As a kid collector from the 1980s, this type of post does strike a chord with me! Round, enameled, bright colored borders, full color photos, baseballs biggest stars these babies are great! Same same! And then, theres Wayne Gross, who hit a lot of home runs for the post-Dynasty Oakland As and always looked very 70s-y. If youre a baseball card collector, dont miss our comprehensive guide to the Most Valuable 1973 Topps Baseball, Read More 15 Most Valuable 1973 Topps Baseball CardsContinue, Are you a sports card collector looking to add to your collection? If youre a card collector, you are also most likely a fantasy player. While hitters are generally more valuable than pitchers in fantasy play, pitchers are even less desirable in collecting. They were golden days full of anticipation and hope, joy and (yes) disappointment when you pulled Tom Brookens instead of Alan Trammell. While there are some PC-worthy cards in the 1993 SP Upper Deck set, there is one big chase card that overshadows the rest and thats the Derek Jeter rookie card. However, pulling a Jeter that is in good enough shape to grade out as a Gem Mint 10 can be very tough. Hitters entering their prime years (ages 26 and 27) often portend a breakout season in fantasy, which also makes them good buys before the season in collecting. Pikachu Pokmon Card Value Its Worth More Than You Can Imagine! For arguments sake, were going to use pricing based on PSAs Price Guide. Its crazy to think he also played at least one season with Kansas City, Oakland, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Cleveland. (Speaking of beautiful Frank Thomas cards, his 1992 Topps card ranks among my all-time junk wax non-RC favorites.). Also, note that these listings contain affiliate links, which means if you click over to eBay or Amazon and buy something, Ill receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. The early 1980s were a pretty dismal time for baseball cards or, more precisely, baseball card designs. This card is the first of Upper Deck's first set. 15 Most Valuable Basketball Cards 1990s for Investment, The Complete Guide to Pokmon Card Grading, 15 Most Valuable Luka Doncic Rookie Cards. (snaps cyber fingers). And this eBay lot lets you relive all that with an unopened box of 100 packs of 1981 Topps stickers. ), 3. $360,000 for a PSA 10, $7,800 for a PSA 9. And if its a bit rich for your blood, with its Buy-It-Now of nearly $700, you could opt for the companion lot offering four unopened wax packs from the same set (affiliate link). The unopened boxes that did survive are incredibly scarce and highly sought after, even though the only notable rookie card in the set is Chipper Jones (the Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez rookie cards wouldnt arrive until Topps issued its Traded set that year). Among collectors, its fairly common knowledge that there are certain individual baseball cards that are worth a fortune, such as the iconic 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, the legendary 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, or the glorious 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. most valuable cards Sports cards became incredibly popular and Defense matters very little in both fantasy and collecting. And, among the 66 luminous luminaries who were Major League Leaders, youll find high-luminosity guys like Mike Smithson, Walt Terrell (Hoosier! Today, though, how can you not get all warm and giddy at the prospect of nine American League cards and nine National League cards and a stick of gum inside a four-decade-old wrapper??? Still, one sealed Topps Desert Shield wax box recently sold for $7800, making these some of the most valuable baseball cards of the junk wax era. And then along came the 1980s, with its baseball card boom and the incessant hyping of every rookie from Paul Assenmacher to Paul Zuvella. Anyway, this eBay lot gives you a pretty good shot at all these guys and plenty more its a complete unopened box. For $7 per box you can hardly go wrong, and truthfully you can probably find boxes for less. Very meta, and very cool, even if not extremely valuable. Collecting baseball cards in 1984 was a pretty heady experience. FREE UPS SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS $175+. But its happy because the blue boxes themselves are shining through a crack in the case cardboard, and they look pretty gorgeous still. You scoured the pages of Baseball Cards and Sports Collectors Digest waiting for word of any new releases, and then you planned your life around getting your hands on some. And if you can resist any Champ Summers baseball card, youre a stronger man than I. The 1984 Fleer set has basically the same lineup as the Topps set from that year, except with fewer cards overall (less special subsets, mostly). He also had quite the Rated Rookie mustache! Its another strong pick from the junk wax era, and the French version vastly exceeds the value of the typical US UD card. Even more luckily, I convinced my parents to float me a loan for all the burnt orange packs I could find. No one realized they lived through the Junk Wax Era, until the bubble burst and prices plummeted. It is quite a cautionary