Rare sets, cards or variations from the Roaring 80's

dalemurphycollector

OK, I'm interested in hearing what other board members have to say about this topic.

I believe that the point in time when there was the highest number of card collectors was during the 1980's. A vast majority were kids close to my age and as we grew into generation X we lost all interest in the hobby. College and women had a little more appeal than cardboard. As we grow older, this generaton will always harbor a fondness for cards from that generation, no matter how grossly over-produced they were.

As my generation ages, many will find their way back to this hobby and the first thing that we will collect is what we knew as a child. As we do, we will start to focus on the cards that are rarer and harder to find. This is the premise on which I base my theory that some of the more obsure items from the 80's will actually begin to increase in value.

That being said, my question to this board is ( What items from the 1980's are truely scarce?)

Here are some of my thoughts

1. 1980 Topps (Yellow Name Variations)
2. 1985 Topps Mini Test
3. 1982 Topps Backless/Blueless
4. 1985 Leaf in a high grade
5. 1980 OPC, just doesn't seem like there is a lot of this material out there
6. 1980-83 OPC in a high grade, quality control back then was looser than Paris Hilton's moral fiber
7. Topps Tiffany set with factory seal still intact.

prscott933

for a non-mainstream set 1985 Kitty Clover seems pretty rare.

dalemurphycollector

1985 Kitty Clover Discs: issued in with bags of Kitty Clover Potato Chips, a non major league authorized series of 20 players.Cal Ripken and Miks Schimdt the two highest valued cards. Square versions of the discs, which have been cut from press sheets are known with in the hobby and carry a small premium. Kitty Clover was based in Omaha and distrubuted troughout the mid west. Sad story, this set has no Dale Murphy

dalemurphycollector

Anyone have any thoughts on 'Food Issued' cards from the 80's?

Brian48

I really like the regional food issues too. Jiffy Pop discs, 7/11 coins, and Krafts macaronni and cheese comes to mind. At the end of the 80's or beginning of the 90's however you look at it, the '90 Score McDonalds is an extremely scarce set to come by. So were the '90 Topps "TV" issues which were only available as a team set through mail order.

I would include the '88 Topps cloth, that was test issue that was never official released nor was it actually a complete set.

ajw

<< <i>Anyone have any thoughts on 'Food Issued' cards from the 80's? >>



I'm having a really tough time finding the last of the "Tea Discs" I need for my Will Clark collection. I put that in quotes, as I don't think they're all actually tea discs, but they seem to be known as such.

I'd love to find the 1988 and 1989 Key Food discs and the 1989 Our Own Tea disc.

Here's a thread I started that discusses them and shows examples.

There are also some regional SF Giants issues I could mention, but I'm not sure those have a broad enough appeal for this thread.

dalemurphycollector

Just looked up the 1990 Score McDonald's, they were issued from McD's in Idaho and eastern Oregon. A 25 card set which a reported print run of 4000. Given away with a large fry. Main players, Bonds, Brett, Clemens, but sorry no Dale Murphy "what were they thinking?'. Anyone know the pop report on this issue? And what are they selling for on ebay?

dalemurphycollector

AJW,

Do you have the Will Clark from the 1990 Mcd's Score ?

11235813

I think the 1998 Topps Cloth Stickers certainly are scarce.

The are also a lot of nice small sets out there which have great eye appeal but are not particularly scarce:

1981, 1985-87 Fleer Star Stickers
1983-87 Donruss Action All-Stars, paticularly the 1985 issue
1984-85 Topps 5x7's
1986-87 Donruss Pop-Ups (inserts in the Action All-Stars)

There were also a couple of Cape Cod League sets released featuring Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Mo Vaughn, and other major leaguers who played in the Cape League while they were in college that are quite scarce.

You've also got all the Mother's Cookies issues which are very nice looking and fairly scarce.

One noticeable thing that has happened over time is that many of the Topps Test issues that were released from 1964-1974 have become very popular with collectors because of the challenge of collecting them. It will be interesting to see if this also happens with the many side/test issues released by Topps, Fleer, and Donruss during the 80's, given the overproduction of the regular issue cards.

mikeschmidt

1988 Tetley Tea discs are incredibly scarce

mikeschmidt

Also -- there are test / promotional versions of the MSA discs...both from 1981 and 1986...both are hard to find.

TonyC

Not as rare, but still highly memorable and collectible: 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken

ajw

<< <i>AJW,

Do you have the Will Clark from the 1990 Mcd's Score ? >>

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

Im kinda familiar with 1989 Fleer-

I occasionally meet a few collectors who were previously un-aware of the numerous FF variations (thinking theres 6) and then proceed to collect them all.

FF- Not rare
Black Box- not rare
F Scribble.Loop Scribble,Lite Loop Scribble- Not rare

Others-different degrees of rarity.


