@jordangretzkyfan said:
This has been a nice Griffey run. I had forgotten this set contains the rookies of Ventura, Nagy and T. Martinez too. It was fun to open these cards after all these years. Here are the stars and rookies that missed the cut...
I loved these cards as a kid. I was the only one who would buy them, as i would spring for the specialty binder pages for them and no one else would. Made it hard to trade, but you could find boxes on clearance at Walmart. When i got my wisdom teeth taken out, I bought two boxes and ripped them as a distraction from my bloody mouth.
@Donyoguy said:
Paul O'Neill's only 1987 issue from the big three. Cool Kevin Mitchell card too. I'd never seen that one before.
I hadn’t realized that before. I knew O’Neal had RCs in 1986 Fleer and 1986 Donruss. Never realized his only 1987 card was this Fleer Update. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Learn something from this forum everyday.
I loved these cards as a kid. I was the only one who would buy them, as i would spring for the specialty binder pages for them and no one else would. Made it hard to trade, but you could find boxes on clearance at Walmart. When i got my wisdom teeth taken out, I bought two boxes and ripped them as a distraction from my bloody mouth.
That’s funny...I had my tonsils out in 1989 and remember getting my first full box of 1989 UD to rip while I was bedridden for 2 days. Glad to know we passed the time buried in our hobby. Cheers to that!
With all the love for 1980’s basketball lately, it has made me nostalgic for the card that pulled so many baseball card collectors into basketball in 1989. Only Hoops had the foresight to include the #1 draft pick from 1987 into their set after he delayed his NBA career by 2 years to fulfill his duty to the US Navy. Yep, the mania around the David Robinson RC was intense in 1989. Here goes a 1st series box that comes from a case I personally broke...
@jordangretzkyfan said:
Now that’s what I’m talking ‘bout! Bensie was right on the ratios. My two boxes were just a tale of two cities. This box yielded 8 Rookie Sensations cards along with 3 Clemens Highlights. Even though the centering was off top/bottom on all the RS cards, I was thrilled to pull my first Thomas from a pack. Such a sick looking card!!
The 1990-1992 boxes have been a fun change of pace from my 1980’s breaks, but my mission is still to build perfect sets from the 80s. I will keep that focus while mixing in some of this other stuff for fun. Thanks to those who continue to follow.
I remember opening a little bit of 92 fleer. everytime I opened a pack I could tell if I pulled an insert the differen t color of the inserts sticked out of the green base cards. I opened about ten jumbos out of different boxes and got four rookie sensations bagwells.
That was a fun rip. Been awhile since I opened 1989 Hoops. The distribution on these boxes is very uneven, so they can be really hit or miss. Luckily, this was a hit. Here are the stars and rookies that missed the grade...
The key cards are obviously the Robinson RC and Jordan. Was happy to land all of these...
I found 5 candidates for PSA 10. Here are the first four...
Getting closer to closing out this case of 1988 Topps. Cards have been coming out crisp from these packs and there have been a few really nice Glavine RCs. Still looking for the first contender of the McGwire rookie cup from this set. Here’s hoping...
Work kept getting in the way of me updating the break. This was a tough box of 1988 Topps. Only found 2 candidates for PSA 10. Here are the non-grade piles that keep growing of each player...
After the 1989 Fleer box, I realized that I haven’t ripped any 1989 Fleer Update sets yet. Figured I would try my luck with these 3 sets...
Here are the star and rookie cards that didn’t make the grade, but I decided to add to the 3200 count storage boxes. I remember all the rage for the Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith XRC cards as the Cubbies made it to the NLCS that year!
I did find these 11 candidates for PSA 10, which is pretty good. Also fun that Prime Time and Jerome were among them...
After watching some of the NFL Draft the other night, it made me nostalgic to hunt for my favorite football player growing up...Barry Sanders. While his Score RC is clearly the most valuable, the action photo on his Pro Set is the one I hoarded as a kid. I distinctly remember going to a local show with my best friend in 1989 and we each bought a box of the brand new 1989 Pro Set Series II. Barry was off to an amazing rookie year and the hunt was on for his cards. We each pulled 2 Barry and about 5 Tony Manderich. I still cannot figure out why the Packers took Tony with the #2 overall pick and left Barry sitting there for the Lions with the 3rd pick. Too bad the Lions never surrounded Barry with any real talent. I still contend Barry is the most gifted RB to ever play the game. If only he had a line to run behind and didn’t face 8 defenders in the box his entire career. Here’s hoping for some Barry luck!
