Is it time to take a closer look at 1989 Score Football?

fsjeter

I just read an article about players headed for Canton. There was a discussion about 12 retired players and 3 current players (nearing retirement). Of those 12 retired players, 6 have rookie cards in the '89 Score set: Troy Aikman, Cris Carter, Bruce Matthews, Derrick Thomas, Thurman Thomas, and Rod Woodson. Of the three current players, only Tim Brown had a RC in this set. Combine that with the RC of recent inductee, Barry Sanders and regular issue cards of some current and future HOF'ers (Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, John Elway, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Art Monk, Ronnie Lott, Bo Jackson, and Steve Young) this set could see some nice bumps in the not-too-distant future. This set is still very affordable and there are alot of high grade singles available as well. Any thoughts???

Scott

ROCKDJRW

I hate the 1989 Score football set and don't think anyone should ever buy it!
****Please note the above statement came from someone who was smart enough only to buy Proset football cards in 1989****

EagleEyeKid

Please note the above statement came from someone who was smart enough only to buy Proset football cards in 1989****

shagrotn77

I agree that it's a great set with a lot of HOF rookie cards, but I think 1989 Score cards are just too plentiful, even in high grade, to ever go up that much.

AlanAllen

I agree, the '89 Score set is awesome. I'm building it in PSA 10, and have 318/330 currently (good enough for third place ). It is indeed plentiful in high grade, but the demand is high as well. You can get factory sets for about $50, which is a great buy. Not even counting the stars, there are tons of future HOF RC's in the set:

IMHO Locks:

18 Michael Irvin
72 Cris Carter
78 Rod Woodson
86 Tim Brown
109 Bruce Matthews
211 Thurman Thomas
246 Deion Sanders
257 Barry Sanders (already in)
270 Troy Aikman

Outside chance:

65 Vaughan Johnson
258 Derrick Thomas
263 Steve Atw ater
272 Andre Rison
380S Eric Allen
407S Neil Smith

Other notable RC's:

11 Bubby Brister
27 Chris Chandler
60 Chris Miller
63 Ickey Woods
101 Keith Jackson
105 Mark Rypien
166 Merril Hoge
167 Chris Spielman
176 Brian Blades
178 Anthony Miller
184 Steve Sewell
188 Mark Carrier
191 Quinn Early
199 Hardy Nickerson
200 Steve Beuerlein
201 Bruce Armstrong
204 Mark Ingram
235 Gaston Green
236 John Stephens
238 John Taylor
245 Broderick Thomas
265 Don Beebe
316 Eric Thomas
333S Sterling Sharpe
335S Frank Reich
428S Dave Meggett

This is all very subjective of course, but I see a minimum of 9 and possibly as many as 15 HOF RC's coming from this set. Plus 26 more of guys that played well enough at some point to generate interest.

Joe

helionaut

When I was going to school in Syracuse, the Bills were considered the local team, so I got to watch Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, and all those guys on TV every week during their SB runs. But I liked Don Beebe because he had a habit of going up for a reception and getting hit so that he flipped a-- over teakettle and coming down on his head. They even made a special dobule-helmet for him, which was like the shell of one helmet pressed onto a regular helmet. I think the first game he wore it, he needed it. Just one of those quirky things that make the role-players just as fun to watch as the stars. Don Beebe for the Hall.

fsjeter

Outside chance:

65 Vaughan Johnson
258 Derrick Thomas
263 Steve Atw ater
272 Andre Rison
380S Eric Allen
407S Neil Smith

We both forgot about #15 Warren Moon in that category! If they consider his CFL numbers he could easily be in. I am surprised there are currently only 18 sets on the registry. I think I am going to have to make a run. It looks like all of the top sets will end up with a GPA of 10.

