The 1980's...
 

The "holy grail" thread got me thinking. Since I'm a kid from the '80's, I'm starting a thread dedicated to holy grail cards from my early collecting years (1980-1989), the cards I always wanted growing up. I consider these four cards I own as the most important from the big four sports. So dudes, let's see your totally gnarly '80s cards!

I totally agree with Jeff, those are definitely the premier cards of their respective sport for the 1980's. Being primarily a baseball card collector, besides the Griffey, these are my favorites that I own.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/460/80st.jpg

Agree on the Rickey!
 

I was too young to buy 1980 Topps when they were released, but I bought a bunch in the mid-to-late '80s. Only ever pulled one Rickey Henderson RC and I remember the centering was pretty bad.

don't have one, but
 

think you need to add the Marino rookie to the football list for collecting focus back then.

And there was no craze like the Mattingly rookies...

I don't own one, but I was always fond of the '85 Topps Mark McGwire USA Baseball Team card. The first packs I ever bought as a kid were '85 Topps and I remember that card standing out based on how the '84 USA team cards had a different design than the regular '85 Topps cards. As a five year old I didn't know anything about baseball and I thought being the first baseman meant you were the best player on the team. I actually based that theory on the '85 Topps Pete Rose card listing him as the first baseman/manager. Being a kid in the Cincinnati area, Pete Rose was the first player I remember ever hearing about so when I saw that card I remember thinking "He's the first baseman and the manager! That guy must really be good!" Using that logic I figured if Mark McGwire was the first baseman for the USA Baseball team he must be the best player in the country! :D

This was probably a regional thing, but there was a huge craze here over 1985 Topps Eric Davis rookies. I remember people thinking he was the next Willie Mays and they were going to make huge fortunes off of those cards. I hope they had a backup plan...

Cool thread. I was not a collector until the early 90's, but here are a few of my favorite cards from each sport:

http://www.homeruncards.com/imagesrc/sheffieldud.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg
http://www.vintagecardprices.com/pics/2171/103192.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Doug, you demonstrated impressive logical thinking
 

skills as a 5 year old!
makes total sense.:D

Yeah, I always had a suspicion that I was the inspiration for Dr. House on the Fox TV show. :)

I have all the Topps 80s sets. Some Topps 80s sets that were tough for me:

1980 Coins
1982 Blackless
1984 Encased Proofs
1985 Minis ...in blank back and regular back...and partial red back
1988 Cloth

Our local card dealer "Snyders Coin Shop" had a sign on his marquee back in the day "Buying Eric Davis rookies $10".

The interesting thing was back in 87 or so when they were hot, people really only wanted Topps, now looking back Fleer and Donruss were a lot tougher to find.

I guess this excerpt from Wikipedia explains all of the hype back then, but the last sentence pretty much explains why not to "invest" in these hyped up rookies. Kinda like that Strasburg guy that's already been on the DL twice. :rolleyes:

When Eric Davis first appeared in 1984, his physical talents gave him the potential to be one of the most exciting players in the game. He was a rare five-tool player with home run power as well as sheer speed on the basepaths. He made a habit of robbing home runs and elicited comparisons to Willie Mays.

Unfortunately, he was also highly injury-prone, never playing more than 135 games in any season.

When I was a weekend warrior in the late 80's and early 90's my partner and I sold a ton of Eric Davis Topps rookies in the $12-15 range, Topps Boggs rookies for about $30 and some others like unopened Donruss as Canseco after his 40/40 season enabled us to get a lot of $ for unopened packs, which we had hundreds of and had paid ten cents each for when they got blown out in discount stores after the season.

Everyone bitches about worthless, overproduced 80's cards today but if you had them at the right time you could do well. We had picked everything up at retail or cheaper as collectors at the time of issue and I remember we knew the runs for the Boggs rookie in '83 so picked up a zillion supermarket tray packs and always hit. All I can say is if you see a Tony Perez peeking thru a clear cello pack in 83 Topps, Wade Boggs will be under it!

Ryno
 

I collected Ryne Sandberg growing up in the 80's and 90's. In 1994, I had every card of his that was in Beckett, except for the Donruss Elite cards, which I would circle in every Beckett but know that I could never afford!

Radical!
 

Good stuff guys. Here are some other 'grails' from the '80's. If you had these, you ruled the schoolyard! (Back in the day, the McGriff RC was HUGE in Toronto!)

Jeff, your Canadian, you need the Leaf version of the Mcgriff!

Jim, you were laughed at if you had a Leaf instead of a Donruss!:D

id rather have the Leaf, little more rare then the Donruss.... i might have an extra u can have....id have to look though

Yup....Even the 'best' card would lose a bit of it's luster if it was the Leaf or OPC equivalent and not the Donruss or Topps version.


Regards,

Richard.

Don't forget some of the other flameouts as well
 

not quite as sought after, and certainly ended quickly, but I recall chasing after Fernando Valenzuela, Tim Raines, Kal Daniels, Cory Snyder, and Juan Samuel rookies in their respective years...

Here's one of my favs.

<a href="http://s606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/jalbregts/PC/?action=view&current=IMG_0072.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/jalbregts/PC/IMG_0072.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

when i was a kid, no one even knew the difference, nor really cared..... all you could buy where i was was OPC and they were in limited supply... when you seen them, you usually bought as many as you could convince your parents to buy you.

Makes sense to me. In 78 my family took a camping trip cross country with some time in Canada. Niagara to sault St Marie, and the Canadian side of Glacier Natl park. In the east I bought a bunch of 78 OPC baseball But in the natl park they had 1977s! When I commented that they must not sell many cards because they'd been there a year the staff was puzzled. Then a bit amused/mad when I showed them that the cards were a year old. Apparently they'd just gotten them in that week.

Steve B

reminds me of a story that happened when the card boom happened in the late 80's early 90's

There was a little chinese store in the town i lived in, and when the boom hit, he decided to pull out all the old unopened cards he had in storage, that never sold over the years. He sold them for face value. So guys were buying early 80's OPC hockey cards for 25 cents per pack and such. By the time i heard, someone had bought them all, i went in and asked the guy and he told me one guy bought the 30 cases or so he had. Sigh.. right place, wrong time...

Baseball cards weren't as popular here, but i still collected them cause there was no hockey cards to collect during the off season.

BTW Glacier national park is a nice drive.... it has gotten kinda touristy now but still nice!

Wish I knew that when I was 9!
Started collecting that year and I think that 83 Donruss Ty Cobb puzzle (Which I still have framed) got me into vintage baseball.

Great thread guys.

Growing up in the 1980s and a Yankees fan, the "holy grail" card for me was definitely the 1984 Donruss Mattingly RC. I remember the card was so expensive, though, that it was always out of my price range. When I got back into collecting last year, I eagerly snatched up an SGC 96 example for around $35.

Also, don't lump Tim Raines in with flameouts like Juan Samuel and Kal Daniels! Raines should be in the HOF.

Speaking of rookie card flameouts, anyone remember Ricky Jordan and Jerome Walton?

I remember Ricky Jordan and Jerome Walton very well. I also remember Eric Anthony, another bust.

Wow Jerome Walton...there is a name for you, Dwight Smith to a lesser extent too.

I remember 1987 Bo Jackson Donruss Rated Rookie cards going for a premium as well...

Keith,...understood
 

I was speaking more about how the cards and interest in them seemed to flameout...sometimes that happens to solid players. I recall a ton of interest in his cards for awhile and then that seemed to really die back alot...that's what I was referring to, not his career. I share your opinion of him.

and don't forget Dave Magidan!

Somewhere I've still got my 1990 Fleer card orders written down. I used to be able to walk into a store, look at the top card on the pack, and know if Walton or Smith were in that pack.

Anyone remember the hype for Wally Joyner cards?

.........yes, and the Bo Jackson b/w Score card with football/baseball.

The Bo Jackson score card (dream Team), is from 1991. Still a great looking card, all the score dream team cards were pretty decent.

Kevin Seitzer and Chris Sabo too.

Jim,
I think that the Bo B&W was from 1990 actually but to me the 80s and 90s are kind of one big flusher of over produced cards anyway.

Speaking of Wally World, those 1986 Donruss Rookie sets were super hot!

Busts...

Early '80s was Lonnie Smith, Baines, and Charboneau. They were really hot for awhile.

Late '80s was Greg Jeffries was huge for awhile...so was Mark Grace rookies. Steve Avery was also hot.

Joshua

The list is seemingly endless..................Sam Horn, Ricky Jordan, Mike Greenwell and on and on and on. The aforementioned Gregg Jefferies though was the king of the age of unrealized hype.

Being from Toronto, I vividly remember the hype for Junior Felix (Claim to Fame: Caught the last out of Dave Stieb's no-hitter)

I paid a ridiculous amount of money for a Leaf gold rookie of .... wait for it......


Todd Van Poppel.... he was the next big (cough strasburg) thing!

Cory Snyder!!!!
 

HAHA the good ole days, I remember searching through rack packs looking for 87 Topps Rookies.

I thought I would be a teen age millionaire because I had several "Fernand" Valenzuela error cards from 81 Fleer (I think).

Anybody want to buy a stack of Andy Benes RC's?

Luis Medina and "Bam Bam" Meulens.

Heh heh...
 

You might try giving the Benes home a ring...:)

You might try giving the Benes home a ring...

I already did---They said "No Thanks"!:D

Charboneau was so hot, he even had a song written about him. What happened to those days? People used to write songs about players all the time and they actually got radio play and sold copies. These days, with the "democratization" of the music world on the Internet, where are the dozens of YouTube stars singing about Stephen Strasburg?


And what's wrong with Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens?

The Hensley Meulens Gallery

I was there for it! Nobody wanted Leaf, OPC baseball or Canadian Score Hockey!

This thread is not complete without at least mentioning Gregg Jeffries! The '88 Score was stellar!

This made me laugh out loud.

I know it won't help the value of the stack of RCs you have of him, but for what it's worth, I don't think I ever played with or against anyone who was as dominant as Benes was for about a four- to six week stretch his first year as a professional.

After he signed as the first pick in the 1988 draft he was assigned to Class AA Wichita in the Texas League for the '89 season. I played outfield (and also rode the bench) for that team, so I had a great view of just about every start he made. He was 8-4 in Double-A before being promoted to Class AAA Las Vegas and then the Padres (where he went 6-3 as a 21-year-old.) But more than his record was the way he just overmatched hitters and sometimes just seemingly toyed with them.

I can't tell you how many times I'd be in center field and Benes would get ahead of a hitter 0-2. Then he'd work on his change-up two pitches in a row, miss with those, then maybe throw a curve that would miss badly ... and then blow the poor guy away with a fastball or exploding slider. It was like he knew he could get a hitter out whenever he wanted to by going back to the good stuff. During this one stretch he won three or four starts in a row, and I think he struck out 10 more more in just about every start.

I wouldn't have blamed anyone who saw him pitch that first year for investing in his cards. Heck, one game Bill James drove from Kansas City just to see Benes pitch. (The highlight of that season for me was meeting James in the clubhouse and telling him I was a huge fan of his work. He looked surprised, then looked at my stats listed on the insert of that night's game program and said, "Hey, you've got a good secondary average.")

Benes, by the way, was a good guy, too. His nickname in spring training was "Andy Bonus," and he took it just the way you should and never copped an attitude. Probably because he knew he was earning interest.

Good stuff Rob.

And for the record even though he might not have lived up to his full potential, Benes still had a very solid major league career. I remember him having a couple very strong years early on with the Padres and then kind of rejuvenated his career with the Cards in the mid-nineties.

Wow, we must be different out west.... no one wanted score american where i was... why would you want something that costs the same to buy but has half the value once opened? Air must be different in the east, god thing i moved from there in 77

Hey Rob---
 

--Glad I rekindled a nice memory--That's a great story and Benes certainly had the stuff to be a winner--at least I thought so!

Don't know why he faded & didn't last longer or do better, but my stack of RC's didn't cost much at all when I got them, so I'm not out anything!

In fact, I never was one to "invest" in RC's in the '80's & '90's, but I somehow thought he was worth taking a flyer on so I grabbed a few anyhow.

No Mention
 

of Kevin Maas and Ben McDonald yet?? I remember my brother and I only needing Kevin Maas to finish the 1990 UD set (yeah a year late to jump on the UD bandwagon). We ended up plunking down $20 for it! Yikes.

YES!!! Kevin Maas!!! I remember that 1990 UD Maas was like gold when he hit all those home runs.

One year later I remember a minor stir being caused by Todd Van Poppel. His 1991 UD rookie card was going for at least $5!!

I was at a small flea market a couple months back. A vendor there had everyone of these cards all marked at 20 year old prices.

He had Juan Guzman at $5, Kenny Lofton rookies, Ben McDonald, Eric Davis, the "rare" Juan Gonzalez reverse negative he tells me for $10, the works.

I don't think the guy had bought a card since about 1995. I don't think he has sold a card since about 1995.

What kind of deal did he have on Todd Van Poppel?

Van Poppel
 

Last time I checked Todd Van Poppel prices at my local flea market (it was about a month ago), his rookies were still at $5. ... The guy would pay you $5 for every Van Poppel you agreed to take off his hands. Pretty reasonable if you ask me.

Wasn't there some Van Poppel Upper deck logo error or something circa 1990?

I'm sure he had some there. What a way to waste the weekends of your life.

For me, it was his Leaf Gold Rookie that cost me two arms and a leg! (i think 40$)

About 4 years ago i bought a pack of cards at the dollar store because there was a card on top i wanted, inside.... a Lead Gold rookie of Todd Van Poppel!

