No love for 1991 Topps Stadium Club

BaltimoreYankee

It's amazing that this set is so cheap. The first super-premium set, it features great photography. You can buy a complete NM set on eBay for next to nothing. Production numbers must have been insane.

HaveLearned

Didn't think anything could ever top this set back then, and in reality there might not be anything that has. I recall paying 12 bucks a pack !

Loyalty32

They are beautiful cards.

Thanks
Craig

Lefthander

Just part of the '90's glut.

Stingray

Originally posted by: Lefthander
Just part of the '90's glut.

+1

curch

I remember working at a card shop when these came out. They were so hot!

Frozencaribou

The Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, and Nolan Ryan were especially in demand. Early in the year the card shop prices were at $2-3 dollars but later in the year they did climb to insane prices per pack. If 91 Stadium Club had even halfway decent backs this set would be one of my all-time favorite sets.

-Nathanael

BaltimoreYankee

Originally posted by: Frozencaribou
The Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, and Nolan Ryan were especially in demand. Early in the year the card shop prices were at $2-3 dollars but later in the year they did climb to insane prices per pack. If those cards had even halfway decent backs they would be one of my all-time favorite sets.

-Nathanael

Great point about the backs. I was just going through this set today and thinking the same thing. I think I bought a few boxes back then and built a set. IIRC, collation was pretty good unlike, say, 1989 Upper Deck.

byronscott4ever

I like how the backs showed the first Topps card which occasionally was the SC card

mikelowell25

Originally posted by: Stingray

Originally posted by: Lefthander

Just part of the '90's glut.

+1

+1



I stopped caring about--and buying--new cards around 1984, with the exception of fleer basketball in 1986



Too many sets that flooded the market and made the hobby seem like a cesspool of mass production.

craig44

I remember how awesome these were when they came out. They were 10-12 dollars a pack. The frank thomas was a $25 card. and the nolan ryan tuxedo card was great. I remember they were so proud of the Kodak pictures. Still a really nice looking set. It has aged well

KendallCat

Remember them very well, and it was right after I graduated from college. Had bought a huge collection of about 60-70,000 cards from a guy for about a grand - Montana rookie, hockey cards from the 70's, 1960's and 70's baseball cards of stars and HOF players... I had stored a bunch of boxes of 1990 Leaf cards and about 9-10 Leaf Frank Thomas rookies plus 1989 UD cards.

I got really lucky on Stadium Club as I was doing private baseball lessons after I got done playing in college and finishing up my degree, and one of the kids I taught his mom worked for a food wholesaler - candy, cards... She knew I collected and worked it out for me to get a case of series 2 at wholesale. I believe it was $300 and sold it for between $800-1000 in about two days - awesome money for a college kid back in 1991. Thought for a second about keeping it, but that lasted about 10 seconds. Beautiful cards and helped me make some $$ back in the day.

Stone193

Since I post a lot of my wins?



I'll post a loss.



I bought a box of 91TSC in 1992 or 3 for $135! Still have it.



Back then, I believe "the" card? Frank Thomas.



He was white hot in the early 90s.



BBCEx - I'm sure will give you all you want for 12 bucks per

totallyradd

The only thing I can say about this series is that this was the set that literally drove me out of collecting for the next 21 years. Prices go to high, and I didn't have that money in middle school. That was it for me.

Estil

Well that set and the 1992 set fit very neatly into two binders and I agree they are attractive cards. I guess over the years all the sets coming out and the choices out there, the demand gets spread a little thin. But they're still the same cards right?

TheMick6

For me it was sort of the opposite effect. These types of cards pushed me further into vintage collecting even as a kid. I just never liked the glossy look on cards. I remember getting a few of these and just not seeing the big deal. Also when they started doing things like putting players in suits and that sort of thing I knew the new stuff wouldn't be to my liking. All those cards that were chased in the early nineties the Jackson with his shirt off, canseco the same way???? I'd much rather have an action shot of Marty Barrett completing a double play than Canseco showing me his abs.

vols1

I remember this junk wax was more expensive than the other junk wax. But I bought some anyway, then Topps flooded the market with special edition Stadium Star sets and the market plummeted.

BaltimoreYankee

It's funny how someone said they liked the Ryan 'tux' card and someone else said they didn't. Interesting how we all have our likes and dislikes. Personally, I like the game action shots and don't like the tux or suit cards. Eric Show with a guitar on a hammock is pretty bad. What's more worthless (worth less?) are the special edition 'club member' cards.

