In the late 1990s, Pinnacle Brands released their 1998 Pinnacle Brands Baseball Card collection in an innovative and unique packaging format – cards sealed inside aluminum cans. While baseball cards in plastic packages, wax packs, boxes and cello bags were common at the time, Pinnacle took packaging to an entirely new level with their 1998 cards packaged inside 12 oz aluminum soda cans.
The cans featured colorful artwork depicting various MLB stars of the day like Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Greg Maddux and Sammy Sosa. The front of each can prominently displayed the Pinnacle logo along with the words “1998 Major League Baseball Cards” and a call out of the number of cards contained inside, usually around 10-12 per can. At the end of each can was a sealed pop top that had to be opened to access the cards within, not unlike opening a can of soda or beer.
While a novel idea, there were some challenges with the canned card packaging concept. For one, it added significant production complexity and cost versus more traditional packaging formats. The cans had to be manufactured, printed, and filled with the precise number of assorted cards in each before sealing. It also likely limited the presence of rare hit cards or autographs in the set since random distribution across many cans diluted the odds of finding a big hit in any single can.
From a collectors standpoint, it was also difficult to view the entire contents of a sealed can before purchasing to check for desired players or parallel versions without opening the can. Once opened, the novelty was lost and cans could no longer be kept factory sealed. Some also argued it blurred the lines between a childhood hobby and alcoholic beverages, though Pinnacle disputed this by marketing them as a fun collector item.
Despite the challenges, Pinnacle pressed on with canned cards for 1998 citing the fun, innovative concept. While they didn’t catch on universally with the collecting community, they did attract attention and have since become a unique niche collectible from the era 30 years later. While production numbers for 1998 Pinnacle cards are unknown, finding sealed, unopened cans today has become difficult.
When first released, the cans sold for typical 1990s baseball card prices of around $1-2 each in hobby shops and retail stores. As with most cards from that time, there was an initial surge in availability followed by the remaining stock drifting to clearance bins in subsequent years as interest moved to newer releases. Today, the scarcity of finding sealed Pinnacle 98 cards in cans a quarter century later has increased collector demand significantly.
On online auction sites like eBay, empty Pinnacle 98 cans in mint condition with original packaging can sell for $10-20 owing to their novelty alone. Finding sealed, unopened cans in graded mint condition suitable for long-term preservation has become very difficult. PSA-graded gem mint 10 sealed cans in recent years have sold for $100-200 each due to their impressive state of preservation and historical significance as one of the few mainstream sets ever packaged this way. Prices continue trending up as fewer sealed specimens survive in collection.
For high-end vintage card investors, Pinnacle 98 cans take the concept of sealed product speculation to an extreme new level. Graded mint cans sell more based on their unprecedented packaging novelty and preservation than the particular cards contained within, since those remain unknown. As with any other vintage sealed product, even if resealed after being previously opened, mint cans still hold value but lose the top-tier premium for certified sealed examples.
While their canned concept was novel but not universally heralded at the time of release, 30 years later the 1998 Pinnacle Baseball cards packaged in12oz aluminum cans have become a true oddity and niche collecting category of their own. Their unusual packaging alone ensures these sealed specimens will continue drawing attention from collectors interested in preserving sports collectibles history. Though few remain today, finding that unopened can still sealed in plastic at a card shop shelf three decades later would make for one of the most unique vintage card discovery stories around. For both packaging design uniqueness and collectible scarcity, Pinnacle 98 Baseball Cards in Cans have cemented their place as one of the true oddball oddities from the 1990s sportscard heyday.
