1994 Collector's Choice #466 Gold Signature

Card Review: 7.5  Usually I like the gold variation of Collector's Choice cards best.  With this particular set though it's my least favorite of the three variations.  Unlike the regular base card, and the Silver Signature copy, this gold variation lacks the light brown pinstripes on the front.  I'm sure with a little effort they could have figured out a way to include them.  Their omission makes the card feel a little bland.

While this card is somewhat ordinary, it's acquisition is anything but.  This marks the last "regular" card I need on my "Most Wanted List" from Wallach's actual playing career.  There are some oddball items that are at best quasi cards and some modern serial numbered type stuff, but with the acquisition of this card, I feel the collection is more or less complete.  As far as unique cards go anyways.  I'm still a solid 8-12 million away from actually having them all. 

Number of this card in my collection: 1

1994 Mother's Cookies #10

Card Review: 7.7  These Mother's Cookies sets didn't change much (or really at all) from year to year.  Which is fine with me, for some reason I really like them.  Thanks to user comments (and ebay searches) I've learned that they were given out in packs at the Stadiums in California once a year (I've seen A's, Angels, Dodgers, and I assume Giants and Padres exist too).  You didn't get the complete set in a pack and a lot of trading went on.  It's kind of a cool idea, though as a ten year old I would have rather just been given the whole set.  These were a real bear for me to track down.  I believe I have all the Mother's Cookies Wallachs now (one more to come), but every time I say something definitive like that some other set pops up and proves me wrong.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 2

1994 Pinnacle #484 Artist's Proof

Card Review: 6.5  This is the 3rd variation of '94 Pinnacle.  I don't really know what the deal was with this one.  The "Museum Collection" are sort of cool, and drastically different. The only thing that makes this any different from the base card is the stamp above the name.  Was the "art" themed titles to these some sort of tie-in that I'm oblivious too?  I don't know.  There's just not much to get excited about here.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2014 update: n/a

2015 update: n/a

2016 update: n/a

2017 update: n/a

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: 2

1994 Fleer Extra Bases #297

Card Review: 3.3  A small part of me really likes the novelty of over-sized cards.  But a much larger part of me is very much annoyed by the dilemma they create in how to store them.  As a young kid I loved them, and that's demographic I'm sure Fleer was going for, so I'm not really trying to complain.  In fairness to over-sized cards, the '86 Donruss All-Star is one of my all-time favorite Wallachs.  Size aside, this is just sort of a dull and boring card.  The front picture quality is well above average, but everything else is pretty boilerplate.

*Unrelated side note.  After fighting with my spell check, and subsequently looking it up, I realized I've been spelling "dilemna" wrong my entire life.  Even after looking it up, I'm not convinced I wasn't taught to spell it with an "n" and am pretty sure I see it in print with the "n" the vast majority of the time.  The "mm" spelling looks bizarre to me.

Number of this card in my collection: 2
2014 update: n/a
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: n/a
2017 update: 3

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 4

1994 Leaf Limited #122

Card Review: 5.0  I guess as far as over-produced, over-priced, over-slicked sets from the mid-90's go, this one isn't the worst.  This, like so many other similar sets, just doesn't feel like a baseball card to me. Baseball is dirty.  Baseball is grass stains.  Baseball is that weird leather sweat that gets on your hand when you wear a glove.  It's hat head.  It's cheap cement and wooden dugout floors littered with sunflower shells and gum.  It isn't whatever this card is.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2013 update: 2

2014 update: 11

2015 update: n/a

2016 update: n/a

2017 update: 16

2018 update: 17

2019 update: 18

2020 update: 22

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 24

1994 Stadium Club #217 1st Day Issue

Card Review: 8.5  This is the 4th (and I believe final) variation of the '94 Stadium Club Wallach.  Of the three "fancy" ones I like this one the best.  But I prefer just the clean base card to all of them.  Way too many gimmicks for my taste.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