@Frozencaribou said:
Good luck with the Pro Set rip! That Sanders rookie is my favourite.
Thanks...I think your well wishes worked! What a fun and nostalgic rip. This really is a great looking set. I love 1989 Score too, but Pro Set is too undervalued in comparison. Here are the stars and rookies that missed the mark...
I was excited to pull these three awesome RCs. I love this Barry card. Unfortunately none of these make the gradable GEM MINT pile...
I did however pull 19 contenders for PSA 10. Couldn’t be happier with the last two of them 👍
Thanks for the continued entertainment Chris. As if your initial quest wasn’t ambitious enough, now you go and add in FB and BkBall!
I had no idea that my 89 Fleer Update sets had Walton and Smith. I was focused on their UD cards by late 89/early 90. Of course, I did have my compulsory FU set from that year, as I had from 87 & 88, but I always kept them sealed and never bothered to look at the checklist that year. They were both white hot in my little collecting circle and 89 Bowman had them, which made that issue a big target for me.
John
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
After pulling those Barry RCs last night, I woke up with Emmitt on my mind. While just outside of my 1980’s focus, his 1990 Score Supplemental and 1990 Fleer Update are two of the best looking cards from that era. Not to mention he is the all-time leading rusher, and you have the makings for a perfect Saturday morning rip. I’m not trying to build this set in PSA 10, so this will just be a hunt for a perfect Emmitt. Junior Seau is the only other worthy card in this 1990 Fleer Update set from my memory. We will see if there is anyone else in this set that is noteworthy...
The star power is very limited in this set, but the design is really clean and aesthetically pleasing for Fleer’s first foray into the football card market. Here are the RCs and modestly noteworthy players in the set...
Surface, corners and edges came out crisp on the Emmitt RC, but centering holds this in the PSA 8-9 range unfortunately. Still a sweet looking rookie though...
@NJ80sBBC said:
Thanks for the continued entertainment Chris. As if your initial quest wasn’t ambitious enough, now you go and add in FB and BkBall!
I had no idea that my 89 Fleer Update sets had Walton and Smith. I was focused on their UD cards by late 89/early 90. Of course, I did have my compulsory FU set from that year, as I had from 87 & 88, but I always kept them sealed and never bothered to look at the checklist that year. They were both white hot in my little collecting circle and 89 Bowman had them, which made that issue a big target for me.
John
Thanks for the comment John. Pretty sure we are brothers from another mother. Our 1980’s memories always have a great common parallel. I could talk the 80s with you all day.
With how white hot basketball unopened is right now, I am carefully dipping my toe into building the 1989 sets. 1980-1988 basketball will not be coming from me ripping my wax at the moment 🤣 Football on the other hand will likely be added to this rip quest. Along with Jordan and Gretzky, I am a big fan of Montana, Rice, Barry and Emmitt.
@rcmb3220 said:
I know it’s a year out of your range but if you ever get around to opening 90 score baseball I’d love to see it.
While I am ripping 1990, I thought I would honor Dane’s request for some 1990 Score. I have no plans to build in PSA 10, but I do love me some Frank Thomas. The interesting thing about this set is all the early print errors it contained. This box comes from an early print case. In my experience, the Ryne Sandberg HL error was the first corrected and toughest to find. It’s rarity is followed closely by the David Wells reverse negative photo on the back of the card. After those two, I am unsure which of the other ~10 errors is toughest. Let’s see what we can learn from this box...
I wonder if any of the people who worked on Score baseball in 1988-89 also worked on Pro Set. The design elements and the comprehensive backs were very similar. Perhaps it was just that Pro Set copied Score. I could imagine the card design world wasn't very big back then.
Great work on the Barry Sanders rookies. You pulled 4 in one box? Pretty generous by the unopened Gods on that one.
@Frozencaribou said:
I wonder if any of the people who worked on Score baseball in 1988-89 also worked on Pro Set. The design elements and the comprehensive backs were very similar. Perhaps it was just that Pro Set copied Score. I could imagine the card design world wasn't very big back then.
Great work on the Barry Sanders rookies. You pulled 4 in one box? Pretty generous by the unopened Gods on that one.
Interesting on the Score and Pro Set parallel you hypothesize. Both companies were in Texas, so there is likely some influence going on. Yes, I was happily surprised to pull 4 Barry’s out of one box. I have always found 1989 Pro Set boxes to have 3-5 of a few of the draft pick cards and zero of others. My ripping experience has been if you get one of the Sanders (Barry or Deion), you aren’t getting any of the other. Thankfully this was a Barry box!!
