1993 Finest REFRACTOR #119 Craig Biggio (Astros)

Grade
NM/MINT
Book Value
n/a
Our Price
$ 165
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1993 Finest REFRACTOR #119 Craig Biggio (Astros)  cards value
Baseball
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Baseball

1993 Topps Finest Refractors
Checklist & Values


Topps went all in in 1993 with their most premium baseball card set to date, the famous 1993 Topps Finest set with RARE parallel issue REFRACTORS. With only 199 cards, 7 per team, the 'Finest' set only had room for the 'Finest' players !

Rare REFRACTORS were randomly placed in some packs. REFRACTORS looked exactly like regular cards unless you knew where AND how to look. Tilting a REFRACTOR in sunshine released a rainbow of colors, "refracting light" Topps scientists liked to say.

Current info is only 241 REFRACTORS were issued of each card making this parallel issue one of the scarcest. Collecting a complete set is made even more difficult by the hoarding of certain cards by collectors AND even major league baseball players !

Click for complete 1993 Topps Finest Refractors checklist, values & prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.

Baseball

1985 Leaf Baseball

In 1985 Donruss created a special version of its baseball cards (1985 Leaf) in an attempt to enter the Canadian baseball card market. Except for the addition of a colorful green leaf, the card fronts were virtually identical to Donruss cards. The most interesting difference occurred on the back where the Leaf cards featured text in both French and English !

At only 264 cards, the Leaf set was much smaller than Donruss with it's 660 cards. But ... because of it's smaller set size the Leaf set has a much higher percentage of star cards. There was also a special two-card "Canadian Greats" subset with paintings of Dave Stieb and Tim Raines.

Top rookies are: Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Orel Hershiser, Dwight Gooden and Mark Lamgston.


Baseball
Baseball card collecting terms (part C)

Cabinet Card Were oversized trading cards featuring paintings issued mostly 1910-1915.

Card Show is a gathering of dealers & collectors looking to buy/sell/trade sports cards and memorabilia.

Card Stock is the material a card is printed on. Usually paper-based, today companies play with the card stock and sometimes it appears to be wood or leather or see-thru acrylic ...

Cello Pack is a card pack whose wrapper is see-thru plastic. Usually the top & bottom cards are seen. Unopened cello packs showing major stars and rookies sell for heavy premiums.

Centering is the balance of the borders: top/bottom & left/right. On perfectly-centered cards, top/bottom borders match as do the left/right borders. Centering is presented as a set of numbers & directions and often included with the grade. Perfectly-centered is "50/50 t/b" AND "50/50 l/r". As centering gets worse, one number increases and the other decreases. For example: 90/10 t/b is considered extremely off-center top to bottom. The numbers add up to 100 (50/50, 60/40, 90/10 ...).

Certificate Of Authenticity (COA) A document used to verify legitimacy of a collectible. NOTE: Keep in mind that COA's are easier to fake then autographs.

Common A card of a non-star player is considered a "Common" as opposed to cards of a star players or specialty/subset cards such as league leaders, teams cards, World Series cards...

Condition (Grade) Centering, corner wear, photo clarity, edges, creases, print flaws ... all combine to determine a card's condition or grade. Along with rarity/scarcity it is the major factor in a card's value.

Crease Defect usually caused by bending the card. Hard to see, or not, a crease lowers the card's grade (VG or lower) and greatly diminishes it's value.

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