Do you remember "Find the Nolan"?
doubledragon
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I can recall a time in my past life, when I was a little dragon in 1991, when baseball card shops were all over town, and the hobby was in a frenzy over 1991 Upper Deck, who at the time had a treasure hunt for an autographed Nolan Ryan card going on inside packs of 1991 Upper Deck baseball. I must have spent every nickel I stole on trying to find that Autographed Nolan Ryan card. I never did find it, and if I weren't so obsessed with Joe Louis, I would probably take up the hunt again. The boxes of 1991 Upper deck baseball can be bought pretty cheap these days. I can still hear Nolan calling my name from inside those randomly selected packs, "I'm in here, come pull me out of this pack and submit me to PSA, and finish your journey you moron." I feel like Indiana Jones when I look at those packs and boxes just sitting out there. 
Comments
Excellent photography in the 1991 upper Deck set at least. Chipper RC
Flashing back to 1991, I can remember you were excited to even pull one of the 9 Nolan Ryan subset cards from a pack. I myself was obsessed with the 1991 Upper Deck basketball series with Larry Johnson and Dikembe Mutumbo RCs and spent every dime I could put together to buy those packs. One of the few sets I ever put together busting packs as a kid. The advantage over baseball was that they wouldn't sell out as easily so you could buy as many packs as you wanted.
saucywombat@hotmail.com
Now a card numbered to 2500 seems insane.
I don’t remember that, but that was probably because I was hitting 1991 Topps pretty hard. That UD was not in my budget.
Nic
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I remember the Jordan White Sox card was hot at the time also.
Upper Deck also had other auto cards to try to find.
And others.
More. I believe Marino, Howe, Gretzky and maybe a couple more.
I’ve always wanted that Ryan card. I think every 100th numbered card had the inscription Strikeout King. I wonder how many are still sitting in packs.
1991 was such a great year. My life back then was all about Baseball/Baseball cards and the Nintendo Entertainment System. I eventually upgraded to the SNES for my bday in late 1991 but overall, such great times. I also never found a Nolan or any autographed card for that matter. Boxes are super cheap but I just gave up on me ever finding one. Heck, I have never even pulled a Donruss Elite card and I have opened up a case worth of those 1993 cards.
Searched for a while. Never any luck for any of those autos. I still feel, looking back more so, that they are classic autos. Very readable. They do make a nice group all seen together.
Just goes to show how much product was produced in the early 90’s when a card numbered to 2500 is hard to find.
I have opened 9 factory sealed cases of those over the past 5 years or so and still never pulled a Ryan auto! The boxes/cases are relatively cheap and still easily found. You get about 5-6 each of the “SP” Jordan and Ryan Heroes Header card per case, but I am guessing the Ryan Auto is about 1/100 cases with the amount UD printed. Great pics of the autos...makes me want to rip another case!
I believe Walter Payton (1992 low #) and Brett Hull (91-92 low #) were the only other two not pictured. UD stopped inserting them by 92-93.
I seem to remember that Larry Bird and Wilt Chamberlain may have had the Heroes autographs inserted, also.
My LCS occasionally acquires collections that also contain junk era unopened that he'll often blow out at $5-$7 a box just to save space and quickly recoup a portion of his cash outlay. Over the years, I've bought multiple boxes of Upper Deck from him from that era. The whole idea, the main motivation, really, is that I'm hoping to buck the odds and pull one of the autos. Hasn't happened yet.
I've also ripped multiple boxes from him of the Donruss that had the Cal Ripken autos advertised (1992???), with no luck.
I love that era. in 1990 when the Reggie was introduced, it just seemed unbelievable to me that you could actually find an autographed card in a pack. I opened a bunch back then but never got any more than the unautographed header.
Great times...
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Makes me want to look to buy some of these. Remember them back then, with only 2500 made and no ebay they were not an easy find.
The Dan Marino and Brett Hull.
I ripped probably 40 boxes of this stuff recently.....found nothing! no jordan, no nolan...no nothin'
Maybe I just wantyed there to be a Howe. Here is the Gretzky
Any Payton...what I great card too.
Although it looks like these were /2800. Perhaps an aftermarket issue that resembled previous factory issues? I was not buying wax at that time.
Yes, those were the days of pre-Ebay, those days seem so ancient now. It's hard to imagine life without Ebay these days. The auto cards that were found can be bought on Ebay nowadays, but depending on your budget they can be pricey. It's weird because these cards were also some of the first chase cards ever made, and these days the hobby is just littered with chase cards, parallels, serial numbers, refractors, you name it.
I was at my local card shop and bought a few packs and stopped as I would then need to break a $20 in my wallet. I was a teenager at the time so I figured it was the perfect time to stop or I probably would have spent the rest of my money. I was still in the card shop and a collector comes right after me and there was no more than 3 packs left in the box and he pulls a Jerry West autograph. That hurt a bit seeing that!
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
That would have been hard to swallow! That's OK though, you made up for it with your wrestling card collection.
