In 1993 Topps made its first super-premium set, Finest: 199 cards on chromium stock, sold only to hobby shops, in boxes of eighteen packs. Topps announced that it had made 4,000 cases, the first time a manufacturer had published its production that way.
Every card also came in a Refractor version that bent the light into a rainbow. They are widely described as the hobby's first, and they are commonly estimated at about 241 copies of each card, a figure Topps never confirmed. Nothing on the front says Refractor. You tilt the card and see.
Nothing on the card says Refractor. You tilt it, and it tells you.
Ken Griffey Jr. is #110, in the All-Stars subset, #84 through #116. BASEBALL'S FINEST ALL-STARS runs across the top between two stars, over a spotlit triangle, with Griffey in a navy batting helmet and jersey and his name on a plate beside the Topps logo. On the Refractor the green ground shimmers.
It was his year. He hit .309 with 45 home runs and 109 runs batted in, and in July he homered in eight straight games, tying the record of Dale Long and Don Mattingly. He won his fourth straight Gold Glove.
Refractors are unforgiving: centering and the smallest surface scratch both show.
