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The Countdown to 400 unique John Kruk cards continues with these recent mail days delivered and cataloged into the collection. 

The first one here, 1991 Topps Tiffany, was one I was surprised I needed. Topps Tiffany is known for its super bright card back; but I have always found it weird it wasn't Tiffany blue. Unless this isn't that Tiffany?


Next we have 1993 Upper Deck Gold Hologram. You have to admire the filth of Kruk's uniform on the front of the card and the glorious flow of the mullet on the back of the card. I haven't got through the set to see how many other kind of "old school" uniforms are depicted, such as Kruk's "Phils" uniform. 

These next two cards are Members Only stamped Stadium Club cards for 1994. The bottom one is a "Quick Start", for which only six cards were included in the checklist, I think: Kruk, Clemens, Fielder, Sierra, Gwynn, and Glavine. Both of these have a 5,000 print run. 



Last up a sad, stupid unlicensed card from 2013 Panini. this is the Hometown Heroes States parallel.  There is another parallel for the Zip Code that I'd like to acquire sometime/somehow/somewhen.
 


My baseball thought for today is that teams should not issue anything longer than a five-year contract. It seems to me a couple of teams locked guys up forever, like the Padres. Well, what happens if it doesn't work out. You're probably stuck with what will be horrible contract for 6+ years. It's bad business.

Thanks for stopping by!

Comments

  1. CardBoredomJune 30, 2025 at 5:50 PM

    First off, these parallels (Tiffany/UD Gold Hologram/SC Members Only) can be a bit challenging to land. Good job finding them.

    Yes, Tiffany cards are indeed named after the jewelry store, but were never called that by Topps (cards were called the "Collectors Edition"). The name was something that sprang out of the hobby, along the lines of something in an unrelated area being called the "Cadillac" of its field. The jewelry store (now part of luxury group LVMH) is famously litigious and probably would have filed suit against Topps had they used Tiffany blue as part of the design. Earlier in my career I had to pitch Tiffany & Co as potential investment and told the audience that the company made its money selling people package deals: 15% of the price customers paid was for jewelry and the rest was for the blue box it came in. Tiffany is fiercely protective of that shade of blue, though interestingly enough, they didn't finish nailing down the related rights to this color/marketing combo until 1998.

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    1. Peter K SteinbergJuly 2, 2025 at 3:51 PM

      Thank you for your comment, CardBoredom! Your info on Tiffany is really interesting and I appreciate that you took the time to write it all!

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  2. BoJuly 1, 2025 at 6:47 AM

    Several years ago the company I worked for at the time gave out Tiffany bowls instead of cash gifts at holiday time. Never used the bowls but my wife and daughter like the boxes.

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