Pinnacle was trying all sorts of crazy ideas in 1997-98 and they decided to market a product: Pinnacle Inside that featured cards in a can.
The card series was actually well designed and creative. The idea of cards in a can though, just did not fly! The first problem was that most people like to bust their packs right away. With the can, you had to use a can opener to open your pack.
The tins came in two variations: the common silver tin and the rare gold tin. I personally never saw one of these gold tins. As a kid I managed to get one can. It was on the way home from church on Christmas Eve in 1997 and we stopped at a convenience store to buy milk. They had the cans and my Mom saw me eyeing them and said I could have one. This was great because the $5 price was a full week's allowance at the time!
About six years ago a local dollar store got these cans in a busted about 4 or 6 cans. While I liked the cards, I did not like having to open each can. It's a burden if you don't have an electric can opener.
The Pinnacle Inside series had an insert set called "Stoppers" and featured the best goalies of the NHL on 3D disks. I always thought this was pretty cool. I also really like the "coaches collection" cards that were a foil version of the regular base card.
It's a shame that this series was produced in the can as it gets no love due to this. Pinnacle understood the challenge of opening a can and swtiched to a tin for 97-98 Pinnacle Epic.
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| 1997-98 Pinnacle Epic |
The idea or producing cards in can or tin did not last long. I see a trend forming here and it seems that collectors really enjoy the standard size card in a standard wrapper.
I love these cans, and I want to say that your using my photos of my can and tin collection. Since that time I took that photo, I have went from 14 gold cans, now up to 20 gold cans. Still missing 4 more to complete the set. Who knew that 16 years after the release, that I would still be working on this gold can set!
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I need these four gold regular size cans: Shanahan, Vernon, Lindros, and Iginla. I currently stand at 20 of 24.
I did have the Mike Vernon, but several years ago, someone came to me with a trade I couldn't refuse. Another collector traded to me his Koivu, Hebert, Bure, Kariya, and Forsberg (all gold/sealed) for my Vernon. :)
In addition to the regular size gold cans, I have also been working on completing the jumbo size gold cans. I have 7 of 8, and am missing just 1 more. I need the Vanbiesbrouck jumbo size gold can to finish off the jumbo set.
I do have some duplicate cans that I will consider trading for the cans that I am still missing. My duplicate gold cans are: Joseph (jumbo size gold), Brodeur (jumbo size gold), Roy (jumbo size gold), and Richter (jumbo size gold), Vanbiesbrouck (regular size gold), and Thibault (regular size gold). I will also consider selling the duplicates for around $20, price is negotiable if buying more then one.
These gold cans were released at 1 per case, and there are 48 cans in the case, so roughly 2% of the cans on the market are gold cans which makes them very rare. I'll post new pictures soon of my collection where it is at today. Thanks for posting this blog and giving recognition to these cans. I collect many unique things in hockey that your average collector probably doesn't collect.
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