There's 2 FF versions I've never seen since I started hunting in 04. (Only 1 is confirmed legit)

Other rare 1989 Fleer errors are the Checklist with positions and Parrish with handwritten i. Never seen either.

dontippet

The first year of Topps' Heads Up or Popups are quite scarce. These are the plastic pictures with a suction cup to hang in your locker at school.

Also the 1990 Donruss Previews are scarce. I have had an automatic search for them on ebay for the last few years, and only a handful of singles have ever showed up.

Brian48

Yeah, speaking of '90 Donruss, there's the "aquaeous" (sp?) parallel test issue as well. Very tough to find even common player specimens.

I'm not so sure to include the '89 Fleer variations as a true "set", but if you're including that, you might as well include the variation set of the Randy Johnson "Malborough" RCs.

prscott933

the 1988 Action Packed test issue is tough too.

dalemurphycollector

I purchased a 1988 UK Topps Tiffany mini set, and I also bought a lot of 10 regular 1988 UK Topps mini Dale Murphy. I cannot distinguish the two from each other. Anyone know how to tell the difference in them. It is easy to differentiate regular Topps and their tiffany counterpart but not these

goye

0.02 cents

Thom McCann's?

Cal Ripken Jr had a regular sized milk card that was always tough, that was made in the 80's

Also there was a card made that used Cal as the inset photo inside a wallet picture sleeve.

SoonerCowboy

How 'bout:
1978 Slim Jim discs uncut panels
Late 70's Hostess baseball uncut panels
and of course
1980 Topps Basketball panels: "How many of you guys separated these when you pulled them from the packs?" I still have the Dr. J, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson cards. Not together of course.

hofautos

Although many of these cards are fun to collect, i will always consider them a "specialty" oddball, and do not believe there will ever be much value on the majority of them as they really are a "niche market".. Of course there will be exceptions with some of the classics (e.g. 1989 bowman tiffany griffey).

That said, some cards that fit into that niche market where there is still "some" demand include

Minor league
Team issue
7-11
food sponsored

tiffany and glossy singles (as well as your mentioned sets)...there will actually be bigger demand on the singles in gem grades (take bgs 9.5 or psa 10 1989 bowman tiffany griffey for example....the single gems will always bring more than sealed sets.

One of my faves - these once sold for $600...i am sure they will never see half that price again within the next 10 years...

dalemurphycollector

sweet vlad card. I've never seen that card of his

RedHeart54

1. 1980 Topps (Yellow Name Variations)
2. 1985 Topps Mini Test
3. 1982 Topps Backless/Blueless
4. 1985 Leaf in a high grade
5. 1980 OPC, just doesn't seem like there is a lot of this material out there
6. 1980-83 OPC in a high grade, quality control back then was looser than Paris Hilton's moral fiber
7. Topps Tiffany set with factory seal still intact.

All of these have been popular with niche collectors but that's where I think the interest will stay. People who have been card collectors since they were kids, once they obtain the means, tend to revert back to the vintage cards that they'd salivate over at card shows 20 years ago. That's what keeps the vintage market strong.

SidePocket

88 Topps Gregg Jeffires is hard to find.

metalmike

The 1989 Bowman TV cards of Griffey jr/sr and Ripken with the "puffy" television are tuff also. The 1989 Fleer Treadway with the target is tuff, but can be found. in team sets I have found 2 so far this past year.

SlangNRox

since someone brought up Mothers Cookies I thought I'd share these grocery store display signs that my mom picked up from the grocery store. I also have the Rickey Henderson pepsi sign as well as the framed set of cards that you had to collect caps to win.





These are the rarest Mothers Cookie items that I have. Next would probably be the big mac 4 card mail away set or cards that were given away at the game.

frankhardy

<< <i>I think the 1998 Topps Cloth Stickers certainly are scarce. >>




I think you mean "1988". Those are super rare. I have the Cardinals team set.

ROCKDJRW

<< <i>1985 Kitty Clover Discs: issued in with bags of Kitty Clover Potato Chips, a non major league authorized series of 20 players.Cal Ripken and Miks Schimdt the two highest valued cards. Square versions of the discs, which have been cut from press sheets are known with in the hobby and carry a small premium. Kitty Clover was based in Omaha and distrubuted troughout the mid west. Sad story, this set has no Dale Murphy >>


Thanks for the heads up on this set. I wasn't even aware of it. I just picked up a Tom Seaver for my White Sox collection on Ebay. I got it for the opening bid of 99 cents!

digicat

The Mother's Cookies cards are some of my favorites. I recently finished my run of SF Giants team sets that they produced. I don't know if I'd consider them scarce, but they do take a bit of effort to find.

Here's a few I submitted for my Will Clark collection:

HighChopper

Will Clark had such a sweet swing.