My tribute to the 2002 Diamond Kings

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2002 Donruss Diamond Kings was the inaugural issue
of a set dedicated solely to artists portraits of MLB
players. While the Diamond Kings had existed since
1982, this was the first release that was issued as
a complete set. It was by anyone's standard a small
set, 150 cards (160 with the update released 5 months
later in December 2002).

There were 6 artists contracted to portray the players
featured in the set.

Don Adair
Ron Adair (identical twins!)
Mark Chickinelli
Frank Scicchitano
Mike Schroeder
Mark Turnes

Here is my small tribute to Donruss and these fine
artists . . .

 

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At this point in time, I have had the pleasure to acquire:

All 150 base cards and short prints (101-150) in multiple quantities
All 10 of the Update set (issued in Dec. 2002) in multiple quantities
All subsets, Heritage, Timeline, T 204's et al.
All 150 + 10 card Update Bronze (not numbered, but 5-6 per box), Silver (#'d to 400) & Gold (#'d to 100) Parallels and here is where it gets a little scary!
All 100 Diamond Cut Collection, 30 Autographs (from Vlad to Pujols), 50 jerseys and 20 bats (including Ruth & Clemente)
15 of the 48 Recollection Collection Diamond Kings Buy backs (on-card autographs numbered ridiculously low). These are by far the toughest cards from this glorius set.
2 of the original 2002 Diamond Kings Paintings- Soriano & Kerry Wood
3 1 of 1's from the 2002 Chicago National Sports Collectors Convention
Nolan Ryan 1 of 1 GU Jersey Card
Bo Jackson 1 of 1 GU Jersey Card
Curt Schilling 1 of 1 GU Jersey Card

90 Different Silver Beckett Sample Cards
41 Different Gold Beckett Sample Cards
46 Bronze Foil Chicago NSSC Cards #'d to 5 + 6 Dupes (can't very well call them dupes when they are foil stamped to 5) 3 Hildago's, 2 Ramirez's & 2 Dewon Brazelton's
44 Hawaii Trade Conference ( The Hawaii Trade Conference show used to be owned by Kit Young, the finest vintage baseball card collector and salesman on this planet, the show has since been sold to Krause Publishing (Tuff-Stuff).
59 #'d Hawaii Trade Conference cards#'d to 20 or less
Unopened pack of Hawaii Trade Conference cards.

Thanks for the looks & Collect Hard!,
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[BiggioDiogu759]

Amazing Amazing

 

[turkeyred]

Thank-you!!!!!

 

[David K.]

That is one crazy collection.... 1/1's...5/5...20/20.......autos/gu...Must have deep pockets! I'm trying to finish a serial set limited to only 10 of 100 players and its taken 6 years to get about 73% of the cards!! Best regards, David

 

[bear0555]

Very impressive. It's too bad cards don't look so nice anymore. I do have a schilling silver beckett sample if you need it.

 

[jaderock]

Love seeing this collection!

 

[bigalbert]

That is an incredible achievment
Thanks for sharing

 

[akamikey2001]

Sweet collection, thanks for sharing

 

[RGBII]

I appreciate the responses.

I have had the pleasure of chasing this stuff for
8+ years now and I can truthfully state that it
has given me more insight into the hobby, disregard
for sanity and genuine joy than any other quest
I have attempted.

I have been doing this (collecting Baseball cards)
for 39 years and this is still the most visually
appealing set that I've ever known. I think the folks
at Donruss (God!, I want them back!) deserve the
kudos and accolades.

One lesson that I'd like to pass on from the
acquisition of this set is this . . .

Collecting is a marathon, not a sprint!

Thanks again folks.

Collect Hard!,
RGBII

 

[TheDogHollerer]

Just incredible stuff Richard.... I had no idea you had all of this.... I am in awe....

 

[theplasticman]

Wowzers! Very nice.

Let me know if you ever decide to part with the 8/8 Murray Recollection!

 

[RustyGreerFan]

Fun to see - thank you!

 

[mrmopar]

Ah, the ever present battle of set collector vs player collector. I think Garvey had a couple recollection autos in the set, but I want to say they were all 1/1s. I'm guessing we (the OP and I) traded bids on a couple of them! There is still one out there somewhere, if this is the set I think it is.

Let me know if you ever decide to part with the 8/8 Murray Recollection!

 

[ragtop12]

Do you need a Dave Parker 1991 Donruss DK recollection auto? Two corners are dinged however... that is the way it came in the pack. Guess Donruss did a crap job buying back this card! here is a scan. PM me if you need it. Looking to sell

http://home.comcast.net/~olewis/scans/DaveParker.jpg

 

[ragtop12]

Also here are some scans of some of my favorite autos in my Bonds collection: