1989 Score
 

I've been taking a break from my usual collecting and for the fun of it, I've been putting together all the sets from the "junk wax" era - I had many of them back in the day, and I still think they're good, despite no monetary value to speak of. So I pick up a factory set of 1989 Score from my local shop's "sale" table for $5 (it's a set I didn't have way back when) and when I opened it up, I was surprised to see the contents collated alphabetically by players' last names. I can't for the life of me imagine why Score would have sorted them this way - it certainly doesn't correspond in any way to the printing or cutting process; I would imagine it had to take an extra step or two and given the small margins they were already working on makes little obvious sense.

One thing it does do is conveniently show that there were 9 players in the set named Davis (the most common last name). Anyone care to guess? And no cheating!

Alvin, Glenn, Eric, Mike, Storm, Russ, Chili, Tim, Terry

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

You got 6 correct - Alvin, Eric, Glenn, Mike, Storm and Chili. You missed on Jody, Mark and John.

Tim and Russ debuted in 1994, and there's no record at BR of a Terry Davis.

Thank you for playing!

Fleer also did it by team, then Alphabetical. I think tho also they arranged the teams by how they finished in the standings and then alphabetical by last name. This is at least true from 1987 (1986 season) and 1990 (1989 season) for their regular sets.

I always did prefer the sets that, at least, would group the teams together, rather than the common practice of just having players appear randomly.

I also recall that some sets would have certain players have the same card number every year, and some sets (not really thinking about baseball) where the card number would match the jersey number for some players.

Yes - Fleer from 1981 until at least 1992 numbered their sets in order of team finish, and then alphabetically within teams. But, when you bought a factory set, they were all unsorted. This 1989 Score set was pre-sorted alphabetically.

That's fascinating and I had never heard that before. Having an affinity for all things junk wax culture I thank you for sharing this.

It sounds like you're putting the cards into albums? How great was the photography in the '88 Score set? I swear, you take every star and HOF player card and make them silhouettes and you'd still be able to tell exactly who they are.

Arthur