Baseball cards are weird

[BluegrassRedleg]

Interesting. Don't recall that as clearly as the JR excitement. Also that Big Mac USA Baseball "rookie."

[757690]

Yes, I was one of those ripping through '89 UD packs. But that's not the first time during the 80's that type of thing happened and, with respect to Upper Deck, interest revolved almost solely around the Griffey card in isolation; although product quality retained collector interest for the next couple of years. Important, yes, but not unprecedented.

The '84 Donruss Mattingly rookie created behavior rarely (if ever) seen in the hobby. Packs shot up to $10.00 or more in the aftermarket. I actually had a dealer removed from a card show for re-sealing and selling searched packs. That card, along with Canseco's '86 Donruss card, were also the target of a number of counterfeit attempts; significant enough that we started to see guides showing us telling us how to spot them.

That Mattingly card was so sought after that it actually had an effect of pushing the value of the set's minor rookie cards (see: Brook Jacoby) to $15-$20, minor stars at $5-$10, and commons at $2 or more at the peak. Even hand-collated sets were pushing $200 before Upper Deck issued their first card. That was fairly unprecedented as the packs, while produced in a lower volume than other sets, were scare almost solely due to Mattingly (and, to a lesser extent Strawberry) but nice looking enough that folks still wanted to put a set together.

Upper Deck paved the way for the next evolution but the '89 set is likely less historically important than even something like the '92 Bowman offering; which put a new shine (for better or worse) on the words "rookie card".

However, that '84 Donruss Mattingly literally caused every other card associated with the set to be worth significantly more than it should have been. That's pretty unique in the hobby's history.

Agree with everything. That's exactly what happened and the Mattingly 84D card could easily be considered the most influential card in collecting history.

But the two things the made the Jr. fever different was that it happened before Jr. played a single MLB game, and it occurred during the year that the product entered the market. I remember driving to every 7-11 and drug store I could to find Upper Deck packs selling for their original retail price.

Before that, you could get rookie cards fairly cheaply the year they came out. If you knew baseball and were smart, you could do well. But after that, dealers were selling the prime rookie cards at inflated proces before they even got their shipment in from the card companies. It made it nearly impossible to be ahead of the curve.

I'm not sure that makes it more influential than the 84D Mattingly, just different.

[bigredmechanism]

Agree with everything. That's exactly what happened and the Mattingly 84D card could easily be considered the most influential card in collecting history.

But the two things the made the Jr. fever different was that it happened before Jr. played a single MLB game, and it occurred during the year that the product entered the market. I remember driving to every 7-11 and drug store I could to find Upper Deck packs selling for their original retail price.

Before that, you could get rookie cards fairly cheaply the year they came out. If you knew baseball and were smart, you could do well. But after that, dealers were selling the prime rookie cards at inflated proces before they even got their shipment in from the card companies. It made it nearly impossible to be ahead of the curve.

I'm not sure that makes it more influential than the 84D Mattingly, just different.

Is that card worth anything now?

I have about 3 or 4 binders of baseball and basketball cards sitting in storage. Good chance I have that one, as I had just about every Griffey card there was between that time and the early 90s.

[dougdirt]

Is that card worth anything now?

I have about 3 or 4 binders of baseball and basketball cards sitting in storage. Good chance I have that one, as I had just about every Griffey card there was between that time and the early 90s.

Depending on the condition, yes, you can still get a couple of 10's for it.

[Benihana]

The 89 Griffey changed the hobby. Before then, only Topps Tiffany were premium caliber cards and hardly anyone had those. Upper Deck changed the game by going to a premium card and it coincided perfectly that Griffey was in that set. It made it the must have card/set and introduced people to something that cards could have been instead of cheap non-glossy papers.

Everyone always thinks the most influential was something that happened when they were a kid.

The 89 Griffey card changed the hobby, but not in the way you might think. The emergence of Upper Deck was the beginning of the end of the value of baseball cards, as it was the beginning of the market being flooded and confused with many different brands and editions.

That said, it was a really cool card.

[RadfordVA]

Funny thing is when 1989 Upper Deck first came out I remember the Dale Murphy RevNeg being much more valuable and sought after than Griffey. Things changed haha

[bob jones]

In the early sixties it was hard to find a Maury Wills card

[westofyou]

In the early sixties it was hard to find a Maury Wills card

Quite possibly the worst manager in MLB history

[ol'Sparky]

[dougdirt]

Everyone always thinks the most influential was something that happened when they were a kid.

The 89 Griffey card changed the hobby, but not in the way you might think. The emergence of Upper Deck was the beginning of the end of the value of baseball cards, as it was the beginning of the market being flooded and confused with many different brands and editions.

That said, it was a really cool card.

My 5 billion 1987 Topps disagree that it was the 89 Upper Deck devaluing and flooding the market.

[RichRed]

I was 12 years old in 1981 and that was the first year I was really into collecting, even though my parents had bought me some cards before that. It seemed like every single pack of '81 Topps had a Gordy Freakin' Pladson (who???) in it:

[SteelSD]

My 5 billion 1987 Topps disagree that it was the 89 Upper Deck devaluing and flooding the market.

<shudder...>

That Topps set was nasty and must have been produced so that every child on earth could have a Bonds rookie. Terribly over-produced. The Fleer set that year was all sorta gorgeous, and the Donruss set was nice (excepting quality control issues) but that Topps set...still have four or five sets I couldn't get rid of in the mid 90's.

If you want a good laugh...I hand collated a 1986 Sportflics set. Still feel dirty about that one.

[RichRed]

<shudder...>

That Topps set was nasty and must have been produced so that every child on earth could have a Bonds rookie. Terribly over-produced. The Fleer set that year was all sorta gorgeous, and the Donruss set was nice (excepting quality control issues) but that Topps set...still have four or five sets I couldn't get rid of in the mid 90's.

If you want a good laugh...I hand collated a 1986 Sportflics set. Still feel dirty about that one.

Oooh, Sportflics - I had some of those. Probably still do, somewhere. Reminds me of the 7-Eleven baseball coins that came on the bottom of Slurpee cups. Anyone else remember those?

[50YrRedsFan]

In the early sixties it was hard to find a Maury Wills card

That is because Wills was not signed by Topps to produce a card. Topps thought Wills would never make it to the Majors. So Wills signed a contract with Fleer. Fleer produced Wills' first baseball card in 1963. Fleer was sued by Topps for making baseball cards, and was forced to shut down the baseball card production. So Wills never had another card made until 1967 when he finally signed a deal with Topps.

[dougdirt]

<shudder...>

That Topps set was nasty and must have been produced so that every child on earth could have a Bonds rookie. Terribly over-produced. The Fleer set that year was all sorta gorgeous, and the Donruss set was nice (excepting quality control issues) but that Topps set...still have four or five sets I couldn't get rid of in the mid 90's.

If you want a good laugh...I hand collated a 1986 Sportflics set. Still feel dirty about that one.

I still have that Sportflics set somewhere, so don't feel that bad. My favorite set from the 80's is still the 83 Topps set. Just love the design. The 85 set is also very nice looking.

I have so much absolute crap from 87-92 that outside a few cards wortha buck or two that I couldn't give away to use as a fire starter it isn't even funny.