Top 100 Jose Canseco Baseball Cards – 1999 Skybox Thunder Super Rave /25
When it comes to the hall of fame, you typically think if a player hit 500 home runs, had 3,000 hits, or pitched 300 wins, you are an automatic shoe-in (sans steroid use.) For baseball cards, when it comes to 90s cards, if it is a serial numbered card to /25 or less, that is typically a good indicator of it being grail status.
The 1999 Skybox Thunder Super Rave /25 is no exception.
In 1996, Skybox released the first “Rave” parallel, numbered to /150. That continued for each year up to 1999. 1998 saw the first ultra rare “Super Rave”, a card numbered to /25. The legendary cardboard effort was duplicated in 1999, as Skybox gave us the 2nd and final Super Rave offering numbered to /25 as well.
For Canseco, the hardest card to find by far has been the 1999 Super Rave. While both 98 and 99 are numbered to /25, I’ve only personally seen the ’99 pop once – and it didn’t even have the word “rave” in the title. That isn’t to say the ’98 is common. It has cemented itself as a grail for 90s collectors. Whenever one pops, they go for big money. But the ’99 just never seems to hit. In fact, most all 90s grails have been available on the open market more often than the ’99 Super Rave.
From a design perspective, the ’99 Raves and Super Raves are by far the most muted of them all, and there might be a reason for that. Prior to this release, Skybox operated under the Marvel banner, which may explain why it abruptly went from crazy, loud colors, to a more calm design. That is complete speculation, but it seems to line up for me, anyway!
Still, I wonder why the ’99 Super Rave is so much tougher than the ’98. The number of them printed is the same, so where are they? A deeper dive shows that not only is the ’99 Super Rave toughest of the run, but the ’99 Rave numbered to /150 is also significantly more difficult than the others. Sales data over the past 20 years show that the ’96-’98 /150 Raves have popped between just 5-10 times each. The ’99 Rave? Once.
Diving even further into PSA POP reports, the ’98s have been graded about twice as often as the ’99s. But why is this? The world may never know. One interesting thing to note that I recently discovered. Both the ’99 Rave and Super Rave Canseco cards have metallic flake material in the upper left corner of the card where there shouldn’t be any. I’ve seen this on others as well. Perhaps that is why there are NO ’99 Raves graded by PSA and ONE ’99 Super Rave graded by PSA. Was this residue from foil on the backing of other serial numbered Rave/Super Rave parallels? If so, why were they stacked together ever? So, so, so many questions!
(Helpful tip! I spent time on my ’99 Super, and found that a soft rag wiped the metallic flakes off, though it did take a firm hand, and a long time. WARNING: Do NOT rub *too* hard, or you may cause issues on the surface of your card!)
It is fitting that after over a decade of searching, the final piece to my “Rave Party” – the 1999 Super Rave came in this past week, and was able to grab the Rave /150 a few months ago. Interestingly enough, the ’99 Rave I picked up a few months ago is the exact copy that was in my previous collection that I sold out years ago!
Oh, and as an added bonus, we get perhaps the goofiest commentary of Jose from a card, ever…
“From the Jays to the Rays, you’re all about givin’ us happy days. What can we say, Jose? You can play.” – Uhmm…what? I don’t know what they were thinking, but I love it!
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