baseball cards

Upper Deck Baseball Cards History 1988

Baseball card price

Upper Deck Baseball Cards History 1988

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Upper Deck Baseball Cards

Upper Deck baseball cards, 1989 marked the release of this hi-tech (at the time) product. But few people know that the Upper Deck baseball product, issued cards used to market their cards in 1988. Years later these cards also paved the way, for what we now have come to learn are “Promo cards”.

In 1988, a few players were part of the original marketing product, and those players were Wally Joyner and Dwayne DeWitt, and they were actually featured in 2 Upper Deck baseball cards released that year. Those cards had one purpose, to fuel the interest in the Upper Deck product. Although all of the product sold out and quickly, clearly it was not because of the poster boys but rather the hype that surrounded the Upper Deck company.

1989 Upper Deck Hologram

In a time, where there was some counterfeiting going on in the sports card industry. These baseball cards offered a hologram (on the back right hand corner) that was to be tamper proof. The actual poster boy for the 1989 Upper Deck baseball product quickly became Ken Griffey Jr. You can say what you like about the Upper Deck baseball product but Ken Griffey Jr. did not disappoint.

In fact it is hard to believe, that with his record over 600 home-runs, Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1989 Upper Deck rookie baseball card can be had relatively cheap. Hard to believe that at one time, Ken Griffey Jr. was one of the most amazing center fielders to ever have played the game, Ken Griffey Jr. is no longer a hobby favorite in all areas of the country, but a 600 plus home-run all-star none the less.

How many home-runs could he have hit? Had he not been injured for about 4 years totaling all of his trips to the disabled list. Maybe 750, I guess we will never know. For argument sake, I will say respectively 35 home-runs a year. Ken Griffey Jr. is still playing, the Chicago White Sox are probably going to bring him back, there are your 750 imaginary home-runs!

Their 1989 baseball product is loaded with plenty of future Hall of Fame candidates, I do not believe that John Smoltz will have any problems getting in when his time is up, being the only player to have led the National League in wins one year and saves another. I have a hard time making a case for Gary Sheffield, boy it seems that controversy always follows him, but still his career numbers are nice. Being the nephew of Dwight Gooden, you can see where the genes come from.

The Dale Murphy Reverse Negative

The 1989 Upper Deck baseball product is loaded with error cards as well, many more than I can ever list here but there are a few reverse negative photos out there. The Dale Murphy card being the more favorite and most expensive. Ungraded copies of these still sell in the $20.00 range.

All in all, I like the Upper Deck baseball product the cards grade very nicely if you are opening up the wax product or factory sets and I have had some fun chasing the error cards, but I am not ready to put this set in the top 5 baseball card sets of modern-day baseball cards. Just my opinion.

Mike Schmidt Autographed Baseball

Autograph Collecting

Mike Schmidt Autographed Baseball

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Collecting Sports Autographs In Person

As baseball card and memorabilia collections go there is always something else to add to an already colorful collection. Believe me mine is no exception. So when I had the incredible opportunity to meet one of the most legendary of baseball’s third basemen, I did not gawk at the chance. In fact I barely slept that night before. I am not one of the people who gets nervous or star struck when I am going to meet someone for the first time. I mean the golf course is a friend to me. But nonetheless meeting a great baseball player, after years of watching him almost single-handedly kill my NY Mets during the 1970’s and 1980’s all of a sudden none of that mattered anymore.

Mets, Shmets…I was going to meet Mike Schmidt! Nothing else mattered. Long bomb home runs, blasts with the bases loaded, the fact that Chipper Jones was waiting in the wings in the early 1990’s to become the next Mets slayer, none of that mattered. I was going to meet Mike Schmidt and get him to autograph a baseball for my collection. I was not wearing boots, but If I were, I would have flown out of them for sure.

Baseball Cards And Other Sports Collectibles Are Great!

Collecting started out as a hobby for me, many, many years ago. Over the years I have tried to redefine my collection. Sure there have been some changes here and there, but for the most part, my collection stays true to sports cards, and autographs. If you read this blog, you will see some of the best cards and autographs that I have to offer any person starting out a collection or hobby fling with sports memorabilia. Many autographs can be obtained for a fee. Some even free. Getting an autograph is always something exciting. However, you can never tell when the person issuing the autograph is going to explode in his or her sport. So take a tip from me, and you will never look down at your collection or be disappointed. Accept every autograph you can get, and think of the moment and the great fun you had when you received that autograph. Everything else comes a distant second place.

Almost as much fun as obtaining the autographs that I have obtained for the last 25 years or so, is sharing them with you right here on this blog. Thanks for reading and check out my Facebook page. Additionally if you have a story and want to share it with me. I will publish it right here. Thanks again.

The World Of The Wacky Pack!

Odd-ball Cards

The World Of The Wacky Pack!

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It was back in the mid 1970’s for me when I became hooked on collecting baseball cards and also cards of other sports as well.  I was a kid born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.  I can remember that feeling in the 1970’s when you had saved up enough allowance money to go and buy some Topps baseball cards and get some gum in the process.  Can you remember how disappointed you were when you went to get some baseball card packs with your allowance money and that good old mom and pop grocery store was all out of baseball or football cards, but there were tons of Wacky packs.  I know bummer!

Well don’t you wish you had some boxes of these Wacky packages cards now?  Graded by PSA or BVG and in the right grade, 9.0 and above, and you can put a kid through junior college.  As a collector I have spent most of my adult life trying to connect with that childhood that I left behind so many years ago in Brooklyn.  Friends long gone, and so is the city for me now, as I live in Miami.  But I can remember the first day that I purchased a Wacky pack.  I was in that mood to buy, which was basically whenever I got my hands on some money, and I purchased these cards because I just had to buy something and there was nothing else.  Being the anal retentive person that I had to be in order to keep my baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and odd-ball card collection intact and pristine, these Wacky packages were now part of my collection, so I kept them in the condition that you see right here above, mint.

Pictured here is the “Weakies” breakfast of chumps card.  The thing is that these cards like many others from the 1960’s, 1970’s and so on are viewed today as special items from another era, as well they should be.  Many of these Wacky packs are still hard to find in the condition that I like to collect cards in.  Collecting cards is something that I hope to pass along to my kids, and perhaps they can pass it along to their kids.  While times are tough and the economy is at a standstill, this may be the best chance that you can have to go out and purchase some boxes of these great cards, they are most certainly a part of my past and America’s too.  You can probably get them now for a fraction of the cost of say 5 years ago.  If you roam the EBay pages you can also find that Topps has opened up their vaults some years back and there are plenty of original artwork out there that can be purchased fairly cheap.  These cards are funny, amusing, and most of all great collectibles.