Scott

tnfan67

I bought waaaay too many of those Pro Set cards! I like the Score set. However, I think that pack prices may be a little inflated at their current levels. Any thoughts? Good luck to those building a high grade set.

dallasactuary

If you're reading this thread, maybe you are interested in 1989 Score FB. And if you're interested in 1989 Score FB, maybe you would like to buy some rookies from that set. I have a lot of Andre Rison rookies on ebay right now, and lots of Michael Irvin (3), Derrick Thomas (7), Steve At-water (4), Tim Brown (5) and don't forget the greatest rookie of them all, Ickey Woods (6) that will be on ebay soon unless someone wants to PM and make an offer. (I've got 11 Don Beebe cards, too)

I also have a mountain of Pro Set rookies, some already on ebay (link in sig line) including Tim Brown, Deion Sanders and Troy Aikman, plus an autographed Barry Sanders, and other lots will be up soon unless I get an offer first.

All of the cards are at least NM/MT, but I'd say the great majority are mint or gem mint.

AlanAllen

Moon is a lock for the hall, but his RC is in 1985 Topps (or 1981 Jogo if you count CFL cards). There are lots of other HOFers with cards in the set, just not RCs.

And yeah, pretty soon there will be three complete 10.00 sets in the registry . Dave and Frank are each one card away, and pretty soon I'll be seven cards away. MOSH will probably finish it in 10.00 before too long as well.

Joe

fsjeter

<<Moon is a lock for the hall, but his RC is in 1985 Topps (or 1981 Jogo if you count CFL cards). >>

True, I was thinking of both RC's and regular issue cards of all the current/future HOF'ers in the set. I need to add Steve Largent and Tony Dorsett to the list of current HOF'ers in the set as well. It's always been a nice set because of the Aikman and Sanders (Barry) RC's and the lack of anything else interesting in 1989 (with the exception of Pro Set, LOL!!). But now that I am taking a closer look, I see alot more about the set that I like. I'm gonna enjoy working on this one!

Scott

AlanAllen

Scott,
You should be able to build a great majority of the set in PSA 10 very cheaply, Back when I started building my set in late 2002, there were only maybe 50 different cards in the set that had ever been slabbed. PSA 10 commons rarely came up for sale, and when they did they sold for $20-$30. Now every card in the set has been slabbed PSA 10 at least twice, and there are tons of commons with pops over 10. Now commons start at $3 and sometimes don't go much higher. If you e-mail Joe Tuttle, I'm sure he'll work a deal for a starter set with you. I only have a handful of doubles, but if you try Frank and Dave they might have some. DSL, 4 Sharp, and Kane often have gobs and gobs on 10's on the bay. It's a brave new world

Joe

ldferg

take a look at this...am i not seeing this correctly?

89 Score Set

NickM

Add Steve Wisniewski to the list of potential HOF rookies. I'd rate him ahead of most of the people AlanAllen listed as outside chance.

Nick

joestalin

Thurman, Barry, Carter, Derrick...thats a lot of guys who never got rings..popular yes but not high end. Barry's
exit will always hurt his card prices. Cris Carter didn't have that great of an exit either and it looks like
Tim Brown will follow in the same light. I don't think this set has much in it for the hardcore collector

JS

PotatoChip

It's a junk set. A complete 330 card PSA 9 graded set was recently on eBay. The seller couldn't even get $1.87 per card (including shipping). And, in my opinion, it wasn't a bargain for the buyer.

fsjeter

<<The seller couldn't even get $1.87 per card (including shipping).>>

I understand what you are saying. I'm sure having a picture of a '79 Topps Earl Campbell didn't help that auction either. My point is, it's a great set with plenty of HOF'ers (both RC's and regular issue cards) and it is still extremely affordable with an abundance of high end cards available in PSA 10. BTW, I don't know WTF happened in that set id_ferg listed. That price is cazy! Looks like two new ebayers had the same idea and one got caught! I wonder if they were actually dumb enough to pay that!

Scott

AlanAllen

<< <i>Add Steve Wisniewski to the list of potential HOF rookies. I'd rate him ahead of most of the people AlanAllen listed as outside chance.

Nick >>


Very true. I don't know how I missed him.

Joe

Davemri

Joe,

Do you really think that Derrick Thomas has just an "outside chance" of getting in. I had him down as a lock but maybe im wrong??

dave

AlanAllen

My skills at guessing who will and won't get in the hall are about as good as my quilting skills. I had him as an outside chance because his career was cut short, so I thought we might get a Thurman Munson type situation. But you're probably right, it would be tough not to induct a guy with 9 pro bowls in a 10 year career.