One of my favorite aspects of ripping packs is learning about the sequencing and order of elimination of errors. While this box did not contain any Frank Thomas RCs, it did give me new information on the correction of errors. First, here were the stars and rookies...
I have a few early print cases from 1990 Score that I believe contain the Sandberg error based on the case date stamp. This box was from a lot of 12 boxes I purchased from a partially opened early case years ago, so it was a total crap shoot. This box contained the correct Sandberg and Wells cards which confirmed my suspicion they were the first corrected. It contained the error version of all other cards I pulled with one exception. The errors contained were:
Spiers birth year 19–
Bo back with “Watham”
Cuyler London 998 games
Boggs Dream Team 215 hits
Griffey 25 on back
Aldrete 25 on back
Devereaux RF on front
The new information was that the Steinbach Dream Team was Corrected and says “catcher” rather than the “Cather” error. Looks like Steinbach was the third error corrected in the rarity sequence. I didn’t pull a Moyer, Zane Smith, Barrett, Saberhagen, Hassey, Bates or Skalasi so I don’t know if they were corrected at this stage or not. I have more from this case to open, so I will figure those out in time. Always love learning something new from this era. Thanks to those who are following and commenting along the way!
After opening the 1990 Score box yesterday, it got me thinking that I haven’t opened any of the inaugural edition of the first major 1980s challenger to Topps, Fleer and Donruss (sorry Sportsflics, but you don’t count). If you go back and read Beckett monthly from 1988, you would realize just how hot this new card entrant was. Everyone was clamoring to get the new, dual-sided full-color cards. There was no hotter card than the 1988 Score Gregg Jefferies rookie prospects card (except maybe the 1987 Fleer Seitzer RC 🤣).
Let go back to 1988 and rip a box of this rainbow colored pioneer...
@jordangretzkyfan said:
That was a decent start to a lazy Sunday morning. Here are the growing piles...
The Glavine doesn’t make the cut, but is always a fun pull...
Was happy to land 9 new candidates for PSA 10, highlighted by HOFer Carlton Fisk...
Hello,
I just recently started following this thread and I’m working my way backwards. Brings back lots of memories. You have a very good eye for your PSA 10 contenders.
Do you have any idea what percentage of the cards you submit receive 10s? I imagine it must be very high. A lot of your cards that just miss the cut look like ones I’d submit to try and get a 10.
@msubearfan said:
Hello,
I just recently started following this thread and I’m working my way backwards. Brings back lots of memories. You have a very good eye for your PSA 10 contenders.
Do you have any idea what percentage of the cards you submit receive 10s? I imagine it must be very high. A lot of your cards that just miss the cut look like ones I’d submit to try and get a 10.
Thanks for sharing these rips with everyone.
Mark
Hi Mark,
Thanks for following the thread and commenting. Make sure you have a drink and some snacks if you are going back to the beginning of this thread 🤣 This has been a fun 2+ year journey to have shared with this forum. I have been waiting to sub these PSA 10 candidates until I have nearly full sets so the cert numbers are consecutive. That said, my previous hit rate when I sub what I would consider PSA 10 contenders has been in the 65-75% success range. I have learned to only sub dead centered cards with razor corners. I feel like there can be some lenience for a very, very minor edge speck or a subtle print imperfection. I have stopped subbing anything I hope can squeak through, since those almost always come back MINT 9 for me. I look forward to future comments from you.
The final major league card of 1985 World Series hero Buddy Biancalana. If that gets a 10, it'll be Pop 1 out of 1 total graded!
I love revisiting the awesome action photography from this set, especially juxtaposed alongside the dumpster fire that was 1988 Topps. Truly a ground-breaker in the industry.
Love the 1988 Score photography. Can't believe they spent time and money to develop magic motion trivia as an insert though. Imagine if their insert was a rookie prospect or draft picks sportflics or something...
I LOVED 88 Score when it came out! I remember asking my mom to buy it for me at the store. She would let my brother and I sit on the floor and search through the boxes, looking for packs with stars on the front. You just scooted the bottom edge up, and BAM! We bought tons of them and opened them to get the sure thing stars. Lots and lots of fun. I kept about 20 or 30 of the star packs, because I just knew that they would be worth a ton someday! Guess that one didn't pan out! Still have them, and they make me happy just looking at them.
kevin
@Frozencaribou said:
Love the 1988 Score photography. Can't believe they spent time and money to develop magic motion trivia as an insert though. Imagine if their insert was a rookie prospect or draft picks sportflics or something...
