1988 Score: A Forgotten Gem

[profholt82]

Recently, while sifting through some old boxes in the basement, I came across some cards from the 88 Score set, and became fascinated in the player bios on the backs. They were written by legendary former Sports Illustrated writer Les Woodcock. Now, other than the divisive woodgrain borders, one of my favorite features of 87 Topps was the little player bio section on the backs which taught me (among many other things) that Howard Johnson was the co-winner of a rib eating contest, and that Moose Haas not only had a blackbelt in tae kwon do, but was also an amateur magician and certified locksmith. What a fascinating guy, I thought as a youngster.

Well, 88 Score took that concept and ran a marathon with it. The player bios here are massive. In fact, the print has to be small to fit them on the backs of the cards, so I have to wear my reading glasses to even make them out sometimes. Beyond the standard bio fare, they often include anecdotes and quotations. It's the kind of stuff that I love reading about.

So after having my interest in the set piqued, I decided to order a factory set as they are dirt cheap nowadays (height of the junk wax era). I had fun sorting through the cards with my daughters, finding my favorite players and Detroit Tigers and putting them in a binder. The set focuses mostly on action shots of the players with very few traditional poses. The backs include not only the bios and stat lines, but also a color photo portrait of the player. This was fairly novel for the time. While I'm not crazy about the multi-colored borders throughout the set, the overall design is still somewhat attractive.




The set also includes a cool little Reggie Jackson subset which covers his career. The writeups on the backs of these cards could fill up a small book.





88 Topps has grown on me somewhat over the years, but 88 Donruss and Fleer remain hideous abominations to my eyes. At the time, Score was kind of an afterthought to me. It was a new set, and I just never got into it. But now, looking back, I realize that I missed out.

[darkhorse9]

Sorry...the the 1988 Score can't hold a candle to the even more underappreciated 1986 Sportflics.

[EldoEsq]

I picked up an 88 Score factory set at a garage sale for $3 a month ago... I might have gotten ripped off investment-wise, but the memories of being an 8th grader when these came out made it worth it!!

Gregg Jefferies...I swear I thought that card would be worth a million dollars one day...

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Econteachert205]

Loved the 88 score design. They went downhill from there.

[judsonhamlin]

Agree that it was a innovative design for 1988. There are also some sneaky tough spelling variations (Francona, Andersen, Neidenfuer, etc) that aren't expensive but rarely come up for sale

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Econteachert205

Loved the 88 score design. They went downhill from there.

I liked the 1988/89/90 sets, after those 3 I agree they went downhill.

[D. Bergin]

Nice, I loved this set when it first came out. The different colored borders (reminded me of 75 Topps), the sometimes blurry action photos on the front (76 Topps, 82 Fleer), the color photo and the seeming 50,000 character twitter limit on the back of the card (1986 Sportflics).

For some reason, the regular set seemed to be relegated to junk wax status even quicker then the 88' Donruss Baseball and the 90' ProSet Football.

[Rich Klein]

I guarantee you there are less 1988-91 Score cards in the hobby than any of the other major companies of that time.

Not that they are rare or scarce but they do show up much less than Donruss or Topps and 1989-91 Fleer.

Rich

[steve B]

This set is one I collect, perhaps in a less than sane fashion.

There were three different sorts of die cuts used to cut the sheet into cards.
Plus the listed variations
Plus different printings that were screened differently.

And of course, the scans on Ebay can't show enough detail to know which one you're looking at.
The second type of die cut is actually pretty hard to find.

Steve B

[insidethewrapper]

The 1988 Score Glossy Regular Set and Update is a tough set. Low production.

[swarmee]

Most valuable? There are about 10 cards that were samples that the main (only?) difference is that the previous year stats are all zeroes. Some may also have different border colors.

[Bigdaddy]

Oh man, when those came out, they were the bomb. Loved the colors, the action photos and especially the backs of the cards - color photo, stats and an awesome writeup. And the cardstock was a bit more robust than most of the other manufacturers.

Really loved the Mattingly, Larkin and Glavine cards.

And with the times in those days, I think my dad and I bought a whole case of either factory sets or boxes of '88 Score. We just knew, with all our being, that they would appreciate and make a nice down payment on a house some day.

[nolemmings]

I have always been one of the collectors least impressed by action photos. Maybe it's a generational thing, as I wanted to recognize player's faces back when there was no ESPN, Internet, Facebook and non-stop coverage of everyone's activities right at your fingertips. Plus action photos back when were muddy and often obscured the player's face. Anyway, nothing wrong with other views on this, just saying how I rolled.

I bring this up because the OP's scans bring back memories from one of the last years I collected "modern". I did not like the 1988 Score card fronts, especially the decision to have different colored backgrounds for no good reason. Add to that the 100% action photos and I was very underwhelmed. Then I put them in the binder and saw the very thing the OP likes about them. The backs were terrific. A nice clear photo of the player's face, well written bios and a nicely organized stats section, all with team logo and colorful design. I actually preferred to load them backs showing first, and probably would have been OK if they were blank-backed, er blank-fronted.

This set got/gets my approval for that reason. Thanks for bringing back those memories--I may have to try and dig out that old binder.

[mrmopar]

This set contained the end of an era for me, Steve Garvey's last regular issued card as an active player, sort of. He retired early in the 87 season and nobody but Score honored him with a "last card". Not a fan of the card for it's looks though.

I also remember a lot of mine having the small, fuzzy extra bits on the corners, I believe one of the cutting variations mentioned already. It is funny to me that anyone might be chasing those though, as they appear to be worn.

I don't follow graded cards, but are these cards any tougher to find in higher grades? Perhaps there could be further appreciation for high grade examples if those colored borders didn't hold up, although that was right at the early stages of the protect every card with your life collecting attitude.

[BearBailey]

Fun set, I remember how many card shops were around back then and toysrus. It was tough as a kid figuring out which of those cards to collect I had to cut a lot of grass to get all the sets back then.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

I don't follow graded cards, but are these cards any tougher to find in higher grades?

Here's the skinny on PSA graded cards:
660 cards in set
3959 total graded, of which 1191 are of the Tom Glavine RC. Majority of cards are not graded. Most graded cards are of stars/semi-stars with registry sets.

Over 2000 of all PSA graded cards rated a 10, 1000 graded a 9, and the other 900 or so less.

[bbcard1]

I saw the 88 Score factory sets at a show for $1 ea or $10 for a case of 12. i had trouble passing. But I did.

[REGGIE206]

1988 Score was the first box I bought.. or should I say my parents bought me. Haha. I too loved the bio, face photo on the back, and especially the action pictures in the front. Good times!

[Exhibitman]

I have a soft spot for this set since it was one of the first things I bought when I got back into collecting after the teenage hiatus. I still like the design, images and backs. I still think they are great looking cards:



I recently bought a box for a few bucks and opened it; lots of fun. The packs were these stretchy polybags that damaged at least one or two cards per if you tried to pull them apart.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

I saw the 88 Score factory sets at a show for $1 ea or $10 for a case of 12. i had trouble passing. But I did.

Todd:

At that price --- it's a win. Heck, at that price I would buy them to use at door prizes for my Adat show.

Rich

[ALR-bishop]

I mostly collect Topps, Fleer and original Bowman sets, but did the inaugural Donruss, Sportsflix, and Score sets as well. I like to do any recognized variations with any set. When I first read this thread I realized I had not done the variations. The Trading Card Database listed 8. It was mentioned in this thread they are not expensive but hard to find. They were a little hard to find but finally got them all, plus one of the Sample cards John mentioned ( Larkin with green versus purple border and 0s for 1987 stats)

Worthless set but was fun running down the variations.

I realized I had an extra hand collated set ( only one of the variations though ) If anyone wants it they can have it. Would even ship it on me. I hate to throw stuff away.

[mortimer brewster]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

I guarantee you there are less 1988-91 Score cards in the hobby than any of the other major companies of that time.

Not that they are rare or scarce but they do show up much less than Donruss or Topps and 1989-91 Fleer.

