They don't really scan very well, but here are six of my seventy something Ray Lankford cards.
This one is going to be quick.
Base Card
A little closer look at the patterns. The cards are transparent and made out of an acetate material. The action photo on the front of the cards is the same regardless of the pattern. The pattern number is on the back of the card.
The pattern number is on the bottom corner underneath the card number. The card backs all have a portrait style color photo. There are no stats on the back of the card, rather Topps put down the date they thought that the players should reach certain milestones. Topps used a similar stats set up on an insert set in their Topps Laser product, but we will make fun of that set on a different day.
The design on the front of the card is decent enough. The design on the back is not great. I feel like the second player photo on the back looks busy. I also wish there the stats were a little different. Again, Speculative stats are never great.
No Inserts
Yep. There are no insert sets in the 1998 Topps Tek set. Makes collecting the set a little easier. However, there Diffractor parallels, same idea as the refractor cards in every other Topps product. Nobody knows how many Diffractor cards of each patterned card there are, but it is a small quantity.
I have a few Lankfords. If you have a favorite 1990s player in this set, they do pop up from time to time. I didn't own any Lankford diffractors, but then managed to find three of them in roughly a year.
I kind of like the idea of not having any inserts. The Topps TEK set is geared towards player collectors, it's actually nice to just have the base cards with nothing else to find.
Best Former Durham Bulls Player In The Set
I like that there are some different players in this set. Always nice to see new faces, especially in a set that was only 90 cards. I decided to go with a player who did not get into many of the small sets from the late 1990s/early 2000s, but also a former player with a current connection to the Durham Bulls. He's actually connected to the area in general.
I decided to go with Quinton McCracken who was the Durham Bulls first base coach in 2019. He also played for the Durham Bulls as a player in 2000. Beyond his two appearances with the Bulls, McCracken is actually from Wilmington, North Carolina and played football and baseball at Duke. Did Chipper Jones ever return a punt for a touchdown against Clemson? How about Andruw Jones or David Justice? No? Quinton McCracken did.
Best Cardinals Card
Again, whoever made the checklist for Topps TEK did a great job. There are three Cardinals players in this set. The standard Cardinals who appeared in these late 1990s small sets were Mark McGwire, Ray Lankford, and then some combination of Ron Gant, Dennis Eckerlsey, or Andy Benes. Every once in awhile, you got a Brian Jordan, like you get in this set.
Obviously not on the same level as McGwire, not quite as good as Lankford, but he was a pretty big contributor for the 1990s Cardinals. In his last three full seasons as a Cardinal (95, 96, and 98), he led the team twice in WAR and finished second the other time. His career numbers are also better than both Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders.
Best Non-Cardinals/Durham Bulls Card
Topps TEK is a pretty unique set, so I am trying to pick a card here for a different reason.
There were no update sets in the late 1990s, but you could usually find players in new uniforms as the season went along. Topps TEK was a late fall release, so there were several players who were traded within the season.
Gary Sheffield is a Dodger, but started the year as a Marlin.
Mike Piazza is a Met, but started the year as a Dodger. Also a stop off with the Marlins.
Randy Johnson is an Astro, but started the year as a Mariner.
There is one long-time Major Leaguer in this set who is in a rather odd looking uniform. I love cards like the 1984 Fleer Update Pete Rose Expos card, or Rickey Henderson Mariner cards, etc, etc. According to COMC, this is the only card this player had with this team during the 1998 calendar year, and only one of two dozen cards this player had with this team in all. They have over 1,500 cards in stock of this player.
Here is the card.
Konerko played 2,200 games as a member of the White Sox and 28 games as a Red. His lone 1998 card as a member of the Reds with this Topps TEK. He had several Reds cards at the beginning of the 1999 card calendar, but was traded to the White Sox weeks after the end of the 1998 season. Most of his 1999 cards are with the White Sox. I know he was also on the Dodgers for part of a season and had tons of cards made while he was in their Minor League system.
How Does It Compare?
On paper, this is a really great concept for a set. My main criticism is the fact that it is actually pretty difficult to assemble the full run of 90 cards for a player. Should it really take more than 20 years to assemble a set? No.
The design is decent, but nothing spectacular. The back is weird with the speculative stats too. Give me some good old home runs or strikeouts. If we are just strictly comparing it to other acetate card sets from this era, it's definitely behind the Skybox EX products.
The two biggest positives are the checklist and the fact that the set is focused on collecting base cards and not not bogged down with inserts. I love that Topps squeezed in some different players, star players in new uniforms during an era with no update sets, etc.
It feels like it fits best in the middle of my list. It obviously needs to be below the 2001 Fleer EX set. I will also put it below the Mini League Leaders set, but above the burlap sack cards in the 2017 Heritage Minors.