Joe

Southsider

Derrick Thomas was a monster, IMO he deserves to be in:

He holds the NFL record for most sacks in one game with 7 and also had a 6 sack game in his career.
Recorded 20 sacks for the season in 1990.
He is 10th all-time in sacks with 126.5, despite only playing 11 seasons. That's an average of 11.5 sacks a season!
He went to the Pro Bowl 9 consecutive seasons from 1989-1997.

fsjeter

Well, you can add Thurman Thomas, Michael Irvin, and Bruce Matthews to the growing list of HOF RC's in this set.

Scott

RoarIn84

it's hard for me to invest in anything Score on basic principal. The stuff isn't that rare. true, it was back then, but it seems like i'd hear story after endless story about people finding 5 cases in a party store stockroom, or another wholesale warehouse with another couple skids worth...on and on....i think, like the Fleer Basketball, it has more to drop. besides, any set that produced factory sets just ain't that rare.....even 84D...did i mention IT'S SCORE?????

rise2it

Early '90, I turned down cases of factory sets - could've had them for $8 a set.

Friend of mine, another pretty smart dealer, called and wanted me to go in halves with him on all the cases.

Not only did I turn it down, I talked him out of pursueing it further. ("It's junk - you can't give them away.")

He'll never let me live that one down. (Six months later, they were flying off the shelves for $100 each - everyone realized the production was much lower, and it skyrocketed.)

For you 'young bucks' who weren't doing this at the time, you should know that NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY wanted these cards in 1989.

Collectors battle-cry of the day was: PRO SET....PRO SET.....LUD DENNY IS GOD......PRO SET......PRO SET

Fabfrank

I remember the same thing. ProSet was doing tons of marketing, so their cards were at the forefront of the football card resurgence. Plus they were available.
Score had a nice debut in 88 with baseball, but the 89 baseball product wasn't as popular. Dealers weren't as excited about their debut football product. I bought (and opened) cases of both product. Score was so much better and I remember dealers buying up all my stars (Montana, Allen, Young etc) at shows. The photography on these cards is so crisp, as compared to some of the blurry shots on Pro Set (check out D.Beebe's RC).
I've always felt that this is a landmark set. That's why guys like me , AllanAlan, and Dave Jacobs went out and built the set in all PSA 10. Yes the raw product is plentiful and 10's were always available, but I think it would be much harder to build the set now. The few 10's that show up on Ebay go for cheap, but you are not going to be able to build the whole set that way.
Anyway, build this set as a labor of love. The player selection is great, the cards are great, and the photography is great.

shagrotn77

When it's all said and done, I think 1989 Score is going to rival 1984 Topps for best modern (pre shiny card) set. Each will have nearly or slightly more than 10 HOF rookie cards in them. Yes 10! Talk about 2 talent-laden drafts.

AlanAllen

I still love this set . I don't know if building a PSA 10 set was throwing my money down the toilet or not, but I don't collect for price appreciation.

Joe

onlyanumber

<< <i>I agree, the '89 Score set is awesome. I'm building it in PSA 10, and have 318/330 currently (good enough for third place ). It is indeed plentiful in high grade, but the demand is high as well. You can get factory sets for about $50, which is a great buy. Not even counting the stars, there are tons of future HOF RC's in the set:

IMHO Locks:

18 Michael Irvin
72 Cris Carter
78 Rod Woodson
86 Tim Brown
109 Bruce Matthews
211 Thurman Thomas
246 Deion Sanders
257 Barry Sanders (already in)
270 Troy Aikman

Outside chance:

65 Vaughan Johnson
258 Derrick Thomas
263 Steve Atw ater
272 Andre Rison
380S Eric Allen
407S Neil Smith

Other notable RC's:

11 Bubby Brister
27 Chris Chandler
60 Chris Miller
63 Ickey Woods
101 Keith Jackson
105 Mark Rypien
166 Merril Hoge
167 Chris Spielman
176 Brian Blades
178 Anthony Miller
184 Steve Sewell
188 Mark Carrier
191 Quinn Early
199 Hardy Nickerson
200 Steve Beuerlein
201 Bruce Armstrong
204 Mark Ingram
235 Gaston Green
236 John Stephens
238 John Taylor
245 Broderick Thomas
265 Don Beebe
316 Eric Thomas
333S Sterling Sharpe
335S Frank Reich
428S Dave Meggett

This is all very subjective of course, but I see a minimum of 9 and possibly as many as 15 HOF RC's coming from this set. Plus 26 more of guys that played well enough at some point to generate interest.

