I'm going to post a bit early today, because I've been excited to get to this one. It is one of the rarest and most interesting cards I own.
I found it at that National this year in Cleveland. A dealer had it that mostly sold vintage oddball stuff like pins and buttons and other trinkets. I saw it and immediately knew it was coming home with me. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said I was probably the only person in the building who even knew what it was, and since it wasn't his specialty, he quoted me a super low price. I couldn't give him the cash fast enough.
The card is a 1998 Topps SportzCubz test issue. This entire set is a mystery as it never made it past the prototype phase.
The description on baseballcardpedia.com says, "1998 Topps SportsCubz were plastic 3" square "cubes" apparently issued by Topps as a test issue. The fronts have a player photo set against their team's logo with the words "Topps SportzCubz" on the bottom left and the player's name located on the bottom right. The backs have biographical information as well as season and team stats. Any further information about these cards is appreciated."
It is rare that even baseballcardpedia doesn't have much information on a set.
According to an article on sportscardinfo.com, there are rumored to be 5 total sets produced. The article states, "Very little is known about 1998 Topps SportzCubz. The main reason for this is because it never made it past the test phase. About five prototype cards are rumored to have been made for each player. Then the idea was canned. What the end product would have looked like is a mystery. Judging by the prototype, it looks as if it would have been wrapped around something. I guess we’ll never know."
A user on collectors forum and freedom cardboard named frankhardy seems to have the most information on the set.
In response to a statement in a thread on collectors forums in 2017 that said "I have two of the five Mark Grace's. I say five because that's the rumored total pop. I know two sets sold in 2014, and three more sold in 2016-- by a son of a former Topps employee. I assume the three from 2016 were independent of the other two... if so that would account for the five," frankhardy had this to say:
"I don't think that the sets in 2014 were independent of the other 3. I am certain that those sets that were sold in 2014 were sold by the same son of the Topps employee. He sold one of those sets in 2014 to a guy in Texas. I know, because I bought the near set from the guy in Texas (he kept 3 of the cards....Griffey, Bonds, and Alomar). I bought the near set from the guy in Texas AFTER I dealt directly with the son of the Topps employee.
"Here is how it all went down....
"In May of 2016, I bought my first set from the son of the Topps employee for the sole purpose of keeping the McGwire for my Cardinals collection. I sold off the rest individually. He contacted me again in October of 2016 wanting to sell another complete set and another near set (22/25). I purchased them, along with some other nice Topps items like wax pack wrapper proofs, uncut sheets, etc.
"Ironically, the very next week in October, I saw where a guy was selling 3 Sportzcubz on Ebay. I thought, "That's just great"...after I thought I had pretty much cornered the market so to speak, here are 3 more cards. So, I contacted him in Texas to see what he had. He had a complete set, but he wanted to keep a few. He agreed to pull the 3 he listed on Ebay and he sold me all but the Griffey, Bonds, and Alomar. He confirmed to me that he bought them from the son of the Topps employee (who had passed away a few years ago).
"So, to sum it all up, of the 5 sets or partial sets known to exist, I have owned 2 complete sets and 2 more near sets. I still own the complete set in BGS slabs and I still own 2 partial sets. As I stated earlier, I broke the first set and sold individually (keeping the McGwire). As for the 5th set......I don't have any information on it....or whether there are any more out there."
As you can see, other than information that these sets came from a former Topps employee, not much else is known. If you have any information on the set, please share.
Here is a photo of the front and back of the card. They appear to be some sort of 3D puzzle, when joined with other cards they made a 3" x 3" cube. The backs of the cards say "Product Prototype" on the bottom right. They are made of plastic rather than card stock.