Haha...yeah, talk about a no value pack filler. Right there with the Topps chance to win a trip to the All-Star game card.
@tulsaboy said:
I LOVED 88 Score when it came out! I remember asking my mom to buy it for me at the store. She would let my brother and I sit on the floor and search through the boxes, looking for packs with stars on the front. You just scooted the bottom edge up, and BAM! We bought tons of them and opened them to get the sure thing stars. Lots and lots of fun. I kept about 20 or 30 of the star packs, because I just knew that they would be worth a ton someday! Guess that one didn't pan out! Still have them, and they make me happy just looking at them.
kevin
Love memories like this. I did the same thing at my local grocer while my mom would shop. Once I found a Jefferies on the back of a 1988 Score pack and was sure I just paid for my college education. More like a GED...oof!
@softparade said:
I loved Score in 1990 too. But at that time it wasn't with cards anymore. If ya catch my drift.
I’m picking up what you’re laying down...see what I did there?😉
I just got a nice 1988 Fleer update set in a collection I bought, and the Smoltz has the centering where it seems to have a lower border on the bottom, which you have always stated is how it should be, and typically when you flip those kinds of cards over, the centering on the back, t/b, is spot on...I am worried though that maybe they aren't being graded that way? If you search for PSA 10 Smoltz cards, you will see that most all have bottom borders which are about the same as the side borders...mine is a beautiful card, no chipping at all on the back blue edges, and none of those blue and red smudges you sometimes see on the front on the top and bottom borders (ink runs I guess)...I am concerned my card may end up in a 9 holder instead of a 10, due to the t/b centering on the front?
@Kep13 said:
I just got a nice 1988 Fleer update set in a collection I bought, and the Smoltz has the centering where it seems to have a lower border on the bottom, which you have always stated is how it should be, and typically when you flip those kinds of cards over, the centering on the back, t/b, is spot on...I am worried though that maybe they aren't being graded that way? If you search for PSA 10 Smoltz cards, you will see that most all have bottom borders which are about the same as the side borders...mine is a beautiful card, no chipping at all on the back blue edges, and none of those blue and red smudges you sometimes see on the front on the top and bottom borders (ink runs I guess)...I am concerned my card may end up in a 9 holder instead of a 10, due to the t/b centering on the front?
If you have a pic of the card, would love to see it. As you can see in the picture of PSA 10 candidates below, Fleer intended the top/bottom borders to be equal size from the top of the team logo and the bottom of the Fleer stripe. The exceptions to this are the few teams who’s logos were centered lower on the card due to the shape of the logo, such as the Padres and Braves. This flat team logo can make the card appear off t/b when in fact that is not the case. The bottom border on all 1988 Fleer cards is intended to be the same height and consistent with those on the rookie prospect cards as shown in the pic below. My guess is that when PSA is grading a 1988 Fleer card as a one-off, the intended Fleer centering is not always known by the grader and can be missed based on the team logo size and placement.
@Kep13 said:
I just got a nice 1988 Fleer update set in a collection I bought, and the Smoltz has the centering where it seems to have a lower border on the bottom, which you have always stated is how it should be, and typically when you flip those kinds of cards over, the centering on the back, t/b, is spot on...I am worried though that maybe they aren't being graded that way? If you search for PSA 10 Smoltz cards, you will see that most all have bottom borders which are about the same as the side borders...mine is a beautiful card, no chipping at all on the back blue edges, and none of those blue and red smudges you sometimes see on the front on the top and bottom borders (ink runs I guess)...I am concerned my card may end up in a 9 holder instead of a 10, due to the t/b centering on the front?
If you have a pic of the card, would love to see it. As you can see in the picture of PSA 10 candidates below, Fleer intended the top/bottom borders to be equal size from the top of the team logo and the bottom of the Fleer stripe. The exceptions to this are the few teams who’s logos were centered lower on the card due to the shape of the logo, such as the Padres and Braves. This flat team logo can make the card appear off t/b when in fact that is not the case. The bottom border on all 1988 Fleer cards is intended to be the same height and consistent with those on the rookie prospect cards as shown in the pic below. My guess is that when PSA is grading a 1988 Fleer card as a one-off, the intended Fleer centering is not always known by the grader and can be missed based on the team logo size and placement.
Mine looks exactly like this one...but as I stated, it seems almost all of the 10s out there have bottom border equal to side borders...guess i will have to send 'er in and hope for the right grader
Well, a fun rip for sure. Always amazes me how impossible PSA 10s are from this set. I ripped 360 case fresh cards and not a single card was dead centered. However, lots of stars and rookies were pulled. Here they are...