Rich

I remember in the mid 1990's the Kay Bee Toy Stores in Western New York had dozens of wax boxes of 1989 Donruss piled in a corner. They could not give them away. Multiply that by however many stores across the country and that's a lot of trees.

I know many collectors don't consider the back of the card when determining their favorite set, but I have always liked the early score sets for the player info.

[ALR-bishop]

I have a couple of Kay Bee/Topps co branded boxed baseball card sets. (86/87/88/89/90)

[Mike D.]

The thing I always found interesting about this set (and I do like it) - the longer a guys career, the less “bio” space there was. So, here’s one sentence about Steve Garvey, but 10 lines about some second year 4A guy or prospect.

The bio guy earned his paycheck for sure!

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Most valuable? There are about 10 cards that were samples that the main (only?) difference is that the previous year stats are all zeroes. Some may also have different border colors.

John:

I just noticed your comment. Those were promo cards with those zeroes. And yes they are much more difficult than cards out of packs.

Rich

[ALR-bishop]

I have the Larkin, is there a list of the others ?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I have the Larkin, is there a list of the others ?

I know there is a Wade Boggs. Would love to have one but not at the insane price I have seen one listed at in the past.

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

John:

I just noticed your comment. Those were promo cards with those zeroes. And yes they are much more difficult than cards out of packs.

Rich

Rich,

There are also a number of promos/prototypes that either have no back photo or front photo (or both) but all of the design elements still visible, with missing 1987 stats. They affect the same 10 players as mentioned previously (McGwire, Larkin, Mattingly, Boggs, etc).

Al,

There are several more errors and variations in this set beyond the 8 caught by Beckett back in the day. Even the Greg Walker has a 3rd variety.

[ALR-bishop]

Dylan-- I do have a 3d Walker but it is just a color difference on the back. Do the other variations you mention involvie changes by Score to correct the card, or recurring print defects or differences ? I collect variations and recurring print defects for all my Topps sets, but try to stick to "true" variations for non Topps sets

[steve B]

It probably got missed, but there were lots of changes over the year.

Three different die cuts,
possibly as part of correcting mistakes, the screening of the printing was entirely redone at least once, probably more.
If you follow a line of dots for instance in a border on the back one card will have that line at a 30 degree angle to the edge, while a different printing may have it as 45 degrees.

And that's just from a batch of the second die cut, which is pretty tough. I misplaced the main portion of my collection, and haven't found it yet. I suspect there will be more small differences.

[mrmopar]

An oldie revived.

I enjoyed the Score cards. I think they had some great subsets, like the Franchise. They always had great photos too. They held their own as we entered the insert era too, with some decent insert sets. Still love those 1993 Franchise inserts.

1994 was the end of that though. The still had some decent inserts, but the base sets went to pot. Hated those dark blue borders (but the gold parallels were nice) and 95 was 10X worse and pretty much every set releaesed after that one.

[ALR-bishop]

The factory sets had a group of small sportsflick like inserts. I am sure those are extremely valuable

[1952boyntoncollector]

If i can recall the Score set has a picture of Boggs popping up which was his only infield POP of the season? Maybe thats just mikey and life cereal but i sort of remember reading that when i was a kid

[tulsaboy]

I know I'm late to this party, but i absolutely loved the 88 Score set when I was a kid. My brother and I sat on the floor of the local Kmart while our mom shopped and went through every pack they had out, looking for stars on the fronts. Since you can only see the purple cards on the front, you were limited to the players that showed up in that color, but that was still quite a group! Brett, Sandberg, McGwire, Mattingly...lots of star power to find. We also looked for the Gregg Jeffries cards on the back. We didn't know about Glavine then, so I don't remember looking for him at all.

Regarding the pictures, for those of you who have your binders handy, look at the Matt Nokes and Kirk Gibson cards. Those photos, in my opinion, are some of the neatest photos to show up on cards in that set. Really well framed looks at those two players, in Tiger Stadium to boot.