BLUEJAYWAY

As most of us probably know, the wrapper was fairly transparent on the back and IIRC the front as well. So of course some dealers at shows/shops had "pulled" the good packs-Thomas,Ryan's etc. from the boxes.

robert67

.

flcardtrader

What a great thread!



I was transitioning into full time college student in 1991 after working at a baseball card store from 1988 through 1991. I can remember the surge of interest and pack prices for this set and chalked it off as "unattainable" as I wasn't going to play in that escalating market.



When I got back in the hobby in the early 2000's, I bought 4 boxes and had a great time opening the packs and taking a look at this great set. I forget what I paid for the 4 boxes but suspect it was a lot less than a single box at the height of the pack pricing.



While the backs aren't great, the FTC's packed a great punch as this was one of those throwback sets before inserts, archives, and the like over re-produced great cards of Topps sets from years past.

HaveLearned

And look at the competition at the time. 1991 Score 1991 Fleer 1991 DonRuss, along with the near close to good 1991 Topps. The folks calling the stuff junk wax, now, with what the intent of this thread was, should not be considered either nostalgic, or knowledgeable. Pretty much probably the early 90's LCS shop owners.

Gemyanks10

1991 Donruss was awesome just for the Elite inserts...so many still buried in boxes out there I'm suprised more people aren't ripping it. One of these days I'm going to pick up a couple cases of each series and go to town lol. Early 90's childhood memories all over again.

As far as Stadium Club goes, I don't remember them being as cheap as 2-3 bucks a pack where I'm from. I remember visiting the local Toys R Us when I was a kid and remember them being too expensive for my allowance money to handle. A friend of mine had gotten his hands on some and remember being in awe of the photography and glossy coating. I remember trading him for all the various players I collected at the time like Ryan and Griffey Jr. An overall awesome innovative set that got lost in the shuffle during insert mania. I still like them even though I don't own any at the moment. All those late 80's early 90's "junk wax" sets will always hold a special place to me because those were my formative years of collecting. "Value" means nothing to me..all about the memories...

vols1

My first thought when Stadium Club hit was 'why aren't the regular Topps cards this quality'. By that point Upper Deck had been putting out quality cards for several years. But I have to hand it to Topps because collectors love error cards and the regular set was full of them.

BLUEJAYWAY

Before the price took off I was paying $5 for 3 packs. As an aside 89 UD was going for $3.50-$5.00 a pack back in 1991.

saucywombat

Value is not there but card quality and photo selection are best of best for this set.

Absolute favorite when I was 15

RookieWax

Still a fan of these cards.

Topps actually started a glossy "premium' set with "Topps Big" in 1988.... with packs containing 7 cards (compared to 15 with regular Topps) at the same price.

In fact, the 'Stadium Club' line replaced Topps Big starting in 1991.

KendallCat

How many people bought 1989 UD, 1990 Leaf, and 1990 UD to sit back and forget and use the money to retire on? Not to mention 89 Score Football with Aikman, Deion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Michael Irving...

craig44

I always hated topps big. Could never figure out how to store them.

Frozencaribou

Topps Big was more of a precursor to Topps Heritage than Stadium Club in my opinion. The cards had a good concept behind them but Topps blew it with the plastic packaging and high gloss fronts which were at odds with the 1955-56 card designs. People are still going crazy for the Heritage format, but perhaps people would not have been for the all-in Heritage concept when the regular Topps product still had gum and wax wrappers.

-Nathanael

Dnice

I loved 91 TSC. It was a pretty speciaal set. 89 Upperdeck was great and all but to me, the set that broke out the premium cards to me will always be TSC. Shiny glossy cards with photos taken with a Kodak camera lol

These cards were and still are awesome. I love the set. That Thomas actually went as high as $35, not $25 as someone mentioned earlier. I even have the beckett that shows it. I remember looking at those prices back in Aug 91 Beckett and thinking wow. Crazy prices were just on the raise.

Once 92 TSC came out, it clearly didnt have the same effect. Unfortunately yhese cards didnt hold up even close to what they were once in value as a PSA 10 Thomas will run you about $40-50. Its his best looking card I think.

Here is a pack I have with Griffey showing on the front.


And this other one I got out of a BBCE was box and I sent it in.

vandweller

Weird that this thread popped up, because I just this weekend busted a box of 1991 TSC Series 2. It's a really nice product...on the front. The backs are terrible though, except for including a picture of the player's rookie card. Well, sometimes their rookie cards. And sometimes their first Topps card. And, well, sometimes their Topps Debut card. Still cool though, because sometimes you forget that people like Ken Oberkfell and Mark Salas had rookie cards. I didn't get a gradable copy of the card I was looking for though, so I might bust another couple open.