More exciting for me was to ask and receive. The last pack in this stack had my boy Mark Grace staring right back at me. Loved this card as a kid. Keeping this rack in my treasured possessions!
Wow! If only I could call them like this all the time. The 1986 Donruss Canseco RC was the hottest card on the planet in 1989 as he assaulted the base paths and crushed HR after HR. The first 40/40 man in baseball. This card was a must own and at its peak of $125 was quickly out of the range for most young collectors. This one is clearly off-center, but it is still the ultimate rush for a 1980’s nut like myself to slide cards back and watch as this beauty appear from its hidden tomb.
There were 4 candidates for PSA 10 in these three racks...
If you were wondering what 2+ years of ripping looks like, here are the Canseco RCs I have pulled along the way. Show this pic to childhood me and I would have been drooling like a labradoodle!
That Canseco pic reminds me of one of my Card show visits in 1988. Canseco was heating up by that point, but hadn’t hit thermonuclear yet. I had $10 left in my pocket by that point and wandered back to a table with a layout of very similar to
your awesome pic above. He was asking $9 for Fleer rookie and $12 for the Donruss. I didn’t own either as I started collecting in 87. I’m happy to say that I left the show that day with the Rated Rookie. Almost shaking with excitement on the drive home with mom. I took that card with me to all of my friends’ houses when we would meet up to talk cards and trade. Little did I know that in the coming months my 86D Rated Rookie Canseco would become the hottest card on the planet and the centerpiece of my collection. None of my friends had it. I was the envy of our group. Best $10 I ever spent on cardboard as a kid.
John
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
Comments
Paul O'Neil!
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
Paul O'Neill's only 1987 issue from the big three. Cool Kevin Mitchell card too. I'd never seen that one before.
I loved these cards as a kid. I was the only one who would buy them, as i would spring for the specialty binder pages for them and no one else would. Made it hard to trade, but you could find boxes on clearance at Walmart. When i got my wisdom teeth taken out, I bought two boxes and ripped them as a distraction from my bloody mouth.
I hadn’t realized that before. I knew O’Neal had RCs in 1986 Fleer and 1986 Donruss. Never realized his only 1987 card was this Fleer Update. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Learn something from this forum everyday.
That’s funny...I had my tonsils out in 1989 and remember getting my first full box of 1989 UD to rip while I was bedridden for 2 days. Glad to know we passed the time buried in our hobby. Cheers to that!
With all the love for 1980’s basketball lately, it has made me nostalgic for the card that pulled so many baseball card collectors into basketball in 1989. Only Hoops had the foresight to include the #1 draft pick from 1987 into their set after he delayed his NBA career by 2 years to fulfill his duty to the US Navy. Yep, the mania around the David Robinson RC was intense in 1989. Here goes a 1st series box that comes from a case I personally broke...
I remember opening a little bit of 92 fleer. everytime I opened a pack I could tell if I pulled an insert the differen t color of the inserts sticked out of the green base cards. I opened about ten jumbos out of different boxes and got four rookie sensations bagwells.
That was a fun rip. Been awhile since I opened 1989 Hoops. The distribution on these boxes is very uneven, so they can be really hit or miss. Luckily, this was a hit. Here are the stars and rookies that missed the grade...
The key cards are obviously the Robinson RC and Jordan. Was happy to land all of these...
I found 5 candidates for PSA 10. Here are the first four...
And a nice looking 5th contender...
Getting closer to closing out this case of 1988 Topps. Cards have been coming out crisp from these packs and there have been a few really nice Glavine RCs. Still looking for the first contender of the McGwire rookie cup from this set. Here’s hoping...
Work kept getting in the way of me updating the break. This was a tough box of 1988 Topps. Only found 2 candidates for PSA 10. Here are the non-grade piles that keep growing of each player...
Here are the 2 contenders for PSA 10...
Then I decided to rip a box of 1989 Fleer for good measure. Here are the star and rookie piles...
Pulled these key cards, but none made the grade...
However the 4 candidates for PSA 10 did contain a nice Maddux and Mr. Strawberry...
After the 1989 Fleer box, I realized that I haven’t ripped any 1989 Fleer Update sets yet. Figured I would try my luck with these 3 sets...
Here are the star and rookie cards that didn’t make the grade, but I decided to add to the 3200 count storage boxes. I remember all the rage for the Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith XRC cards as the Cubbies made it to the NLCS that year!
