Twenty Five Years

 “We’ve lost Dale Earnhardt.”

Those words from Mike Helton, 25 years ago today, still haunt me.  

I was late for work that day (I was a college kid working part time at Walmart), but I had to see the end of the race.  Then it happened.  I waited for word that Dale Earnhardt was okay so that I could head to word.  I was even later than I thought I’d be because those words never came.  It was at work that Don, who was the door greeter (remember those?) told me it’d been announced that he died.  I was dumbfounded.  It didn’t seem real.  

It hit me that it was real when some asshole came to check out with me, every Dale Earnhardt diecast in his cart, and said “If I can’t 10x my money on these I’m bringing them back” and then laughed about it.  If not for knowing I needed that job to get by, that dude would have received a rage-fueled ass whipping that he’d still think about from time to time. 

He wasn’t “my guy.”  When I got into NASCAR in the mid-90s, Earnhardt was the guy that all the rednecks cheered for and I was not a redneck.  So I didn’t like him.  But over the next handful of years he grew on me and had become one of my favorites, even after edging out “my guy” for the 1998 Daytona 500.  Hindsight is always 20/20 and I’m happy he got that win.

I originally wrote the lines above for an Instagram post.  As I've decided to give blogging a try again, I figured I may as well post here too.  It's funny how things work sometimes.  In Night Owl's post yesterday, he said "I'm not a natural boaster and generally feel inadequate much of the time (though I'm getting better the older I get). I always assume others have more/are better." 

After nearly 40 years collecting cards, I often feel that way about my collection.  Looking through my Earnhardt collection made me feel a bit less that way.  I know there are cards that I have that many others would love to have in their collection.  So while the purpose of going through my cards was initially for an Instagram post, it was also therapeutic in a way and put a little spring in my step.  

Anyway, on to the cards.  When I talk about them I'll be referring to numbers, in order like you'd read. 

The first two cards are 1/1s.  Earnhardt's driving career ended 25 years ago today and that before the card manufacturers threw out as many 1/1s as they could.  Off the top of my head, I only know of one 1/1, non-printing plate out there.  I believe it was a High Gear "Solo" (get it?).  It sold within the last handful of years.  I know who has it.  I also know it won't be available any time soon.  

The first 1/1 is a Press Pass, post career 1/1.  Happy to have it, but it's not from my NASCAR fandom years so I'm not as in love with it as perhaps I should be.  On the other hand, I am much more happy about the "Team Pinnacle" plate.  It's driving-era and it's Pinnacle.  I love me some Pinnacle to this day.  It blows my mind that the dufex technology they used can't seem to be duplicated today.  

The third card is a card I wanted for years.  However, only one came available before this one and they wanted a stupid price.  About a year ago, my copy came available.  One of the corners has a ding.  The signature on the card isn't very bold.  Those two "imperfections" are the reason I have it.  If not for those, I never could have afforded it.  It's serial numbered out of 50, celebrates NASCAR's 50th season and depicts Earnhardt's celebration after winning the 1998 Daytona 500.  Absolute grail card for me. 

The fourth card is easily the most sentimental card for me.  It is both the first Earnhardt autograph I obtained, and I consider it a gift from my wife.  She isn't big on buying cards for me.  When she does, it's typically blaster boxes at Christmas and I've let her know the things I'd be interested in.  She also despises gift cards as gifts.  However, she gave me an ebay gift card one Christmas and I put it toward this card.  She doesn't buy me many cards (which I'm okay with), she doesn't usually give gift cards...and combining those two things make this a special card to me.  

The final card doesn't look impressive and I acknowledge that.  However, it is an EXTREMELY scarce and desirable card.  I believe what I saw in the past was that the estimated print run is less than 25.  Be that as it may, you will rarely find a copy of this card available.  I lucked into it a few years ago in a Facebook NASCAR group.  The seller had a partial set he wanted to sell, but didn't want to separate the lot.  About a year later he relented, reached out to me and after sleeping on it overnight pulled the trigger.  I've never regretted it.  

Some of you may be familiar with the first one, as it was a part of a Classic 5-Sport set.  That set was one of the first to introduce me to racing cards and brings back all the feels of teenage collecting when I look at it.  The two relics are some of the earliest relic cards produced.  Not just in racing, but in all of sports cards.  

I love the aesthetics of the relic card.  The card design, combined with it being a red parallel and a red and white relic makes it beautiful in my eyes.  He may have been "The Man in Black" but it just wouldn't look as good if it was a black and white firesuit swatch.  

The card below it is Upper Deck, die cut, a "checkered flag" parallel and /100.  What more could you do to make the card better?  I have no clue.  

The one vertical card is a Press Pass "Golden" parallel numbered to 50.  While that makes it desirable enough, it's also copy number three - Earnhardt's (most well known) car number.  

Oil Slicks parallels have print runs of 100 and are some of my favorite cards.  Press Pass missed by not making for more than a handful of years.  

Another favorite parallel is the early years of "MPH."  Look at that holofoil shine!  Press pass did a disservice in later years, really removing the shine from them, though keeping them numbered.  

I like these because I don't know much about them.  They are 24KT Artist Proof parallels.  Obviously enough is known about them for PSA to grade them, but I never had any luck figuring out the distribution on them.  Were they pack issued?  Were they backdoored when Pinnacle was shuttered?  In a way, not knowing everything about them adds to the appeal for me.  

This one isn't a card, but instead a ticket stub from the 1998 Daytona 500, which Earnhardt won on his 20th attempt.  This was a gift from my friend Logan.  He was at the race, held onto it for all those years and had it graded all before he gifted it to me.  Having cards (or ticket stubs) is great, but it's even better when there is a story behind it.  

If you made it this far, thanks for checking it out and reading all my rambling!