1998 Topps Gold Label: Group Break Wrap-up (Plus Details on My Next Group Break!)

 My 1998 Topps Gold Label group break is in the books.  As usual, I busted the box on Saturday night via YouTube streaming...and like last week, I had some technical difficulties with my internet.  My plan is to call my cable internet provider today to try and get things figured out...I pay for super fast internet so I don't know what's going on (I have trouble doing Zoom/Teams streaming for work as well at times so it's not a YouTube specific issue).

Anyhow, my internet woes aren't of interest to you...but hopefully our spoils from the 1998 Gold Label box will be of interest!

I've been looking forward to busting a box of 1998 Gold Label for a long time...in fact, I've had a saved search for boxes of '98 Gold Label on eBay for over a year before I finally found a box at a somewhat affordable price.  

For my money, the '98 Gold Label set is probably the best designed set in the entire Gold Label run.  The only thing that I don't like about it is that Topps didn't clearly mark the class (parallel version) on the card.  Sure, they used different color foil and stamping but that doesn't always show up when you are quickly sorting cards...trust me as I missed one of the Class 2 parallels the first time through the sorting process for the group break!

Speaking of the classes, there are 3 parallel classes:

Class 1 is your "base card."  The cards feature the player fielding in the background (the larger image) and gold foil is used for the name plate (as shown in the above scan).

Class 2 is the most common parallel (seeded 1:4 packs).  

They are easiest to spot by looking at the foil, Class 2 cards have glittery silver foil.  They also feature the player running in the background (or pitching in the case of Yoshii and Maddux).  Our box yielded the expected six Class 2 cards (Jeromy Burnitz, Andruw Jones, Ken Caminiti, Tim Salmon, Masato Yoshii, and Greg Maddux).  The Braves were the clear winner here - though the Tim Salmon card is also quite nice for the Angels!

The rarest of the parallels is the Class 3 parallel.  They are seeded 1:8 packs.  

The Class 3 cards are easiest to spot by the glittery gold foil used but you can also look at the background image and see if the player is batting.  Our three Class 3 parallels were of Edgar Martinez, Paul Konerko, and John Olerud.

That might seem like enough parallels but we are only getting started!  Each class has four versions ("regular" gold label, black label, red label, and one to one).  I can clear up any suspense right away by saying we didn't pull any of the 1/1 cards nor did we get a red label but we did get a fair number of black labels.

For Class 1, we pulled two Black labels which is exactly in line with the stated pack odds of 1:12 packs.  

Our two Class 1 Black Labels were of Edgar Martinez and Masato Yoshii...it was an Edgar and Masato hot box!

For Class 2, we pulled one Black label which is in line again with the stated pack odds of 1:24 packs (or essentially a box hit).  

Our single Class 2 Black Label went to the Twins with Chuck Knoblauch.

And finally, the big hit of the box was an unexpected Class 3 Black Label (seeded 1:48 packs or one every other box).  

Our Class 3 Black Label went to the Rockies with a lovely Vinny Castilla.

Finally, to round out the box we had one lone insert - a '98 Home Run Race card of Roger Maris.  

For me, this box was a rousing success.  We pulled at least one card of almost every superstar including a Barry Larkin.  I hope everyone enjoyed the break...and hopefully many of you will consider joining in my next group break which has sign ups going on now - it's for a box of 2018 Panini Diamond Kings, another super fun product to break!

UPDATE:  I meant to include the video of the break within this post: