Since dipping its toes into the premium baseball card market in 1992, Pinnacle Brands Inc. quickly built a reputation for innovative design and printing techniques.
And the 1995 Pinnacle baseball card set was no exception.
Not only did the cards contain high-quality, borderless imagery with a gold foil baseball-seam-shaped nameplate along the bottom, but some images still stand as hobby icons.
The Ken Griffey Jr. card where he is blowing a gigantic bubble is a collector favorite.
Bo Jackson, standing next to a Blue Angles fighter jet, showcased two American icons side by side.
And how can you forget a larger-than-life Frank Thomas climbing into the stadium?
The 450-card checklist contains so many great-looking cards.
And in this guide, we'll take a look at the 15 most valuable.
Let's jump right in!
1995 Pinnacle #128 Ken Griffey Jr.
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $650
The Spiderman catch knocked Ken Griffey Jr. down. Months later, he lifted an entire city up.
First, the glorious catch.
Replayed thousands of times in the past three decades, Griffey's gravity-defying scale, stick, and grab off the Kingdome outfield fence is a one-of-a-kind web gem.
It also broke the Seattle Mariners center fielder's left wrist.
The injury cost Griffey 73 games.
He returned mid-August with the Mariners' fighting tooth-and-nail for a Wild Card spot.
On August 24th, the 25-year-old hit his first-ever walk-off bomb, a two-run shot off Yankees closer John Wettleland.
Junior's bomb ignited the M's, who surged to the franchise's first playoff appearance in 19 years.
They added their first playoff series win, a memory-laden five-game ALDS win over those same Yankees.
Griffey dismantled New York, hitting .391 with five home runs and the series-winning run in Game 5.
In doing so, he captivated the city of Seattle and made it a baseball town for good.
1995 Pinnacle #208 Bo Jackson
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $150
Bo Jackson could have landed anywhere as a DH in 1995.
Dogged by the hip injury that cost him his football career years earlier, Jackson was relegated to a designated hitter spot with California in 1994.
He performed well in the limited role, hitting .279 with 13 home runs, a .851 OPS, and a 117 OPS.
However, he stole just one base in 75 games and showed little of the athleticism that made him a two-sport phenom.
Rather than holding on and hunkering down as a hitting specialist, Jackson called it a day.
With the '94 strike bleeding through Spring Training and into the '95 regular season, the 32-year-old threw up his hands and walked away.
"Enough is enough," Jackson said. "I'm retiring. It was great while it lasted, but it's over."
Jackson's career remains an enigma.
At his height, he was the most popular athlete in the world.
His hip, however, robbed us of what could have been on both the gridiron and the diamond.
Of all the Bo Jackson cards in the hobby, this one is one of the dual-sport phenom standing next to a Blue Angles fighter jet is one of the coolest.
1995 Pinnacle #21 Don Mattingly
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $70
Ernie Banks and Don Mattingly received their fair share of professional disappointment.
Banks played for the Chicago Cubs for 19 years, making 14 All-Star appearances and winning two MVP awards.
The beloved infielder did everything an individual performer could do and then some.
He was rewarded with zero pennants and playoff appearances, making him one of the greatest players to never play in the postseason.
Injuries knocked Mattingly off of Banks' Hall-of-Fame level, yet he was also an MVP and the best hitter in the game at his peak in the 1980s.
He also had zero postseason trips, at least going into the Yankees' 1995 campaign.
Mattingly, however, got off the snide in his final season with a rousing New York run to a Wild Card berth.
Donnie Baseball got his licks in during his first October stint, hitting .417 against the Mariners in a back-and-forth ALDS showdown.
Sadly for NY fans, the Yanks were clipped in five, and Mattingly was denied a World Series appearance, just like Banks.
1995 Pinnacle #93 Tony Gwynn
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $60
The 1994 strike erased Tony Gwynn's chase for .400.
But it didn't stop him from being the best pure hitter on Earth.
After a torrid five-game stretch, the legendary San Diego Padres left fielder entered the mid-August stoppage at .394.
He had a legitimate chance of becoming the first .400 hitter since Ted Williams in 1941.
No games, no chance.
Gwynn won his fifth NL batting title but left with a sour taste.
How would he respond in 1995?
The same way he always did.
The 35-year-old returned from injury in late April and started dinking, dunking, and lining balls everywhere.
After a subpar May by his standards, Gwynn returned to form with months of .368, .400, .341, and .407 to end the year.
It all added up to a .368 average and a 22-point win over Dodgers sensation Mike Piazza for his sixth of eight career batting championships.
1995 Pinnacle #201 Rickey Henderson
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $50
Rickey Henderson's last year in Oakland wasn't his last year in Oakland.
It may have felt like it.
The charismatic yet controversial left fielder returned to the A's in 1994 on a two-year deal after a short stint with the Toronto Blue Jays.
By the time the 1995 season ended, it felt like Henderson and the Athletics had outgrown each other.
Rickey had a strong 112 games, slashing .300/.407/.447 with 32 stolen bases and a 130 OPS+.
On the other hand, the formerly pennant-chasing A's were heading into a complete rebuild.
