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Tuesday, September 22, 2020

We all adore an Aurora

Pacific Aurora, in fact. One of the few card sets to share a name with a Disney Princess, and one of the multiplicity of card sets issued by Pacific into the turn of the Millennium.

Card Number 363: Pacific Aurora, 1999; #160

This is one of 15 different cards of Tony Gwynn I own released by Pacific in 1999. It's also the bluest card in the 15. 

The  main photo of Tony on the front of the card has a slightly glowing aura. I presume that was a deliberate aesthetic choice for the Aurora range.


Pacific used up all their coloured ink on the deep blue hue of the card fronts and had to print the photos on the back in sepia.


That's an unusual way of presenting the season/career statistics, but it is a lot easier to read than the standard horizontal lines. Even as late as 1998 (when he was 38), Tony still managed to steal 3 bases during the season. His batting average of .321 was enough to land him his eighth and final batting title. 

Card Number 364: Pacific Aurora, 2000; #125

Somewhere there is a card set issued in the year 2000, that didn't include the year 2000 on the card front. This is not that card set.

Tony, complete with aura, has been placed over a wood effect background on this background. It's not as striking as the blue from the previous year.


The designers have stuck with sepia for the photo on the back.


There is minimal information on the back of this card, which gives them space to spread out the two line stat box and make is nice and readable. Because of the landscape orientation of the card, they haven't used the vertical stats list, but it's still one of the more comprehendable representations of data in a stats box to grace the back of a card. 

Another tip of the hat to Pacific for being a card company that started to include the name of the card set in the circle with the set number. Although, it's fairly obvious on these cards with the big set logo on the front and back, it's still really helpful information to include for collectors.  

Total: 364/394


1 comment:

  1. It might have been tiny... but I totally agree... kudo's to Pacific for putting the name of the set in the circle.

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