Joe >>



No love for Steve Wisniewski, huh?

Fabfrank

Joe- You know when I first started the set it was with the intention of doing it in PSA 9. When the price of 10's was in the same neighborhood, I had to raise the bar. Right now, to build the set in PSA 10, is a money pit. But PSA 9 would be a really nice, affordable set.

AlanAllen

<< <i>
No love for Steve Wisniewski, huh? >>



That was an oversight on my part that NickM pointed out on Page 1. is it cool for me to edit my list 2 years after I made it ?

Joe

shagrotn77

Getting back to my '89 Score/'84 Topps comparison...I just read that Bruce Matthews started his career in 1983, so his rookie card could have been '84 Topps. Crazy that his "rookie" card came out in his 7th year in the NFL. Such is life with football cards I guess. There's actually quite a few players whose rookie card came out years into their career. Mel Blount is one example.

AlanAllen

It's also worth noting that many of the RCs in 1989 Score were rookies in 1988. Topps traditionally did not include players until they had seen NFL action, so 1970 rookies would not appear until 1971 Topps (or later), etc. Score and ProSet included rookies in the year they were drafted AND rookies from the previous year, so effectively those sets have two rookie classes worth of RCs. Notable RCs of 1988 rookies in 1989 Score are Michael Irvin, Cris Carter (actually 1987 but didn't play much), Rod Woodson (also 1987), Tim Brown, and Thurman Thomas. As a general rule, green bordered "1989 Rookie" subset cards (245-272) were, well, 1989 Rookies . Outside those numbers, most were rookies prior to 1989 even if they had no RCs before 1989.

Joe

Bearkat21

Nice job on digging up a three-year old thread. And BTW - I loved the Pro Set RC's because they were in their college uniforms. And there was something about that green box on the RC's as well. That is why I have very few score RC's. (Irvin and Deion)

Fabfrank

I love the different color borders in the 89 Score also. It gives the feel that the set was released in series.

RedHeart54

Is the set a lot more plentiful than previously known or was there just that much more Pro Set product? 1989 Score, as you recall, was not instantly hot as say OPC Premiere hockey. The Score set took several months to really get going (but I remember when it DID get hot Beckett printed one of its infamous "double up arrows" of every card in the set.)

ldferg

this thread hooked me into getting one of those vending boxes from bbce. not much luck. no matthews, b sanders or aikman. i doubt there's a 10 to be had in this box. it was fun opening and browsing thru but my expectations were too high.

the set is nice with the colored borders and some of the action shots and dual cards are sweet. i like the bo jackson and marcus allen.

RoarIn84

i think this board keeps BBCE in business.....i figure they take in around 10k/month from people here...... it's always fun opening vending boxes. i probably would have spent the same $$ on 2 factory sets

ldferg

yes, i think i may look to pick up a couple of factory sets. i do like the set and i can remember turning them down at $10 each...ugh

Fabfrank

i do like the set and i can remember turning them down at $10 each...ugh

Don't feel bad David, me too. I'm still sick over it!

CDsNuts

It wasn't until everybody had spent all their money on the heralded Pro Set Series II that people began to realize that Score was massively underproduced by comparison. Not to mention, RCs of Barry Sanders, Tony Mandrich, Aikman, and Thurman Thomas (who was playing really well in 89) were bringing some bucks. Remember, this is the first year they added draft picks, so there were really 2 draft classes worth of RCs (1988 and 1989) in the set. That's why it's so loaded.

I like how they put together the set: The blue borders were superstars and stars (according to the people at Score), the red were just the regular schmoes, and the green were rookies and special subsets. I remember busting packs, I'd skip right through the red cards if I didn't see Thurman because there wasn't one other red card worth a damn.

Lee