30 Year Top 50: 2001 Pacific Private Stock

#36- I have already made a few posts about this set if you want to take a few minutes to read another post or four.  The set was arguable its my one of my favorites and if my countdown were based solely on my dislikes and likes, this set would probably be in the top 10.  The Private Stock release was the swan song for Pacific in the world of baseball cards.  They bent a few rules in the cards that appeared in the set, but the release was an overwhelming success.

The draw of the Private Stock release was the fact that the every pack had one relic card.  While most people recognized it was the easiest way for Pacific to dump it's entire holding of baseball memorabilia, collectors risked drawing a Pokey Reese bat card versus picking up a patch card of Greg Maddux, Tony Gwynn, or other star.  There were also some cards that broke licensing rules that were highly sought after.  The two biggest were the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  I own two copies of the McGwire, but the Sosa has an extremely limited print run (I have heard anywhere from 1 to 5).  No, I don't have one.  See the McGwire here.

Private Stock had two basic types of relics cards.  There were jersey cards:

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Larkin Jersey Card

and there were also bat cards:

2001 Pacific Private Stock Craig Biggio Bat Card

Some of the players in the set had only a bat card, some had a jersey card, some had a home and a road jersey, while others featured both a bat and a jersey.

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Bonds Jersey Card

2001 Pacific Barry Bonds Bat Card

Cooler yet were the patch cards inserted in the set.  The patch cards skipped around throughout the set. Some of the patch cards are really cool and feature really cool players.  Others are not so great.  For example, as a Cardinals fan I was always a little disappointed that Pacific used Garrett Stephenson as the Cardinals player with a patch.  Not really my favorite player, or even a likable player.  Other teams faired better:  

 2001 Pacific Private Stock Todd Helton Patch Card 

As a collector, if you are looking for a collecting challenge this set is a great amount of fun.  The cards are rather plentiful still and can be easily found on Ebay or COMC.  Since the supply of cards is plentiful, collectors will often trade or sell these cards often and for a small price.  I am still missing some of the patch cards, but was able to buy or trade for almost all the other cards in the set for under $5.  The lone exception was the McGwire card.

Like the 2001 Pacific Private Stock set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown is the 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game set.  There were multiple issues of this set, but I have always liked this issue the best.  Similar to the 2001 Pacific Private Stock, the 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game set (POTG) was a relic per pack product.  However, there were some slight difference in the product.  First, the major difference was the inclusion of autographs in the POTG.  Some of the autographs were duds.   I believe I have a Runelyvs Hernandez running around my card collection somewhere, but there were also some great autographs available too.  This is my favorite one that I own:

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game Frank Thomas Jersey/Autograph

The major drawback of the autographs of course was the sticker.  I still love this card.  There jersey/bat/patch cards had the same cards had the same design as the autographs.  The one really cool aspect of the cards was the jersey picture on the back of the cards.  

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game Adrian Beltre Jersey

I always thought it was pretty cool that Playoff put the picture of the actual memorabilia used for the card on the back.  I guess there are varying degrees of game used and given the recent jersey gate scandal.  Not as cool as the Private Stock set in my opinion, but there are definitely cards worth owning in this set.