1994 Topps Spanish #143

Card Review: 7.1  Topps missed a fantastic opportunity with this card.  It's a Spanish language version of the '94 Topps base set.  For decades Topps put out French language set of the same design in Canada and called it O-Pee-Chee.  O-Pee-Chee is  cool to say, and looks funny on the cards in place of Topps.  Why didn't we get a Spanish name in place of Topps?  Here are some of the options they missed out on, any of which would have looked awesome.  As a disclaimer, I'm not fluent in Spanish, I can order a beer, and tell a cab driver where to take me, but that's about it.  So if some of these translations don't work, or worse yet are offensive, I apologize.

Spanish alternatives for "Topps"

"Alto"

"Toda"

"Mejor"

"Primero"

Any of those in the "Topps" font on the front and back of this card would have looked pretty cool.  It's too bad they opted not to do it.

Number of this card in my collection: 2

1994 Score Gold Rush #446

Card Review: 5.1  I like '94 score.  The design just doesn't lend itself well to these gold parallels well.  I don't believe there was a diamond set done in '94, that would probably have looked pretty good.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2014 update: 2 
2015 update: 4 
2016 update: 5
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: n/a
2019 update: 8

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 10

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 11

1994 Topps Finest #61

Card Review: 4.5  This card didn't scan anywhere near as well as it's refractor counter-part did.  I'm just not wild about these Topps Finest cards.  They feel less like a baseball card, and more like some sort of lame toy you'd buy packaged with a pin or some other gimmick.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2013 update: 2
2014 update: 4
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: n/a
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 5

1994 Fleer Ultra #220

Card Review: 8.3  The photo quality is pretty nice on the front of this card, but I'm just not wild about this Ultra set.  The backs feel generic, and ultimately it's not much different than 50+ plus other sets from the mid 90's.  The idea of the gold strip carrying over from the front to the back is kind of novel, but for reason I just don't like it.  I give them credit for trying, and definitely would have supported the idea when brainstorming design ideas, but in application, it just doesn't work.  Maybe it needed to carry all four edges, but full bleed photos were all the rage then.

Number of this card in my collection: 4
2013 update: 23
2014 update: 29
2015 update: 33
2016 update: 34
2017 update: 35
2018 update: 36
2019 update: 41
2020 update: 42

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 44

2023 update: 46

2024 update: 48

2025 update: 49

2026 update: 50

1994 Leaf #21

Card Review: 8.3  For the 2nd year in a row Leaf went with the over-sized player Godzilla style backs.  I prefer the cities in '93 to the '94 stadiums.  Another simple clean front.  I'm not wild about these cards, but to Leaf's credit they've held up a lot better than most sets of the era.

Number of this card in my collection: 11

2013 update: 23

2014 update: 26

2015 update: 32

2016 update: 39

2017 update: 40

2018 update: 46

2019 update: 47

2020 update: 48

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 51

2025 update: 59

2026 update: 61

1994 Collector's Choice #466 Silver Signature

Card Review: 8.2  I like the "Silver Signature" variation of '94 Collector's Choice a little bit better than the base card.  Upper Deck should have gone with a singature on all the cards and found some other way to do a variation (or not do variations at all)

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 2
2014 update: n/a
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: 3
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 4
2019 update: 5

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: 6

2024 update: 7

1994 Flair #184

Card Review: 4.2  This 1994 edition is probably the best effort put out by Flair, not that thats saying too much.  The background photo on the front appears to be out of focus on purpose.  I'm not sure if they were all like that, as this is the only example a '94 Flair that I've ever seen, or if it's just crummy photo selection.  The back shows that Flair was clearly capable of printing in focus.  As far stupid card concepts go, "Flair" is definitely in the running for dumbest of all-time.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 4
2014 update: 5 
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: 7
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 10
2019 update: 11
2020 update: 16

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 18

2023 update: 19

2024 update: 20

1994 Stadium Club Member's Only #217

 






