Have you visited our store? Click here.PWCC sells some of the nicest things
As a loyal customer and general fan of the firm, I keep close tabs on many of their auctions. They just sold some of the rarest baseball cards of the 1990s. Here’s a run of 13 different cards from the 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold block. If you’re like me, and knowing these have print runs of just 30 copies, there’s a good chance this is your first time seeing some of these. Enjoy reviewing the images and end prices.
Tony Gwynn 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #21 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 18
Price: $710.25
Bernie Williams 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #25 BGS 9
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 15
Price: $150.07
Cal Ripken Jr. 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #53 BGS 10
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 30
Price: $2,605
Chan Ho Park 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #120 BGS 10
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 41
Price: $1,841
The Most Wanted list
As a passionate Frank Thomas and general baseball card collector, I keep a Most Wanted list. Among others are just three cards from 1996. Two of which are from the ardently collected 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold parallel set – cards #1 and #135. Over the past two years, I’ve seen two copies of card #1, which seems like a fluke seeing that I’d never seen one made available prior to those two appearances. In a previous post, I share insights and a record of notable sales of cards from this elusive set.
So I’d seen card #1 sell for between $3-4000, which didn’t surprise me. Although, I think my blogging about this set has helped push the values of cards from this set up, which is both good for the hobby and the economy so in a way, that makes me happy. However, I think I’ve pretty much set myself up for likely having to pay more when I do finally get the opportunity to buy card #1.
So what about card #135?
Frank Thomas 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #135 BGS 10
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 26
Price: $4,085.11
I’d never once seen a scan of the Mirror Gold parallel of card #135, which hails from the Pastime Power subset at the end of the set – cards 135 to 144. I’d only ever really dreamed of seeing it. Back in 2014, I created a very raw visual list of top Frank Thomas cards I was chasing and in it was this card. The document was created in Google Docs and the purpose was to share the document with others in an effort to find what was on the list. The list included visuals and item data. Thing is, I didn’t have an image of this card so I played around with a another version of it in Photoshop and created what I thought the card might look like. The final result looked like crap but I used it anyway. The list didn’t yield any results so I scrapped it and eventually replaced it with the Most Wanted page on the Museum.
Back to PWCC
They recently sold a block of some of the most elusive cards from this set and among them was, to my surprise, card #135. Timing is everything and sadly, it wasn’t good timing for me. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to muscle any form of competitive buying power so I figured I’d just archive its history here for reference. While I’m sad not to have secured this example, there are 29 other copies of this card floating around the ethos so who knows, maybe we’ll meet again.
Greg Maddux 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #137 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 18
Price: $667.5
Mike Piazza 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #138 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 13
Price: $909
Cal Ripken Jr. 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #139 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 26
Price: $1,932.87
Albert Belle 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #140 BGS 9
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 16
Price: $129.49
Mo Vaughn 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #141 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 16
Price: $94
Chipper Jones 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #142 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 9
Price: $1,256.11
Hideo Nomo 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #143 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 24
Price: $405
Ryan Klesko 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold #144 BGS 9.5
Sold: November 14, 2018
# of Bids: 12
Price: $91
To view the current eBay auctions for 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold parallels, click here.
Thanks for this article. Very informative. I had no idea these were so rare.
I just found one of these, for a star, in my collection at my parents. Sending it off to get it graded I guess… The protective film is still on. Should I remove it before sending?
Regarding the film, I’ve heard some collectors say that peeling a card helps improve its overall look and associated final grade. Personally, I cringe whenever I hear about someone peeling their cards. As a collector, I prefer to keep my cards as representative of their original manufactured state as possible. The decision to peel or not to peel is yours. Just remember – once that peel has been removed, there’s no going back. Thanks for the comment.
Wow Thank You for this information, I have the number 135 Frank Thomas Past Time Power Card. I remember when My young son pulled it from a box Select Certified we bought together. At the time we pulled the card it was worth around 2800. According to Beckett. My card has is ungraded but has only been touched once.
What are the odds of finding a Marvin Harrison mirror gold 1996 select certified? What would be price for non graded but excellent condition?
Hi Rick,
Thanks for the comment. Odds of pulling Mirror Golds aren’t public record, and we don’t do price quotes. However, we encourage you to review eBay Completed Sold listings of similar players to get an idea of current market value of your Marvin Harrison.