Oakland finished 67-77 in '95, twelve games out of a playoff spot.
Henderson was in his mid-30s and wanted to win, but the A's weren't going to win much anytime soon.
So, Rickey departed the Bay again in '96 on a two-year deal with San Diego.
That looked to be the end.
And then 1998 came along...
1995 Pinnacle #204 Cal Ripken Jr.
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $50
Cal Ripken Jr.'s 1995 season was among the worst individual efforts of his career thus far.
It was also the best thing that could have happened to baseball.
Fans revolted against the millionaires who played and ran their teams after the protracted 1994 strike.
The loss of October baseball rightfully frustrated the faithful who bought tickets to the actual games.
All the messiness and finger-pointing led to a lack of goodwill to start the '95 campaign.
Attendance dropped sharply from 1994, dipping from 31,256 to 25,021, MLB's worst mark since 1987.
Ripken (combined with the home runs of the early Steroid Era) slowly brought everyone back.
Ripken's career-worst 91 OPS+ and Baltimore's middling 71-73 record meant nothing on September 6th when he broke Lou Gehrig's hallowed record of 2,130 consecutive games played.
It was an emotional celebration of everything the game could be.
It started to rekindle the baseball itch in a jaded, lapsed fanbase.
1995 Pinnacle #304 Ken Griffey Jr.
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $50
The 30-card "Swing Men" subset found in Series 2 packs featured some of the best hitters of the era.
Eleven of them turned out to be Hall of Famers.
Big names like Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., Don Mattingly, Frank Thomas, Chipper Jones and Kirby Puckett are among the most popular of the entire subset.
But all of the cards pack tremendous eye appeal, with the player superimposed upon a swirling image of himself in the background.
All of the biographies on the reverse side of the cards are fun to read and highlight what made each player such a standout.
As one of the biggest names of the era and a hobby favorite, Griffey's "Swing Men" card is usually the most desirable of the group.
1995 Pinnacle #340 Kirby Puckett
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $50
Dennis Martinez inadvertently threw the last pitch of Kirby Puckett's Hall-of-Fame career.
Puckett hit two milestones during the 1995 season, crossing 1,000 career runs scored and 1,000 RBIs.
The 35-year-old Minnesota Twins right fielder hit over .300 for the eighth time in ten seasons (.314) and blasted over 20 home runs (23) for the third consecutive campaign.
The '95 Twins were horrid (56-88), but Puckett was reliably great.
It seemed like he had a half-decade left in the tank.
On the final day of the regular season, the Hall-of-Famer's All-Star campaign came to a devastating halt by a Dennis Martinez pitch to the face.
The HBP broke Puckett's jaw.
Admirably, Puckett recovered quickly and looked great in 1996 Spring Training.
And then, it ended.
Puckett suffered a career-ending eye problem a week before the season with obstructed and blurred vision.
Martinez did not cause it, but his errant pitch ended the Twins star's last regular season game.
1995 Pinnacle #111 Chipper Jones
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $40
The Atlanta Braves waited an extra year for the Chipper Jones era to begin.
They celebrated the franchise's first championship as a resident of Georgia.
The former #1 pick suffered a brutal ACL tear in a 1994 Spring Training game.
It cut his rookie season short and pushed it back a year.
It was delayed even further as the labor stoppage extended into the '95 season.
However, once the games started, the party began.
The 23-year-old looked good, finishing runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year with a .265/.353/.450 split, 73 walks, 87 runs, and 86 RBIs in 140 games.
Atlanta locked up the NL East in their first year in the division, winning their fourth division crown in a row overall.
They went 0-for-3 on titles in '91 through '93, yet came through in '95 with a stirring six-game Series triumph over Cleveland.
It was the Braves' first trophy since their fifth year in Milwaukee back in 1957.
One year, one title for Jones.
Not bad.
1995 Pinnacle #226 Frank Thomas
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $40
Chicago White Sox superstar Frank Thomas had a blistering 1995 campaign, but it wasn't good enough in the voters' eyes for a third consecutive American League MVP campaign.
Not that Thomas really cared.
"I'm not into being known as the best by fans or the media," Thomas said. "I care how I'm perceived by my peers."
The Big Hurt's peers saw him as one of, if not the most dangerous power hitters in all of baseball.
And for good reason.
Thomas played all 145 games for the Chicago White Sox in '95 and led baseball in walks (136) for the second straight year.
The 27-year-old first baseman put up 40 home runs and 111 RBIs for a second 40/100 campaign in three tries and placed third in the Majors in OPS (1.061).
As with Barry Bonds in the National League, voter fatigue and team mediocrity dinged Thomas' MVP chances.
He finished eighth.
1995 Pinnacle #272 Barry Bonds
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $40
If we looked at stats in 1995 as we do in 2025, Barry Bonds could have won his fourth NL MVP in six years.
Bonds was the most accomplished hitter in the Senior Circuit by current high-value metrics, leading all NL position players with 7.5 WAR.
The 30-year-old played all 144 games for the San Francisco Giants and paced the league in walks (122), on-base percentage (.431), and OPS (1.009).