I did find these 11 candidates for PSA 10, which is pretty good. Also fun that Prime Time and Jerome were among them...
After watching some of the NFL Draft the other night, it made me nostalgic to hunt for my favorite football player growing up...Barry Sanders. While his Score RC is clearly the most valuable, the action photo on his Pro Set is the one I hoarded as a kid. I distinctly remember going to a local show with my best friend in 1989 and we each bought a box of the brand new 1989 Pro Set Series II. Barry was off to an amazing rookie year and the hunt was on for his cards. We each pulled 2 Barry and about 5 Tony Manderich. I still cannot figure out why the Packers took Tony with the #2 overall pick and left Barry sitting there for the Lions with the 3rd pick. Too bad the Lions never surrounded Barry with any real talent. I still contend Barry is the most gifted RB to ever play the game. If only he had a line to run behind and didn’t face 8 defenders in the box his entire career. Here’s hoping for some Barry luck!
Good luck with the Pro Set rip! That Sanders rookie is my favourite.
Thanks...I think your well wishes worked! What a fun and nostalgic rip. This really is a great looking set. I love 1989 Score too, but Pro Set is too undervalued in comparison. Here are the stars and rookies that missed the mark...
I was excited to pull these three awesome RCs. I love this Barry card. Unfortunately none of these make the gradable GEM MINT pile...
I did however pull 19 contenders for PSA 10. Couldn’t be happier with the last two of them 👍
Thanks for the continued entertainment Chris. As if your initial quest wasn’t ambitious enough, now you go and add in FB and BkBall!
I had no idea that my 89 Fleer Update sets had Walton and Smith. I was focused on their UD cards by late 89/early 90. Of course, I did have my compulsory FU set from that year, as I had from 87 & 88, but I always kept them sealed and never bothered to look at the checklist that year. They were both white hot in my little collecting circle and 89 Bowman had them, which made that issue a big target for me.
John
After pulling those Barry RCs last night, I woke up with Emmitt on my mind. While just outside of my 1980’s focus, his 1990 Score Supplemental and 1990 Fleer Update are two of the best looking cards from that era. Not to mention he is the all-time leading rusher, and you have the makings for a perfect Saturday morning rip. I’m not trying to build this set in PSA 10, so this will just be a hunt for a perfect Emmitt. Junior Seau is the only other worthy card in this 1990 Fleer Update set from my memory. We will see if there is anyone else in this set that is noteworthy...
The star power is very limited in this set, but the design is really clean and aesthetically pleasing for Fleer’s first foray into the football card market. Here are the RCs and modestly noteworthy players in the set...
Surface, corners and edges came out crisp on the Emmitt RC, but centering holds this in the PSA 8-9 range unfortunately. Still a sweet looking rookie though...
Thanks for the comment John. Pretty sure we are brothers from another mother. Our 1980’s memories always have a great common parallel. I could talk the 80s with you all day.
With how white hot basketball unopened is right now, I am carefully dipping my toe into building the 1989 sets. 1980-1988 basketball will not be coming from me ripping my wax at the moment 🤣 Football on the other hand will likely be added to this rip quest. Along with Jordan and Gretzky, I am a big fan of Montana, Rice, Barry and Emmitt.
While I am ripping 1990, I thought I would honor Dane’s request for some 1990 Score. I have no plans to build in PSA 10, but I do love me some Frank Thomas. The interesting thing about this set is all the early print errors it contained. This box comes from an early print case. In my experience, the Ryne Sandberg HL error was the first corrected and toughest to find. It’s rarity is followed closely by the David Wells reverse negative photo on the back of the card. After those two, I am unsure which of the other ~10 errors is toughest. Let’s see what we can learn from this box...
I wonder if any of the people who worked on Score baseball in 1988-89 also worked on Pro Set. The design elements and the comprehensive backs were very similar. Perhaps it was just that Pro Set copied Score. I could imagine the card design world wasn't very big back then.
Great work on the Barry Sanders rookies. You pulled 4 in one box? Pretty generous by the unopened Gods on that one.
Interesting on the Score and Pro Set parallel you hypothesize. Both companies were in Texas, so there is likely some influence going on. Yes, I was happily surprised to pull 4 Barry’s out of one box. I have always found 1989 Pro Set boxes to have 3-5 of a few of the draft pick cards and zero of others. My ripping experience has been if you get one of the Sanders (Barry or Deion), you aren’t getting any of the other. Thankfully this was a Barry box!!
One of my favorite aspects of ripping packs is learning about the sequencing and order of elimination of errors. While this box did not contain any Frank Thomas RCs, it did give me new information on the correction of errors. First, here were the stars and rookies...
