Thirty years ago, lots of things were happening in the baseball card industry. Topps brought the Bowman label back from the dead while Upper Deck entered a market that was starting to become a little crowded. Add it all up, and it was a pretty revolutionary year for the hobby. Inserts are often the cards collectors want the most these days. But lost in the shuffle is that … [Read more...]
Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie Bobblehead Part of Mariners 2019 Giveaways
Thirty seasons after it became a national sensation, we’re getting a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card bobblehead...sort of. The Seattle Mariners have partnered with a manufacturer to create an ode to Griffey’s iconic 1989 Upper Deck card and will give 20,000 of them away to fans on May 18. That’s a Saturday night game against the Minnesota Twins. (Update … [Read more...]
1989 Was A Revolutionary Year In Baseball Cards
Looking back, 1988 was a relatively dull year for baseball cards. Among the junkiest of the junk wax era, not much has significant value from that time period. Sure, there are some notable things from 1988, such as the traded/update sets. But in general, there's a lot of low-value stuff from 1988. 1989 has a lot of low-dollar stuff, too. But (and with all due respect to the … [Read more...]
Grading Companies Give Much Needed Boost to Junk Wax Era
Broadly defined as baseball cards produced from the late 1980s through the early 1990s, the "Junk Wax Era" is often cited as a primary reason for the crash of the industry felt in the late 1990s. The gist is that cards produced during that time were usually printed in far greater quantities than many collectors believed. As a result, supply became much greater than demand. That … [Read more...]
1990 Leaf Baseball Challenged Upper Deck for “High End” Supremacy
The early 1990's were not only a boom time for the sports collecting hobby but also a time in which the major card manufacturers really started improving their production techniques. The old expression "it's only cardboard" started to fade away as the cards produced showcased more modern printing technologies. Instead of incremental improvements, the cards stock started … [Read more...]
Editor’s Blog: Focus on Griffey Jr a Huge Opportunity for Hobby
To those of us who were adults when Ken Griffey Jr. was a young player, it might have seemed a little strange to listen to the discussion after he was elected to the Hall of Fame. The overriding tone was one of nostalgia. The sweet swing. The leaping grabs at the wall. His rookie card. Wait, is Junior really old enough to be thought of as "nostalgic"? Yup, because … [Read more...]
HOF Election Validates Early Faith for Griffey Jr. Collector
It really didn’t matter whether Ken Griffey Jr. got every vote from those who cast ballots in the Baseball Hall of Fame election. He was a slam dunk before the new millennium. The most popular player of his generation—and it wasn’t really close—Griffey was the rare athlete who had genuine skills and could still made highlight clip plays on a regular basis. The vote didn’t … [Read more...]
Griffey Jr. Dresses as His Rookie Card in New Macklemore Video
It doesn’t really matter if you’re into the musical genre or even if you know who Macklemore is, although after he appeared in the 2015 Topps First Pitch subset, you might even if rap isn’t your groove. What really matters is that director Jason Koenig, Macklemore and partner Ryan Lewis managed to insert Ken Griffey Junior—posing as his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card—into … [Read more...]
Ramblings: Fun With Busted Prospects
We really enjoyed sharing the memories about the hottest players in baseball as we turned the corner into the 1990’s but that me to thinking about some of the other incredible stories of hot cards that turned cold and never warmed back up. In some ways the overproduction age was like a penny stock market in that if you could buy cards at the right time for pennies and … [Read more...]
Most Popular Baseball Card Sets to Collect, 1950-1999
Not only do the words “popular” and “passion” both start with “p,” but they are also related in the hearts of many collectors. At least that is how it appears from some of the great reactions and statements that the piece on 1900-1949 generated. And that is how it should be. There is little joy in collecting something if there is no passion attached to it. And, if passion is … [Read more...]