My first entry featuring a subject from a post-1995 set is an unusual and unannounced replacement card found in 1998 Collector’s Choice, a product who’s only claims to fame are it’s extremely difficult to locate Crash the Game Instant Winner Cards and it’s Starquest Home Run insert-parallels. 1998 Collector’s Choice is just about as unspectacular as you can get for a product produced for kids.
This card doesn’t appear to be anything special, another 1998 rookie sensation from their Rookie Class subset, right? Well, this card, oddly enough, shares the same number as Philadelphia Phillies role player Tony Barron (card #204), located away from the other Rookie Class subjects in the set. From what I can find, it appears this card was issued in factory sets, completely unannounced by Upper Deck, who most certainly were trying to catch onto the Kerry Wood bandwagon rather late in the season.
While I don’t know what the production number of the factory sets is, I do know that I hardly see these pop up anywhere for sale, which makes sense as they are rather unassuming, especially after Wood’s less-then-outstanding career, and are probably floating around commons and quarter bins these days. Overall, a pretty interesting variation with very little information about it out there. At a few bucks a pop, these seem like a pretty decent buy, if you can find them, at least until tons of them start showing up.
Junk Wax Gems 
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