I have a few early print cases from 1990 Score that I believe contain the Sandberg error based on the case date stamp. This box was from a lot of 12 boxes I purchased from a partially opened early case years ago, so it was a total crap shoot. This box contained the correct Sandberg and Wells cards which confirmed my suspicion they were the first corrected. It contained the error version of all other cards I pulled with one exception. The errors contained were:
The new information was that the Steinbach Dream Team was Corrected and says “catcher” rather than the “Cather” error. Looks like Steinbach was the third error corrected in the rarity sequence. I didn’t pull a Moyer, Zane Smith, Barrett, Saberhagen, Hassey, Bates or Skalasi so I don’t know if they were corrected at this stage or not. I have more from this case to open, so I will figure those out in time. Always love learning something new from this era. Thanks to those who are following and commenting along the way!
Thanks for ripping that. 1990 was not a good year for card design, but I do like this set.
Going to keep working on this case of 1988 Topps. Here goes another box...
That was a decent start to a lazy Sunday morning. Here are the growing piles...
The Glavine doesn’t make the cut, but is always a fun pull...
Was happy to land 9 new candidates for PSA 10, highlighted by HOFer Carlton Fisk...
After opening the 1990 Score box yesterday, it got me thinking that I haven’t opened any of the inaugural edition of the first major 1980s challenger to Topps, Fleer and Donruss (sorry Sportsflics, but you don’t count). If you go back and read Beckett monthly from 1988, you would realize just how hot this new card entrant was. Everyone was clamoring to get the new, dual-sided full-color cards. There was no hotter card than the 1988 Score Gregg Jefferies rookie prospects card (except maybe the 1987 Fleer Seitzer RC 🤣).
Let go back to 1988 and rip a box of this rainbow colored pioneer...
Often billed as the next 1952 Topps! People were stashing unopened in closets!
Hello,
I just recently started following this thread and I’m working my way backwards. Brings back lots of memories. You have a very good eye for your PSA 10 contenders.
Do you have any idea what percentage of the cards you submit receive 10s? I imagine it must be very high. A lot of your cards that just miss the cut look like ones I’d submit to try and get a 10.
Thanks for sharing these rips with everyone.
Mark
Hi Mark,
Thanks for following the thread and commenting. Make sure you have a drink and some snacks if you are going back to the beginning of this thread 🤣 This has been a fun 2+ year journey to have shared with this forum. I have been waiting to sub these PSA 10 candidates until I have nearly full sets so the cert numbers are consecutive. That said, my previous hit rate when I sub what I would consider PSA 10 contenders has been in the 65-75% success range. I have learned to only sub dead centered cards with razor corners. I feel like there can be some lenience for a very, very minor edge speck or a subtle print imperfection. I have stopped subbing anything I hope can squeak through, since those almost always come back MINT 9 for me. I look forward to future comments from you.
I had forgotten so many of these cards over the years. Here are the stars and rookies that came from the box...
I know it’s crazy, but I actually felt like I hit something when I pulled this Jefferies RC. Nope, not gradeworthy, just a childhood want list card...
This box contained 26 candidates for PSA 10, headlined by McGwire and rookies of Gant and Burks...
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The final major league card of 1985 World Series hero Buddy Biancalana. If that gets a 10, it'll be Pop 1 out of 1 total graded!
I love revisiting the awesome action photography from this set, especially juxtaposed alongside the dumpster fire that was 1988 Topps. Truly a ground-breaker in the industry.
Love the 1988 Score photography. Can't believe they spent time and money to develop magic motion trivia as an insert though. Imagine if their insert was a rookie prospect or draft picks sportflics or something...
I LOVED 88 Score when it came out! I remember asking my mom to buy it for me at the store. She would let my brother and I sit on the floor and search through the boxes, looking for packs with stars on the front. You just scooted the bottom edge up, and BAM! We bought tons of them and opened them to get the sure thing stars. Lots and lots of fun. I kept about 20 or 30 of the star packs, because I just knew that they would be worth a ton someday!
Guess that one didn't pan out! Still have them, and they make me happy just looking at them.
kevin
I loved Score in 1990 too. But at that time it wasn't with cards anymore. If ya catch my drift.
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
Haha...yeah, talk about a no value pack filler. Right there with the Topps chance to win a trip to the All-Star game card.
Love memories like this. I did the same thing at my local grocer while my mom would shop. Once I found a Jefferies on the back of a 1988 Score pack and was sure I just paid for my college education. More like a GED...oof!