tale. Just because its known as the Junk Wax Era doesnt mean all the cards are worthless. Recently, some of these cards have been surging in value. Dark and dingy photos, half-hearted designs, lousy cardstock, errors all over the place things were pretty messy in 1981 and 1982. Several decades after the original card was printed, a company did a reprint. Interestingly enough, there are not many notable rookie cards in the 4th series (or high number series). But 1987 Fleer baseball was about as plentiful as summer days in Pittsburgh without a Barry Bonds scowl. Let me know what you think, and Ill adjust as we go. Yep, and hes looking pretty svelt there, too. All of which is to say that this eBay lot will take you back to those rollicking wax-ripping days of your childhood, thusly broadly defined. I mean, just look at those gorgeous Topps rack packs, with Tom Seaver showing and Rick Sutcliffe showing and Fergie Jenkins showing and. Donruss went to the Topps archives and basically dusted off the 1957 design, updated it with some wavy lines for the 1980s, added a Don Mattingly rookie card that would blow up the hobby as we knew it, reduced print runs, and called it a day. And so does the Will Clark rookie card, one of the iconic images of the decade. From big heads to real 3-D cards to just plain old big cards, Topps had it all. And thats Schmitty there on the back, but facing out. Thats because theyre part of the Pitch, Hit, & Run series that features a Burger King logo on card fronts. Damon might never make it into the Hall of Fame, but this guy was a huge fan favorite with two storied franchises (playing four of his 18 seasons with the Red Sox, and then four more with the Yankees). The 1984 Donruss card was his first major league baseball card. Burger King cards have caused confusion in the hobby for 40 years or more because, generally speaking, they look just like base Topps cards from the same year but with subtle differences. Man, those were good days. While the exact years of the Junk Wax Era are a bit fluid, well loosely define the period as the years from 1987-1995. Rookie Card #98T, 8. If you like your baseball cards dreamy, man, this is the issue for you! Check out the full eBay listing here (affiliate link). And they look great. If you have a box from this era, here are a few resources to help you know what to look out for: Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. The story was that Ripken jokingly wrote the infamous phrase on the knob of his batting practice bat, so he knew which one was his. But these cards arent all football, and they dont tilt toward the later Junk Wax years of the run, at least not by much. The 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter X checklist not only features two key rookies Ronald Acuna and Shohei Otahni but it also includes framed mini autographs of big-time active players like Aaron Judge and Mike Trout, retired players like Don Mattingly and Bo Jackson, and non-players like Lindsey Vonn and Tony Hawk. I know that we all know now that 1987 Donruss is not rare, but its still awesome to me. And all that argues that this pack should be kept intact, just the way it is, forever. On the heels of their gorgeous 1983 set, Topps decided that the best thing to do was tweak the thing a bit. We still hadnt come to grips with the idea that baseball cards didnt always go up in value or that there actually could be too many baseball cards too many sets, too many cards/sets/boxes in a print run, too many choices, too many everything. While McGwire's legacy has been somewhat tarnished by his involvement in performance-enhancing drugs, his rookie card remains an integral part of baseball card collecting for its association with one of the game's greatest power hitters. Upper Deck shook up the collecting world with improved glossy card stock, inserts worth chasing, counterfeit-defying holograms and foil wrappers instead of wax, Gonos wrote. 1985 Topps Mark McGwire Team USA rookie card #401, 14. Quite a rally from the brink of obscurity! These auctions are over, but the listings are still fun to peruse. Because, even though Fleer managed to finally break the Topps monopoly and pulled Donruss into the market with them, the onslaught of new cards did little to excite the senses or capture the poetry of the game. Its the stuff from which collections and lifetime cardboard connections are made! And he hit like he was using a piccolo for a bat. Not only did you get a new Fleer set and a new Donruss set, both with enough errors to keep your English teacher in haughty bliss all the way through high school, but you got extras. They dont fit well with other cards from a size perspective, theyre not beautiful, and you hardly ever hear anyone clamoring for them. Whats great about this hobby is that you never know when the next Mantle, Jeter, or Trout will surface. Thanks to the Internet and thanks especially to shopping websites like eBay and Amazon, we can find most of the cards we dreamed about as kids just about any time we want. I mean, theyre black-and-white, sure, but big. According to the Athletic, SP was a high-end product from (card brand) Upper Deck. It comes with a PSA value of $360,000 for a condition grade of 10. There were three kinds of collectors in the early spring of 1987 those who had access to 1987 Fleer baseball cards, those who had access to 1987 Donruss baseball cards, and (mostly) those who had access to neither 1987 Fleer nor 1987 Donruss baseball cards. Then you have Gorman Thomas, whose whole demeanor screamed beer league but who slugged like Dave Kingman for the Milwaukee Brewers, including the 1982 Harveys Wallbangers team. It was the debut set from card manufacturer Upper Deck, who shook up the collecting world with improved glossy card stock, inserts worth chasing, counterfeit-defying holograms and foil wrappers instead of wax. 