Card Identification Forum

One last mystery for today...

The Front Row "All-Time Greats" series for baseball was supposed to be a 100-set series, but the company didn't survive to finish it.  I have seen 38 sets, most with signed & unsigned versions confirmed.  These were originally issued as bagged 5-card sets, with a Front Row sticker sealing the bag & included a serial-numbered COA.

Only about a dozen of them are listed on the site now, under either 1992 or 1994.

There appears to be a set #1 (A?) with the 1992 Al Kaline 5-card set, since set #1 (B?) Broooks Robinson is the first set in the series to get the Front Row COA treatment.  Kaline also appears later, in set #25 of the series.

Sets #1B-11 have SN25000 unsigned sets & SN5000 autographed (on card #1) sets, with the exception of #9 Roy Campanella who's SN2000, and Kaline's "1A" auto is only SN1000.  I have seen several Hank Aaron autographed cards, but all were slabbed & none of them mention the SN'd 5-card set it came from... if they ever did.

Sets #12-36 have SN5000 unsigned sets & SN2000 autographed #1 sets.  They also a have different base card design than the original run of #1-11.

For set #37 Gaylord Perry, I've seen SN500 autographs with a secondary-market COA.   As for set #38 Warren Spahn, I've only seen it listed & don't know the print run or autograph info.

So, since each set has 5-cards (all #1-5) & exists in two SN'd forms, they probably can't be lumped into one "All-Time Greats" set listing.  If they are to be listed separately, should the ATG set # be in the title too?  As for the dual SN runs, would that go in the "Release Notes"?

I would love to know more about these sets as well, because I only have the autographed version of any of the cards from these sets, and some of them are not listed on here.  I have the Gaylord Perry, but mine is #'d to 1,000 not 500, I have the Warren Spahn which is #'d to 500, then I have unnumbered autos of George Foster, Brooks Robinson, Monte Irvin and Buck Leonard.  

Also, one difference I noticed with the cards I have, the Brooks Robinson I have came with the COA from Front Row, but the Auto is on the Promo version of card #3 from the set.  Also, the Monte Irvin auto is on card #5 from that set, but has the COA from Front Row.  

While the Gaylord Perry, Warren Spahn and George Foster sets all say Front Row Premium on the cards, the COA's are from Spectrum because I guess Spectrum bought out Front Row.  The copyrights on the backs are different too.  The Leonard, Irvin and Robinson cards all say Front Row, the Foster says Spectrum Holdings and the Spahn and Perry just say "The Trading Card Company"