The greatest day of the month as an 11-year-old was coming home to a new Beckett Baseball Card Monthly in your mailbox. Who was on the cover? What went up? What went down? Who’s the Hottest and Coldest player? What lies will readers tell in Autograph Experiences? The worst lie, though, was not ever being told that “going up” really means nothing, and what a card is “worth” was quite different than what was in the Beckett. Never is that more evident than if you cruise EBay now and see how much your favorite “expensive” cards go for. It’s unbelievably depressing.
7. Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Upper Deck
This one used to “book” (love that baseball card price guide slang) for $100, and you can find a new one for under 10 bucks. It’s actually a bit refreshing that this one still goes for even that, many cards are way more depressing to check as you will see. There is still an aura around the Griffey card, which is probably why it still costs something: most underappreciated player of this generation; the first “high-end” set (which ended up making cards not as fun anymore); the first card of the first “high-end” set; finally a super-hyped rookie who actually panned out. It may be the most famous card of the peak of collecting that didn’t involve curse words on a bat.
6. 1991 Topps Stadium Club
If 1989 Upper Deck was the first “high-end” set, Topps Stadium Club was the first “ungodly high-end” set. They started out at $4 per pack for 12 cards, and once their popularity grew, they sometimes cost $8 or even higher. I remember being at a card show where a guy was selling them at $4 during its peak, and kids were lined up to buy them like guys waiting for Neon Beaudeau in Blue Chips. It was a really cool set—each player’s Topps rookie card was shown on the back, Nolan Ryan and Ozzie Smith were in tuxes, and Frank Thomas had the most sought-after card. You can now buy the entire set on E Bay for an opening bid of…five dollars. Good God. That’s a lot of lawns mowed for nothing.
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5. Gregg Jefferies 1988 Fleer
Kids who collected cards in the late 80s and early 90s got their first taste of the New York media machine with Gregg Jefferies cards. He was consistently one of the tops on the “Hot” list in Beckett and his cards were expensive and tough to find (or so we thought). You can buy one of his Fleer rookies right now for $1 dollar, and that seems a bit high. I wonder what player had the biggest discrepancy between his cards’ values and his on-field performance (or lack thereof). Jefferies could be up there. Brien Taylor is probably No. 1.
Todd Van Poppel would be high on the list too. Carlos Delgado is an interesting case, his path went like this: heavily hyped so high value, went down, went out of this world after a great first month in the majors, back down after his inevitable drop, before creeping back up a little and settling since he has been a serviceable major leaguer for a long time now.
4. Frank Thomas 1992 Fleer Rookie Sensations
1992 Fleer was an unbelievably dull set. Blue borders, bad stock on the cards, and just boring. However, once out of seemingly every 600 packs you got one of 20 “Rookie Sensations,” and they were some of the most hunted cards in history. Stores would have packs that had been picked through to see if one of the blue borders could be seen from the outside.
People would literally open packs of Fleer, fan the cards out to look for a dark blue border, and if there wasn’t one, they would toss the rest of the cards out. Not even look at them. And even if you did get a blue card, it could have been a Jeff Fassero or a Milt Cuyler, and not the crown jewel, the Frank Thomas, which was going for in excess of $100 at its peak. Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez were also in the set. You can buy the whole set for $79 now, but there are no bids.
3. Billy Ripken 1989 Fleer
Plenty has been written about the Ripken card, especially in its 20th anniversary. There is even an entire great website dedicated to the card. It is the only card ever to inspire at least four clones of the same card, made by the same company. Black box, scribble, white out, they corrected it in many ways, and many collectors wanted the entire “set” of the corrections. Crazy. Of course, all of them are mere quarters now.
2. Bo Jackson Football/Baseball
Bo’s classic card was interesting in that it was a regular issue card, a non-rookie card, and didn’t seem to be any more difficult to get in packs than a Garth Iorg 1990 Score. But something connected with collectors, and it was going for well in excess of $20 at one point at a time when you could basically buy any other card in the set for under a dollar. Packs of ’90 Score went for $2 or $3, and boxes crept up near $60. Four of them are on sale right now for $.99. Even a “GEM MINT 10” can be bought for $7.
1. Mark McGwire cards
It’s hard to fathom a further fall possible without an athlete killing their wife and friend or setting up dog fights. Before McGwire hit his 400th (!) career home run, I can remember Mike Shannon on Cardinal radio broadcasts in 1997 calling him “Future Hall of Famer” Mark McGwire. In the two seasons following, he hit 70 and 65 home runs. After his record setting 1998, his cards were out of this world expensive.
The 1985 Topps card went for more than $200 (and way, way more than that if it was “graded” by a professional card grading service, which are actually real companies). He hit 65 more bombs in 1999 but his cards inevitably went down. Since then, Bonds has broken his record, his entire career and legacy have been ruined by steroids, and he barely gets 25% of the Hall of Fame vote. And now you can get yourself a 1985 Topps card of his for less than $10. McGwire collectors, go get yourself a drink.
The Top 7 is written by Jason Major. He thinks McGwire’s card size in this column proves it’s on steroids. Email him at jason@joesportsfan.com.
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