This is the second installment of my annual look at the current market environment for the famed 1993 Finest Refractor baseball card set. Transaction and grading trends, card availability, and other insights are explored and tracked over time.
We’re two games into the 2025 World Series and the Dodgers and Blue Jays are tied at one game apiece. Coaching for the Jays is Don Mattingly, who is getting his first ever taste of Fall Classic baseball. With the end of series just days away, now is the time to look at my shiny card of “Donnie Baseball.”
Ah yes, the existential dread of discovering your favorite “modern” baseball cards are increasingly being seen as vintage. Someone should remind the last guy left in the checklist to hit the lights on his way out.
How one of my most frustrating refractor additions became one of the more fun acquisitions. Also, bring on automated umpires.
The Willie Greene refractor: A rare card seems to be really rare until it’s not.
Everyone knows that Junk Wax cards were printed to the moon. Everyone also has a name that comes to mind when the Junk Wax Era gave way to the Steroid Era. What if we’re wrong on both counts?
The best baseball cards are the ones you look at when you’re supposed to be in church.
Guess who was on the mound at my first MLB baseball game? My baseball card collection includes one of his shiny cards while his collection features some very shiny bats.
Alex Cole could very well be the only MLB player with a negative home run total in a decade defined by the long ball.
The guy who hit more home runs than anyone else in an LA Dodgers uniform somehow has less than 20 career WAR and never made an All-Star team.
