Panini Precious Stones

A new fad seems to be embedding precious stones into a baseball card. I'm not really a fan of this practice, but I guess it could help the cards maintain a certain value. I think the prices are a little inflated at this point, but I am always a sucker for a unique card of Clemente with a low print run.

2014 Panini Cooperstown #49 Emerald

2014 Panini Cooperstown #74 Sapphire

I believe there are at least three different card numbers in this set with Clemente alone. Each features a unique photo. I also believe there are at least three different precious stones available for each number, sapphire (numbered to 15), emerald (numbered to 10) and diamond (5?), and also possibly a ruby. They are apparently guaranteed. I don't think small stones will sell for much anyway. I think it would have been nicer to have the stones visible from both front and back, which would show the color much better. 

2015 Panini Etched in Cooperstown #15 Sapphire

2015 Panini Etched in Cooperstown #59 (no stone)

Panini continued the idea into 2015. It is very similar to 2014 except they went with an "etched" design which is interesting but makes the images difficult to see. I'm hoping to eventually get a stone card for Roberto's solo card, but it's never a bad thing to share a card with the Flying Dutchman. Even the base cards of this issue are priced high right now. I'm hoping it goes down after a while.