I had completely forgotten about it until this thread, so had to go dig it out. While not the Montana Heroes autograph, this short print box topper poster was a pretty cool hit at the time. It's roughly 11" x 15.5" and folded up just does fit inside the top of the 1991 Upper Deck. I have no idea of the insertion ratio, just that I don't remember them being in every sealed box. Does anyone know more about this poster?
For anybody who was lucky to find one was the autograph insert card the first card in the pack with the autograh not facing the front of the wrapper?
Found a reggie jackson one.
Also the UD autographed cards have a different hologram compared to non auto cards I blelieve.
I was not aware of it before now, but a quick scan of ebay shows a half dozen for sale for around $10 average. Didn't check ended listings to see if any had actually sold recently.
I worked in a LCS during this time. We bought 45 cases of the 1991 UD baseball from
Upper Deck. Out of the 900 boxes plus others we bought on a second and third wave
I know of only one Ryan Auto card. The collector bought 2 boxes from us and half way
thru the 1st he pulled it while sitting in his car out in the parking lot. Took a picture of
him and gave him a recessed screw down holder. The posters were in sealed cases
that were marked saying that there was a poster inside, about one in seven. I have several
of the different posters, the Marino was the most popular by far.
Thanks! That is what I was looking for. I knew they weren't an every box insert, but didn't know how rare. So to clarify, they were only in cases that were marked, and then only in 1 in 7 boxes from those cases, or only 1 in 7 cases were marked, with every box in those marked cases having a poster? I know they're not worth all that much, but back then, anything extra from a box of cards was a neat pull, and I've kept it stashed away all these years.
The posters were in marked cases, one per case, and these cases with the posters were
about 1 in every 7 cases. At the time we went thru a bunch of cases for each sport and
series. Hockey and basketball posters were a little easier to get, maybe 1 in 4 cases. There
again, such cases were marked on the outside of the case. in the four years that I worked
there, that one Ryan Auto was the only one I'm aware of that came out of our cases. We went
thru a few hundred cases in those years between the four sports. No other autographed
cards from U.D.
@Tibor Wow! Thank you for the info. While I knew they weren't an every box insert, I did not realize that the Montana poster was anywhere near that "rare" of an item.
I remember when I pulled the Bench Morgan auto. I bought a box went home and ripped them open. The hero cards were always front or back of the pack. So when I opened them I ripped each pack looked and flipped and set aside when there was no hero card. Later that day I went to sort the cards and actually go through them pack by pack and the auto was in the middle of the pack. Talk about an awesome surprise. I eventually traded it to my LCS for a Hull auto hero card. Those were the days
Hoarding silver and collecting history
IIRC the Bird was in packs but the Chamberlain was not. The Chamberlain was only available from UD as part of a framed set. I don’t think it was numbered.
This thread made me buy a Montana poster! There are others as well, it sounds like?
Neither Bird nor Wilt were in packs
.
Bird and Wilt Heroes cards were in packs, but I should have clarified the autographs were not
Does anybody know if the Hank Aaron hologram card was 1 per box in the high series? I have one and they seem to be abundant. Just wondering
Heroes of Baseball
In 1991, Upper Deck organized a series of "Old-Timers Game" events at Major League ballparks nationwide. In conjunction with these games, Upper Deck also organized card shows. Dealers who setup at Heroes of Baseball card shows were entitled to purchase a special run of 1991 Upper Deck Lo-Series boxes that contained an exclusive Heroes of Baseball insert set. The set features three of the participants plus a a fourth card of all three players painted by Vernon Wells, Sr. Autographs of all three players were randomly inserted.
A Hank Aaron hologram card was issued to promote the Heroes of Baseball series. Unlike the Heroes of Baseball inserts (see above), the Aaron Hologram was inserted in all Hi-Series packs.
There's now a site dedicated to tracking all these early 90's Upper Deck cards. Check it out! If you've got one that isn't tracked yet, please add!
https://find-the-heroes.vercel.app/
Cool website! The website says that 164 of the 2500 Ryans have been reported. Probably alot of work went into this website. Thanks for sharing!
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball cards
also collecting Canadian silver coins
In 1994 they had All Time Heroes of Baseball boxes with autographs. I pulled a George Brett Auto (I have to go dig that up). I think there were 4 possible autographs in those boxes, Mantle, Seaver, Brett, and one more player (can't recall at the moment).
EDIT: to add I think the 4th player was Reggie
these are just so nostalgic for me. I should try to pick up a Nolan. it is such a shame so many of the autos have faded over the years. i wonder if it was the markers they used or something about the gloss on the card that caused the fading?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Yes, and a long way to go. If you're interested in following along, there's a digest option that sends you all the new finds each week.
Some of them have held up really well, and some have faded. Other than maybe left out in the sun, don't know why some are good and some aren't. They've gotten pretty pricey over the years.
Sharp example 1
Sharp example 2
Faded example
What a great site for this... very well put together.
Much appreciated for the link.
Thanks. Trying to get the word out, I'm sure there's tons hiding in people's collections.