Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Flaming great

There are some tales to tell around this card. I bought it in an eBay mix-up where I thought I could combine postage on singles from the same seller but couldn't. This was the first card of several that I planned to buy and I ended up just buying this one. 

But what a card to buy by mistake!

Card Number 599: Pacific Crown Royale Pivotal Players, 1999; #21


I showed this card to Cathy when it arrived and she said "That doesn't look very safe!" Well, maybe not, but it looks amazing. Although anyone who has run across Pacific cards from the late 90s would expect a Pacific insert series to be both visually appealing and utterly over the top.

There were 25 players selected as 'Pivotal Players' in this insert series. They all got a background of flames reaching to the heavens. 

The flames are toned down slightly on the back. I like this photo of Tony jogging onto the field with his glove at the ready. 


The factoid is about how Tony helped the Padres reach the 1984 World Series. This card set was released the year after the Padres had reached their second World Series, in 1998.

Another reason to like Pacific cards is the helpful way they include a notation about exactly which card set this is from. In the yellow circle around the number are all the details needed to find this beauty on Trading Card Database. More card companies should do this.

The tale of this card wasn't over after I accidentally bought it. It was getting shipped across the Atlantic and such journeys do take a while. However, this card may have gone via mainland Europe if the shipping label is anything to go by.


Instead of saying UK, it was addressed to the Czech Republic. Over the last year or so I have become more involved with the campaign for Wales to be an independent country and I have sometimes written 'Republic of Cymru' on the back of parcels - mainly as a joke to people in England. I can confirm it's not on my eBay address though! 

What's extra-weird is the shipping note inside clearly lists my address as UK, not Czech Republic. The rest of my address was right. And it got here eventually, which is the important thing!

Total: 599 cards. Tomorrow's post will be another milestone!




1 comment:

  1. Glad it arrived safe and sound. And never understood why sellers wouldn't want to promote combined shipping. I know as a buyer, it'd increase their sales.

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