Some cool Ken Caminiti cards, Pt. 2
Here's a look at a few cards in my collection that stand out to me.
Ken Caminitiās baseball career coincided with lots of developments in the baseball card world.
His early major league days came during the so-called "junk wax era" because cards of the late 1980s and early 1990s were generally mass produced (and typically not very valuable).
Out of the age of stale gum and overprinted cardboard came developments that are still in use today: higher-end releases, serial-numbered inserts, flashy, shiny, chromium card stock, and autographs and game-used items featured on cards.
Here's a look at a few cards of Ken's in my collection that stand out to me (you can find Pt. 1 here).
1997 Pinnacle Inside Diamond Edition
Cards in a can? Sure, why not.
1997 Pinnacle Inside was gratuitousĀ and absurd -- each pack was housed inside a metal can.
The cans, despite being creative, weren't easy to stock on store shelves or sell, or to open, and to make matters worse, the insert odds were difficult, too. So you'd spend all of this time opening these soup cans and typically find cheap cards inside.
Lots of the cans remained unopened -- they make a neat display item.
Despite Pinnacle Inside's obvious flaws, I loved the product.
Ken is one of the players whose card is shown on the cans, and his best card from the product is a Diamond Edition parallel that features holographic foiling and jagged, die-cut edges, maybe representing the saw needed to open the cans.
1988 Jones Photo
This is more of a photo than a card, and it represents one of Ken's rarest early issues after his 1985 Osceola Astros team set card.
After he started the 1988 season with the Triple-A Tucson Toros in 1988, he was included in a "Jones Photo" giveaway for fans at a Toros game.
The photos were printed on Kodak photo paper and feature a Jones Photo gold stamp in the bottom right corner, along with a Toros logo and Ken's name in gold stamping at the top of the image.
Ken's teammate Craig Biggio has the most valuable photo among 1988 Tucson players, but Ken's Jones Photo issue is also coveted.
1998 Upper Deck Clearly Dominant
Ken's Clearly Dominant insert in Upper Deck Series 2 is the kind of card that requires you to tilt it and turn it and look at it under different lighting.
In addition to etched foil, the cards feature a diamond-shaped window showing the player that can be viewed from the front or back.
It's also serial numbered to 250 copies.
Here's what Ken's Clearly Dominant card looks like from the back, and with a light source behind it.