I’m picking up what you’re laying down...see what I did there?😉
Looking back in your thread....
The '81 Tug McGraw was one of the 3 or 4 cards I laminated in 1983 to preserve for eternity.
Man, the good times!
Time for 2 more 1989 Fleer Update sets...
Pretty happy with the 4 candidates I found for PSA 10. First, here were the ones that didn’t make the grade...
Here are the 4 candidates that passed at first glance...
Feel like chasing a perfect Frank Thomas next...here are three 1990 Fleer Update sets...
There really isn’t anyone else in this set. Centering on all three Thomas RCs was off L/R...
I just got a nice 1988 Fleer update set in a collection I bought, and the Smoltz has the centering where it seems to have a lower border on the bottom, which you have always stated is how it should be, and typically when you flip those kinds of cards over, the centering on the back, t/b, is spot on...I am worried though that maybe they aren't being graded that way? If you search for PSA 10 Smoltz cards, you will see that most all have bottom borders which are about the same as the side borders...mine is a beautiful card, no chipping at all on the back blue edges, and none of those blue and red smudges you sometimes see on the front on the top and bottom borders (ink runs I guess)...I am concerned my card may end up in a 9 holder instead of a 10, due to the t/b centering on the front?
If you have a pic of the card, would love to see it. As you can see in the picture of PSA 10 candidates below, Fleer intended the top/bottom borders to be equal size from the top of the team logo and the bottom of the Fleer stripe. The exceptions to this are the few teams who’s logos were centered lower on the card due to the shape of the logo, such as the Padres and Braves. This flat team logo can make the card appear off t/b when in fact that is not the case. The bottom border on all 1988 Fleer cards is intended to be the same height and consistent with those on the rookie prospect cards as shown in the pic below. My guess is that when PSA is grading a 1988 Fleer card as a one-off, the intended Fleer centering is not always known by the grader and can be missed based on the team logo size and placement.
Mine looks exactly like this one...but as I stated, it seems almost all of the 10s out there have bottom border equal to side borders...guess i will have to send 'er in and hope for the right grader
https://ebay.com/itm/1988-Fleer-Update-John-Smoltz-HOF-RC-U-74-BRAVES-PSA-10-/114126435398?hash=item1a92773446%3Ag%3ARA4AAOSw7oleUW6V&LH_BIN=1&nma=true&si=b%252BscSa1VZMUe7ubAfQe%252Bb5%252BW%252BtQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Perhaps you are defining "border" differently. That is one is measuring from the top of the word "Fleer" and the other from the bottom.
I’m in a Mark Grace kind of mood tonight. Here are 8 racks fresh from a newly opened case...
Well, a fun rip for sure. Always amazes me how impossible PSA 10s are from this set. I ripped 360 case fresh cards and not a single card was dead centered. However, lots of stars and rookies were pulled. Here they are...
More exciting for me was to ask and receive. The last pack in this stack had my boy Mark Grace staring right back at me. Loved this card as a kid. Keeping this rack in my treasured possessions!
I’m feeling like a hunt for Canseco is in order. Here are 3 racks from 1986 Donruss...
Wow! If only I could call them like this all the time. The 1986 Donruss Canseco RC was the hottest card on the planet in 1989 as he assaulted the base paths and crushed HR after HR. The first 40/40 man in baseball. This card was a must own and at its peak of $125 was quickly out of the range for most young collectors. This one is clearly off-center, but it is still the ultimate rush for a 1980’s nut like myself to slide cards back and watch as this beauty appear from its hidden tomb.
There were 4 candidates for PSA 10 in these three racks...
If you were wondering what 2+ years of ripping looks like, here are the Canseco RCs I have pulled along the way. Show this pic to childhood me and I would have been drooling like a labradoodle!
That Canseco pic reminds me of one of my Card show visits in 1988. Canseco was heating up by that point, but hadn’t hit thermonuclear yet. I had $10 left in my pocket by that point and wandered back to a table with a layout of very similar to
your awesome pic above. He was asking $9 for Fleer rookie and $12 for the Donruss. I didn’t own either as I started collecting in 87. I’m happy to say that I left the show that day with the Rated Rookie. Almost shaking with excitement on the drive home with mom. I took that card with me to all of my friends’ houses when we would meet up to talk cards and trade. Little did I know that in the coming months my 86D Rated Rookie Canseco would become the hottest card on the planet and the centerpiece of my collection. None of my friends had it. I was the envy of our group. Best $10 I ever spent on cardboard as a kid.
John