This is one of the many cards that I've added to my collection courtesy of
Max, and it is one of the most delightfully weird. As you can see, it looks like a 1998 Topps base card on the front, except that the background of the name bar is teal instead of the team-coordinated orange and black, and it reads "Limited Edition" underneath of Cal Ripken's name instead of "Baltimore Orioles". But it's once you flip the card over that the real fun begins.
You'll want to click on the scan above to enlarge, but let me walk you through it. Cal is wearing a dopey promo hat for Prinivil, a prescription drug used to treat hypertension. The caption on the photo reads, "Cal Ripken, Jr. is not hypertensive and is not taking PRINIVIL". The text underneath his career batting record is as follows: "Before prescribing PRINIVIL, please read the accompanying Prescribing Information." That's pretty good advice, I'd say.
In the picture on the back, Cal looks like an amalgamation of himself and A-Rod.
ReplyDeleteNot that there's anything wrong with that.
Any idea on the value of this card? How common is it?
ReplyDeleteThere are a few different Cal Ripken Jr. cards from the Merck Prinivil set. I understand that at most there were 30,000 printed of each to be given out by Merck pharmaceutical sales reps to targeted physicians who might prescribe their blood pressure med. They were inserted (in a glued in top loader) into a promotional brochure that was left with the doctor. I suspect most got thrown out as most doctors probably were not interested in keeping them. One card is the most rare as they were supposedly recalled - I understand that Cal Ripken rejected the card that photoshopped the electronic billboard #2632 photo image behind his own photographed image holding up his hand to salute the cheering fans. He felt it was misleading because it was not a genuine image. Some of these obviously remained out in the wild and can occasionally be found on ebay (this is the one to hunt for as it should be the rarest of these Prinivil cards). I have never seen any Prinivil card graded by PSA and I belive that these are undervalued cards from a HOF favorite. Plenty of nice Ripken promotional items were created for Prinivil, some very very rare.
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