Wasn't there some Van Poppel Upper deck logo error or something circa 1990?

That was Ben McDonald

I can take your slings and arrows, so laugh it up.

oh wow, this is an awesome thread. Just last year I went back and purchased the following sets. 84 Donruss and Fleer, 86 Donruss, 89 Score football, 90 Leaf and 92 Bowman baseball, football and hockey. Ok, so not all were from the 80's but some of my favorite cards were in those sets back when I was younger and just starting to collect. Couldn't afford them then, so it was fun to get them now. Oh yeah, and I was also able to pick up a Jordan Rookie for next to nothing. Not in the greatest shape, but still fun to have.

Joe

A Jordan rookie for next to nothing?!
 

please share a scan!
It is fun to go back and buy a few things that you couldn't afford to do back then, isn't it?
My latest example was re-discovering the 1986 Fleer Star Stickers, and buying 3 unopened boxes for like $12-15 each and going nuts opening packs!
My sons loved it too, even though they only knew to look for Ozzie Smith and Kirby Puckett.

I have a few Jordan rookies.... Bryan Jordan unfortunately!

I think he was in the 80's....or early 90's. Its all good.

It's funny how a bunch of these ultra-hyped rookies of the '80s kind of flamed out and then ended up having pretty good careers. Rob mentioned Andy Benes. I remember, as other posters have mentioned, the incredible hype machines for Mark Grace, Todd Zeile, and Gregg Jefferies in 1988. They all seemed to not live up to the hype, but in retrospect were pretty good, especially Grace, who had an excellent career. Someone told me he had the most hits in the 1990s and he finished with almost 2450 hits. Zeile had over 2000 career hits and Jefferies had two excellent seasons with the Cardinals (two top 20 MVP finishes).

But I guess when it comes to hyped rookies in the late 1980s, for every Mark Grace, there were 10 Ricky Jordans.

Players from this decade like Canseco, McGwire, Strawberry, Clemens, Jefferies, Dykstra, Fernando, etc will always stick in our minds for many different reasons. Just a good/strange time.

I bought two packs of 90 Leaf when they came out for $1.50 a pack iirc. I hit on a Maas Rc and the shop owner, who was a very nice fella, offered me 3 packs for it. I took it, and pulled another from the following packs. I declined his offer for more after that lol

I guess the biggest bummer of this time period for me was trading away "boring" safe players for the next big thing. I traded a Topps Clemens Rookie for the aforementioned UD Van Poppel (gosh that name was fun though). I also unloaded a stack of Maddux rookies after he went to the braves. It seems I've had a bunch of cards that I'm in the process of buying back now. Bonds rookies, Boggs Rookies, etc. When I came back to collecting, the only thing I found among my stacks of Jeffries, Raines, and later Tim Salmon (puke) were Griffey Jr. Rookies. I guess he was adequately hyped or I wouldn't have kept him.

BTW the only true grail of the 80's is that Billy Ripken Error. It's by far my favorite card of all time. I think I read that it sold for 300 bucks somewhere. As I would have said in the 80s, that's radical dude.

I got the Billy Ripken "FF" card in a pack at a card show in 1989. The dealer who had the table offered me $75 for it and I declined. I ended up trading it to a friend for about $600 worth of cards, including several Boggs, Gwynn, and Mattingly rookies.

I remember pulling the Billy Ripken F-Face card out of a pack in 1989 as well. I don't collect many modern cards anymore, but that card will always be a part of my collection. It's a classic. By the way, there's a good discussion of the Ripken card in the recent book "Mint Condition" (excellent book all around, by the way).

I pulled the Ripken card in 2006 at a Wal-Mart outside Cooperstown thanks to a flat tire. Eating at a McDonald's, in a Wal-Mart opening baseball cards is probably the most American thing I've ever done.

And sadly, my favorite part of Cooperstown.

Is this guy still a friend? If so, I have to meet him.

I still see the guy from time to time and he reminds me of it :) That was the very definition of selling high. When I pulled the card, it had just been discovered. So I sat on it for several weeks before pulling the trigger. It's the one moment in collecting that I can compare to the whole Strasburg hype.

Strasburg hype has died.. The next one guys will be laying down the bucks for will be Bryce Harper!!!

few more
 

For a while, the 1987 Fleer Will Clark was red hot. Think it peaked in the $30s. Maybe higher. Another very solid player whose card values just dropped off a cliff. One of my personal favorites from the era.

How about fan favorite Pete "Inky" Incaviglia? Breaking the wall with a spring training home run. Stuff of legends.

Don't think the price got very high, but I remember a decent amount of hype for Ty Griffin (1988 Topps Olympic set).