90's Box Breaks

In 1997, 2 different card companies promised to take collecting to another level, adding scarcity along the way.

First, you had Pinnacle offering printing plates randomly inserted into packs of 1997 New Pinnacle, with an added bonus.

Randomly inserted in packs at the rate of one in 1,250, this all-aluminum set consists of the Authentic Press Plate that transfers the ink to the cardboard for each individual card back and front. Each plate displays an authentication seal on the back along with the personal signature of Pinnacle Chairman and CEO, Jerry Meyer. Each card has eight press plates for each of the four colors used in printing the front and the back. All cards from both the regular sets as well as the insert sets were inserted into packs. A collector who put together any combination of the four press plates from the same card front or back could return the plates to Pinnacle by August 22, 1997 for a bounty of $35,000. A sliding reward scale was imposed with a $30,000 bounty for plates received by August 29, 1997, $25,000 for those received by September 5, 1997, and $20,000 for those received after September 5 but before December 31, 1997.

Second was Fleer with the Flair Showcase Legacy Collection Masterpiece.

This 540-card set is parallel to the regular Legacy Collection parallel set and is similar in design only with different foil highlights. Only one of each card (for each variation of rows) of this extremely rare set was produced. No pricing is provided due to scarcity. This is a notable set in hobby history in that it was the first to reduce a print run to only set produced. This innovation brought almost as much (or more) criticism as it did praise from collectors as it effectively eliminated player collector’s chances to procure one copy of every card of their favorite star.

And thanks to those 2 sets, the hobby would never be the same, as 1/1s flooded the market shortly after.