The First Rainbow Ever? ACQUIRED!!!

[OhioLawyerF5]

Yesterday was a major mailday for me. I received what many consider the single best 90s card to own for a player collector. The 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold. For me, personally, it is #2 on my list as the 1998 Donruss Crusade set is my all time favorite, and therefore I rank the Red Crusade above the Mirror Gold. And there are certainly some other sets in consideration depending on your preference. But there is no denying the 96 Mirror Gold is a huge card for a player collector. So I thought I would share the card, along with the story of the significance of the set.

Here she is in all her glory!



According to baseballcardpedia.com, 1996 Select Certified was a 144-card hobby-only set released by Pinnacle Brands in the summer of 1996. This set contained a staggering (for the time) six levels of parallels and was one of the first sets that allowed individual player collectors to "chase the rainbow".

'96 Select Certified also redefined the standard for rarity for subsequent baseball card sets - up to the time this set was released, only a handful of inserts/parallels had either announced print runs or serial-numbering, which ranged from the high hundreds to high thousands. However, '96 Select Certified pushed the envelope by limiting the number of boxes distributed and drastically limiting the availability of all parallels, especially its Mirror parallels, which successfully contributed to establishment of the brand as a super-premium one, as intended a year prior. As a result, this set could be viewed as the impetus for the low serial numbering/print run craze that soon followed and harmoniously coincided with the "Insert Mania" wave of the mid-to-late 1990s that gave rise to cards numbered to ten, five, or one (e.g., Flair Masterpieces).

The announced print runs for the various parallels is as follows:

Certified Red (limited to 1800 copies)
Artist's Proof (limited to 500 copies)
Certified Blue (limited to 180 copies)
Mirror Red (limited to 90 copies)
Mirror Blue (limited to 45 copies)
Mirror Gold (limited to 30 copies)

These were stated print runs from the manufacturer as the cards were not serial numbered. Although the cards are not serial-numbered, many collectors believe that the announced production figures are accurate. This is based on sales data over the years and availability on the market. It also matches relatively closely to the stated odds for each parallel, considering a calculated print run of 64,800 total boxes produced, a figure that also appears accurate based on market data.

To my knowledge, there have only been 2 prior public sales of the Barry Larkin Mirror Gold, one in 2005 and one in 2019. Otherwise, this card is extremely scarce and I'm fortunate to have it. Big shoutout to Rodney Vallejo and Ben Schneider for thinking of me and helping me acquire this great card.

So many consider this to be the first real rainbow in the hobby. Here is it (please note that included is a picture of the base card as I don't currently have a copy of the artist proof. however, the artist proof looks identical to the base card but with a gold stamp in the lower left corner of the card that says Artist's Proof).