He also hit 33 home runs and drove in 104, putting together a 30/100 season as he had in his previous three MVP campaigns.
The problem was that Barry Bonds was Barry Bonds, and the Giants weren't any good.
Voters dinged the Giants superstar for his former success and dropped him all the way to 12th in consideration of San Francisco's uninspiring 67-77 finish.
"Once you've won it a few times, the standards are very high," Bonds said.
1995 Pinnacle #333 Ozzie Smith
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $40
The end of Ozzie Smith's career came knocking in 1995.
The face of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball entered his age-40 season, coming off a solid .262 campaign in '94.
Even after the strike prolonged the start of the '95 regular season, Smith seemed energized and ready to go for an 18th year.
What followed was a truly miserable experience.
St. Louis nosedived to a losing record for a second consecutive year, costing manager Joe Torre his job.
The team struggled mightily, as did Smith, but "The Wizard" was still an All-Star defensive player.
He wasn't in the batter's box.
Smith missed three months due to shoulder surgery and hit .199 with a paltry .526 OPS in 44 games.
His -0.7 WAR stands as the only negative output of his Hall-of-Fame career.
The Cooperstown icon mulled over retirement in the offseason, ultimately deciding to give it one final go in '96.
1995 Pinnacle #49 Jose Canseco
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $30
After a three-year stint with the Texas Rangers, Jose Canseco found himself part of a multi-player deal that sent him to the Boston Red Sox ahead of the 1995 season.
While in Boston, Canseco performed at a blistering pace.
But many people don't remember it that way, given how much time he missed due to injury.
Between his two years in Boston, Canseco played in just 198 games between 1995 and 1996.
It's a shame because he seemed to enjoy playing there.
Over 102 games in 1995, Canseco belted 24 home runs and drove in 81 runs while batting .306, his highest career mark outside his 1988 MVP season in Oakland when he hit .307.
If you average out his production in 1995 and 1996, Canseco produced a 162-game average of 184 hits, 43 home runs, and 134 RBIs while with Boston.
Canseco's unique combination of power and a nose for the home run surged back into the spotlight.
And just like that, the Red Sox shipped him back to Oakland ahead of the 1997 season.
1995 Pinnacle #244 Greg Maddux
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $30
Atlanta Braves super ace Greg Maddux wasn't just a level above everyone else in 1995.
He was his own measurement system.
Maddux followed up the historic dominance of his 1994 campaign with another iconic showing in '95, the last of four consecutive NL Cy Young seasons for the Hall-of-Famer.
The 29-year-old righty led baseball in WAR for the third time in four years (9.7).
He paced the Bigs in wins (19), ERA (1.63), complete games (10), and ERA+ (260).
To top it off, he led the NL in innings pitched (209.2) and shutouts (3).
On August 26th, Maddux was staked to a five-run lead in his record-breaking 16th consecutive road win.
"This is like giving a 15-0 lead to a regular human being," one writer remarked.
Maddux was the exception.
He was also exceptional in the Braves' first World Series run of the Atlanta era, going 3-1 with a 2.84 ERA in five postseason starts.
1995 Pinnacle #132 Alex Rodriguez
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $25
In 1996, former #1 overall pick Alex Rodriguez broke out with a vengeance en route to an MVP runner-up and All-Star appearance.
The young Seattle Mariners shortstop cemented the foundation of his upcoming success the year before.
Rodriguez went back and forth between Triple-A Tacoma in Seattle in '95, getting valuable reps at both the Minor and Major League levels.
The 19-year-old's swing wasn't there yet.
He worked tirelessly to bring it along.
"I know it's going to take some time, but it's something I'm always working on," Rodriguez said.
The celebrated teen prospect played 48 games for the Big-League club, posting a negative WAR (-0.4) and slashing a modest .232/.264/.408 with five homers and 19 RBIs.
Rodriguez received just two pinch-hitting appearances in Seattle's first-ever postseason.
It was a humbling start.
However, the hard knocks didn't last long.
One year later, A-Rod became Seattle's everyday shortstop and blossomed into the best young player in baseball.
1995 Pinnacle Baseball Cards In Review
The two major drawbacks of this set are that it debuted during a hobby downturn and doesn't contain any big-name rookie cards.
Those two things are why many collectors don't pay much attention to it in today's market.
Yet, it almost has a niche/cult following because of the design.
If you're a traditionalist who likes excellent action shots, 1995 Pinnacle has plenty of those.
And if you're a collector who likes some goofy and unique shots, too, you won't be disappointed.
Many cards in the set are just downright fun to look at.
There were several different subsets in the checklist, including:
- Rookeis (#132 - 166; randomly #406 - 444)
- Draft Picks (#167 - 176)
- Swing Men (#276 - 305
The "Swing Men" subset is particularly well-designed and features some of the biggest hitters of the era.
And since inserts were all the craze in the mid-90s, Pinnacle was quick to ride the wave, including nine different inserts overall.
Unfortunately, 1995 Pinnacle just doesn't seem to rate too high on many collectors' wishlists.
It's a shame that the hobby nosedived so hard during the mid-90s because sets like this just don't get as much fanfare as they otherwise would have.