Chapter Two: “A Pitcher is Worth a Thousand Stripes?”

   The early nineties ushered in the concept of parallels, most notably with Topps Gold, and another icon of the times, the Wild Card stripe.  I was a fan of Wild Card back then, with the possibility of mailing in stacks of singles for striped versions.  Sadly, just as I was preparing to transform the contents of an entire case of 1992 World League Football cards into complete 20, 10, & 5-stripe sets, they declared bankruptcy and shut down their exchange program.

   On the second day of the convention, I discovered a dealer who had several binder pages full of 1000-stripe cards from ‘91 & ‘92 Wild Card NFL.  He was asking $20 a piece – mostly commons and semi-stars though.  However, on one of the “rec.collecting” newsgroups I followed, I knew someone who was looking to trade for or buy 1000-stripe cards. 

   Again, I am faced with a decision that could cost me $20.  I could afford to pick up a few of them, but the alternative is to save my money for later, perhaps for a box of Topps?

If you choose to load up on 1000-stripes, turn to page 5.

If you choose to mine for gold parallels, turn to page 92.