1999 Topps Super Chrome

Greetings...

Hope everyone is doing well.  If it weren't for everyone's favorite Buddha, ol' Jafronius would have been the sole poster for the first quarter of 2021.  That's a lot of posts of just me.  

This could be another effect of The Virus...all the current product was purchased by the flippers, so the APTBNL staff dug into their collections or old LCS inventory and posted what they could find.  Now, the old stuff has already been posted and the new stuff is not as hard to find, but you still gotta be lucky. No idea.

Anyway, here's something I came across the last couple of times I was in my L(ish)CS:

I usually dive into the big green tub of cheap old packs there, but I still wander about the store to see all the cards and packs I won't be able to buy.  The last two times I've been there they had an open box of these Super Chrome packs.  4 bucks for 3 cards was the asking price.  

According to Baseballcardpedia.com, Super Chrome was a 2 year effort, with 1999 being the final year.  Each set consisted of 36 cards and the design mirrored that year's Topps flagship set.  1998 had 36 players but 1999 only had 30, with 6 highlight cards.  Here's a link to the checklist if anyone's curious.

The only parallels were refractors, which came 1 in 12 packs.  There were 12 packs in a box.

Here's the first pack:

#5 - Kerry Wood (Refractor) 

Look at that, I lucked out and pulled the Refractor.  The card measures 4 1/8" X 5 3/4", so this is super chromey and super big!

Here's the back of Kid K.  You see the Refractor label at the top left and the Super Chrome logo at the top right.

#22 - Barry Bonds

I'm too lazy to look up 1999 cards online but I'm assuming Super Chrome is using the same image as flagship...I don't think Topps was into SP's and SSP's and SSSP's back then.

#21 - Moises Alou

That was the first pack.  I was quite pleased, so I picked up another pack the last time I was there.

#1 - Roger Clemens

#36 - Scott Brosius (World Series Highlights)

Here's one of the 6 Highlight cards in the 1999 set.  It's too bad 6 players had to be cut for the Highlights, but I guess this is the only way "Ferocious" could get into the Super Chrome set (Is that his nickname?  Probably not...I just like how it rhymes).

#35 - Sammy Sosa (HR Parade #66)

This is nice in hand though.  Yes, McGwire's 70th homer has a card in the set too.  That would be a Super Big Mac!

Here's the back of the card.  Not as Chromey but still Super!

Again, these cards are 4 1/8" X 5 3/4" so storing them would be difficult but not impossible.  For those like me who aren't good with fractions, here's Super Chromey Sosa next to regular Stadium Club Sosa:

If ol' Jafronius had used a Sosa rookie here instead, this part would be full of steroid puns.

Anyway, that's the pack.  For the record, these were enjoyable rips.

More eventually.  Have a good weekend, and thanks for reading!