Retro Box Break: 1996-97 Pinnacle Mint

This will be the first in what I'm hoping is a monthly series of retro box breaks. I'll be sticking mainly with mid-late 90s stuff as 70s and 80s is too expensive and early 90s is just crap, but you never know, I may run into a bargain bin box of old ProSet that may just be too tempting.

So, as promised in my last box break, I was expecting a box 0f 96-97 Pinnacle Mint. The box came fairly cheap, at just 20 bucks, and featured 24 packs, each of which contained one full card, one die-cut card, and one coin. While there aren't any inserts in this set (the coins were really the main selling point), there are three levels of base cards (bronze, silver, gold) and some chase coins (nickel silver, gold plated, fine silver, solid 24k gold). The solid 24k gold coins were a redemption so I was kinda hoping not to get one, as getting an expired redemption of a really cool item would just be a tease (kind of like watching This Is It if you had tickets to the Michael Jackson comeback concert). Anyhoo, on with it:

Base set completion: 22/30 (73%)

Die-cut set completion: 24/30 (80%)

Doubles: 2

Silver base: none

Gold base: none

Brass coins: 23

Nickel Silver coins: 1 (Martin Brodeur)

Fine Silver coins: none

Gold coins: none

What I thought:

OK, I wasn't really expecting much from this set, other than some cool coins and a decent looking base set, so the nickel silver coin was a plus, especially considering it's of one of the bigger names in the checklist. As for the other coins, i did manage to pull some great names, Messier, Lemieux and 3 Sakic coins stand out the most. The coin checklist is a mix of the big stars of the era (Lindros, Forsberg, Federov, Roy, etc.) and the "Young Stars" staples of late 90s sets such as Keith Tkachuk, Jocelyn Thibeault, Jim Campbell, etc. I did get alot of dupes in the coin department, 2 of Lindros, Vanbiesbrouck, Hasek, Tkachuk, Osgood, 3 of Sakic and Thibeault (?) to be exact.

All in all, I'd say for the money, it was a fun break, nothing will really get me a big return, but I would have to be crazy if I was looking for big ticket cards in this box.