Recently I bought a storage tub of unopened packs for about $10 bucks. In that tub were around 400 loose packs of 88 Score. My kids and I had a blast looking for star packs, and found quite a few. 4 Glavines in there! Then we opened a huge pile of the rest. That was just a fun trip down memory lane.

kevin

[ALR-bishop]

Good story Kevin, and we now have had 35 posts on the 1988 Score set

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by jacksoncoupage

Rich,

There are also a number of promos/prototypes that either have no back photo or front photo (or both) but all of the design elements still visible, with missing 1987 stats. They affect the same 10 players as mentioned previously (McGwire, Larkin, Mattingly, Boggs, etc).

Al,

There are several more errors and variations in this set beyond the 8 caught by Beckett back in the day. Even the Greg Walker has a 3rd variety.

You know my mantra, if we have variations at COMC, let me know and I'll add them to the data base. Always in favor of showing there are interesting quirks in the over-produced era.

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

You know my mantra, if we have variations at COMC, let me know and I'll add them to the data base. Always in favor of showing there are interesting quirks in the over-produced era.

Great example of two other types of 1988 Score promo/proofs (not mine):



https://www.ebay.com/itm/273866941448

[JUrsaner]

I see this is an old thread at the top of the Modern forum, so figure now or never to comment. I've been building out my "junkwax" collection as one of my primary collecting goals this year and I have to say that I love the '88 Score set/design. As with a lot of the "junkwax" sets, it squarely fits the bill from a production/value standpoint and will probably never be worth much more than the cost of shipping. I think that notation also creates the image though that a lot of these sets were "junk" -- which in my opinion couldn't be farther from the truth. Part of why there was so much overproduction is because the product sold so well. It is a beautiful, innovative initial set! Colorful design. First to use real color photos on the back. Great bios. Going back to look at some of these early 90's sets that you can still pick up for less than $10 for a complete set, I've been shocked at how nice many of them were. The initial Pinnacle years are the same story.

[Tere1071]

I would be interested if no one else has claimed it.

Phil aka Tere1071

[Exhibitman]

What is there not to like?

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by Tere1071

I would be interested if no one else has claimed it.

Phil aka Tere1071

Went in the mail today Phil

[hockeyhockey]

is it really easy to tell a glossy 1988 score from a regular one? i assume if you have 2 next to each other, pretty easy. but from just looking at the cards, it's not that easy. in hindsight maybe these glossy/matte sets should've had another indicator on the back (even a few of those tiffany vs topps sets are hard to tell).

[Bigdaddy]

I had a half-gallon bucket of those little white, fuzzy 'balls' that were on all four corners of some of the cards. Wonder what that would be worth today???

Originally Posted by steve B

This set is one I collect, perhaps in a less than sane fashion.

There were three different sorts of die cuts used to cut the sheet into cards.
Plus the listed variations
Plus different printings that were screened differently.

And of course, the scans on Ebay can't show enough detail to know which one you're looking at.
The second type of die cut is actually pretty hard to find.

Steve B

[Tere1071]

I received the 88 Score set almost a week ago and it is beautiful. Al was more than kind in sending me the set. I remember collectors piecing it together before the factory sets became available, but it was this thread that turned my head. Thank you!

[hockeyhockey]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Good story Kevin, and we now have had 35 posts on the 1988 Score set

hey al, any idea if the 1988 score and score glossy packs are easy to differentiate? i was looking for some of the score glossy unopened but wasn't sure if there's a way to tell. thanks.

[steve B]

As far as I know Score Glossy was sold as a set like Fleer glossy or Topps Tiffany.

[hockeyhockey]

Originally Posted by steve B

As far as I know Score Glossy was sold as a set like Fleer glossy or Topps Tiffany.

ahh, thanks steve. i had a feeling that might be the case. originally i was confused by the score glossy vs those glossy superstar cards that came within the regular packs.

[commishbob]

Years ago I trashed so much of the junk wax I had collected back then. I kept an '88 Score set though. This thread prompted me to dig it out of storage. Found a cheap Update box on eBay and the whole thing is going to get bindered.