Card Review: 7.4 This card is basically the same as the regular '94 Stadium Club, but it has a stupid little "member's only" logo stamped on the front.  I'm not sure how one became a member, or what the benefits were, other than cards slightly uglier than the regular cards.  Thankfully, there are fewer of these uglier versions floating around than the standard version, and the standard version is a pretty nice looking card.  It's tough to tell for sure where this photo was taken, given Wallach's in a road jersey, but if it's a road stadium (and not a spring training facility), I'd be curious to know how many ball parks had indoor hitting cages for the road teams back in the early 90's.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2014 update: 3

1994 Topps Finest #361 Refractor

 








Card Review: 6.5  It doesn't show up well in the scan, but this is in fact a refractor.  You can see the difference best on the sleeve of his throwing arm.  I guess I never understood the whole Topps Finest thing.  To me, these seem more akin to the Topps Coins than a Topps Baseball Card.  They never had much appeal to me, even at the time, I remember them being pretty popular (and crazy expensive), but I never felt like I was missing out on anything by not buying any.

These '94 Finest Refractor's are far cheaper than their '93 counterparts, but I've found they're also harder to come by.  I see '93 Refractor's pop up on ebay on a regular basis, the fact I only have one copy is a result of the price they demand (1 refractor for $30, or 300 80's Topps base cards is an easy choice for me).  These '94, and 95's as well, rarely show up in the ebay search feed.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 2
2014 update: n/a
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: n/a

1994 SP Die-Cut #81

Card Review: 5.1 These die-cuts remind me of a scene from Oliver Stone's "Born on the 4th of July."  Tom Cruise is getting a tour of the burger joint is friend has started.  The marquee burger is in the shape of a ring.  The friend is bragging that his idiot customers are actually paying for less meat.  That's kind of how I feel about die-cuts.

Here's a link to the regular un-cut card.

Number of this card in my collection: 2
2013 update: 3
2014 update: 10 
2016 update: 15
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 16

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 18

2023 update: 19

2024 update: n/a

2025 update: 20

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #408

Card Review: 3.6  This is just an uglier version of the '94 Upper Deck base card.  These "special" electric diamond cards came one to a pack I believe.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 4
2014 update: 11
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: 14
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 15

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: 16

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: 17

1994 Studio #73

Card Review:  1.5  Studio was a rather regretable set that Donruss put out for a few years.  This one however is kind of funny.  Take a look at the zoomed in picture of the card below.  That appears to be a Topps vending box in Wallach's locker.  Nice work Donruss.

Number of this card in my collection: 5

2012 update: 7

2013 update: 13

2014 update: 14

2015 update: 16 

2016 update: 18

2017 update: n/a

2018 update: 19

2019 update: 28

2020 update: 29

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 30

2025 update: 35

1994 Triple Play #90

Card Review: 9.1  I like this '94 Triple Play design.  What I like even more is that Wallach was given his own card in '94 after being relegated to a card with two other new acquisitions by the Dodgers in the '93 Triple Play set.  Full career stats are always welcome on the back of a card.

Number of this card in my collection: 6
2012 update: 7
2013 update: 24
2015 update: 25 
2016 update: 28
2017 update: 29
2018 update: 30
2019 update: 35

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: 36

2024 update: 38

2025 update: 43

2026 update: 44

1994 LAPD D.A.R.E. #29

Card Review: 0.4  This "card" has stock so thin it barely qualifies as a card.  It's slightly thicker than the cover of a magazine. I've heard these were given out to kids by the LAPD.  Instead they ended up on the secondary market.  Wonder what the school kids did with the money they got for selling them.

Number of this card in my collection: 2
2013 update: n/a
2014 update: n/a
2015 update: n/a
2016 update: n/a
2017 update: 3

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: 4

2021 update: 5

2022 update: 6

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: n/a

2025 update: 8

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