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. But Topps issued a parallel, limited edition Desert Shield set in addition to the regular set of 792 cards, and this special gold-foil-stamped set was sent to soldiers serving in Operation Desert Shield. Web168 likes, 6 comments - Certified Sports Guaranty (@csgcards) on Instagram: "All junk wax is not created equal! Even though baseball is entering the stretch run, then, theres no way I can ignore tantalizing football product when it pops up right? If you continue to use this site, we'll assume you're OK with that. From iconic players like Ken Griffey Jr. to rare cards like the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey rookie, we've got you covered. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. These really are more pins than buttons, but thats OK because its the pin bit that allows you to stick the enameled, round hunks of metal to or through things. Get exclusive, FREE weekly baseball card ramblings, straight to your inbox! That card was already popular among collectors when Pete headed back to the Cincinnati Reds in August 1984 as player-manager, but it was then we all realized hed be taking aim at Ty Cobbs all-time hits record on the Riverfront. Why is the Junk Wax Era considered the Dark Age of Baseball Card Manufacturing? Maybe the folks at Topps had the same experience sometime around 1980. There are many reasons why this card is considered iconic, but inexpensive. 1989 Fleer Randy Johnson RC Marlboro Background #381. PSA 10 graded card was last sold for $8,000 on March 2023. and Topps. In the summer of 1984, Don Mattingly came out of nowhere to win the American League batting title, snatching it away from New York Yankees teammate Dave Winfield. We expected more and better in 1984, and, for the most part, the major manufacturers delivered. In 1986, Donruss was the hottest brand going thanks to the presence of a Jose Canseco Rated Rookie card, but Fleer wasnt far behind thanks to rookie cards of Canseco, Cory Snyder, Lenny Dykstra, Benito Santiago, Cecil Fielder, and many others. And, can you believe the opening bid is only $10 a box. Oh, and Reggie Jackson, Robin Yount, Gwynn, and Boggs. Upper Deck eventually persuaded Griffey Jr. to sign with them by offering him a share in the company's future profits. Its an age-old problem in this hobby you find a pile of unopened baseball card packs and you want to buy one and tear into it in the hopes that youll find something great like a Greg Gross rookie or Glenn Hubbards snake. The 6 Most Valuable Upper Deck Baseball Cards of the Junk Inside the packs were goodies like the Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card, the Steve Sax rookie card, the Shooty Babittrookie card. In recent years, Jr. initially hesitated to sign a contract with Upper Deck because he had already signed an exclusive deal with another card company, Score. Overprinting helped super-taint this cards price, too. (Take it from someone who bought a lot of baseball cards during those years there were all kinds of options at the gas stations. Baseball hobby boxes have some of the most valuable cards and are far more desirable because there is generally a greater chance of hitting parallels, numbered cards, memorabilia cards, and autographed cards than in a blaster box or retail pack. All Rights Reserved, What are your baseball cards worth? His career spanned from 1990 to 2008, during which time he hit 521 home runs and recorded over 1,700 runs batted in. Most of the boxes Ive bought in the past year, from card shops or eBay, have been priced in the $5 to $20 range and have been firmly from the heart of the Junk Its called the Junk Wax Era, and its generally thought of as covering the years 1986 to 1993. But, hey, at least these beauties still deliver 36 cards per pack, which means youd score a cool 432 Topps cards for you $175. I believe my 1984 set was made from those cards. 10. Easy enough to cherrypick rack and cello packs, and even wax packs had theirproblems ever hear of resealing? (My other Mount Rushmore baseball cards? In recent years, weve seen a rise in collectors acquiring unopened wax boxes and hobby boxes, and some of these sealed boxes go back 50 years, making them some of the most valuable factory-sealed baseball cards on the market. We use cookies to improve your experience. There were several hobby retailers who sold complete sets, but you could also buy them in individual paper packages containing three buttons each.

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