / Alex Rodriguez
2 Derek Jeter / Bernie Williams
3 Mark McGwire / Jeff Bagwell

@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 <sql2wiki database="carddb">
 SELECT num,player,info from cards WHERE (year = '1998') AND (setname='Finest Centurions')
-ORDER BY num +0 ASC;
 </sql2wiki>