'90s inserts: Which set reached the highest price?

[Lemieux66]

Was it one of the Select Mirror Gold or Select Mirror Platinum sets? Topps Gold Refractors?

I'm not talking about current value, I'm talking about during its heyday. Which insert or parallel set reached the highest price?

[centrehice]

97-98 Pinnacle Totally Certified Mirror Golds and Platinum Golds were in the stratosphere in 1999-2000. More seemed to change hands in 1999 than a year earlier because not everyone was on eBay. By 2,000 everybody was on eBay and these cards just took off on the secondary market.

[capt55]

I had 3 Roys and they booked at 1000.00 each, do they book at 150.00 each now.

[pwaldo]

Probably depends on what year you are talking about and whether or not you are talking about BV or SV. Not many people were on eBay in the 90s and card shops probably still make up a big chunk of sales.

Here's a Top 10 hockey insert list from September 1997 if you want a taste of what it was like:

[hossa18sens]

1998-99 UD Choice Gold where and are big bucks. Considering the where out of /100 they where hard to find

I saw the nobody's at the time priced at $300-500 at the expo (And they where gone by the end of it)

[87sluggo]

Those were cards I had no idea even existed at the time, I busted retail packs from 7-11's, I'd be thrilled with a UD Choice Reserve card if I got one. I found 95/96 UD Choice pack in a dollar store once, 4 for a buck, I probably opened 400 of them, got ONE Platinum Geoff Sanderson, it was the greatest thing EVER at the time :D

[mooneyes]

So, today's Expensive "gems" ( with a very few exceptions) are tomorrows meh...

Why do I collect again?...O-o

[centrehice]

Not necessarily.

Had cards continued down the road of 1:1,200 packs serial numbered or colored parallels, then those Select Certified and Totally Certified would continue to hold value.

However….

Following the Lock-out, the market did a complete about face. I cannot think of one new Collector that started in 2005-06 who collects anything but GU, GU with Auto, or Patch, or Patch with Auto.

New collectors don't have time for 90's parallels or vintage, so these fall by the wayside. Now todays expensive gems will not always be tomorrow's Meh, but because the market continues to be saturated with Game-Used and bazillions of autos, then perhaps plain card board may make a comeback.

The train left the tracks exactly 9 years after the introduction of the first Upper Deck Game-Used cards in 1996. Game-Used and expensive parallels existed in a symbiotic relationship until the Lock-out.

Once Crosby and Ovy showed up, everything in the collecting world changed. As I mentioned in another thread. 20 year old collectors really don't know who Wayne Gretzky is, and his cards continue to falter more than any single player today.

[pwaldo]

1998-99 UD Choice Gold where and are big bucks. Considering the where out of /100 they where hard to find

That's because UD produced millions of boxes of Collector's Choice and UD Choice, nobody opened up the product, and the majority of those that did were younger collectors who either damaged the cards or didn't have the means to put them up on eBay. That happens most of the time with retail stuff or "kid oriented" products but most of them don't number stuff and at the time something #D out of 100 was still really rare so the high value of the stuff kinda makes sense. I mean if you busted a buck a pack product and the insert was 1 in every 720 packs it would take $720 to basically pull one at the given odds so paying $100 to get the card from an eBay auction would be saving yourself some cash in theory.

[JayT_59]

Back in the day I pulled an 96/97 Yzerman BD Triple Diamond Gold /50. Booked at $400 at the time. Sold it a couple years ago for $150.