Found - 1989 Upper Deck Murphy Reverse Negative

[Harliduck]

Thought I would share a funny story...

In 1989 I was 18 years old and working at a grocery store. Like everyone else in that era, I was caught up in the junk wax craze and living in Seattle we had Griffey fever. I had one advantage, myself and a buddy had access to all the cards coming into our store. We bought everything we could get our hands on...good times.

We bought and opened several cases of packs chasing Griffey, and even had a case of Upper Deck factory sets come in. We bought that case and flipped most of the sets, kept a few for ourselves. I remember at the time the chase of the reversed Dale Murphy card, but like most big time errors of the time (and most assuredly a purposeful error on UD's part), but never thought I'd actually get one. And I never did, and I opened A LOT of Upper Deck that year.

Fast forward a bunch of years, like to 3 years ago...and my son wanted a Griffey Jr rookie. I told him I had 1 factory set I never did get rid of from back in the day (kept 1 so I had the set)...let's pop it and hope for a nice "10" Griffey. Well...we did...and pulled a nice OC card...then had to explain that nope, never a 10. Ok, well he had his card...kept it raw...all good. Set went back into "storage" in it's box.

Fast forward again...I decided to add the 89 and 90 UD sets to my binder run...got the binders, sheets, and set out to fill em in. Low and behold, I get to the Murphy...I have the reversed negative?? I've been sitting on it since 1989! If I remember right this card was suppose to only be in packs? I do know the sets we bought were among the first, we were popular guys back then...but I know I would have been told there was a Murphy in the other sets we sold...unless they are all still unopened in closets? A quick ebay search to find they are still worth a couple of bucks much to my surprise. I dug through one of my old junk boxes to find a "regular" card for the binder and noticed they look really cool together and brought back some nice memories. So...thought I would share -




A friend of mine who is a Murphy freaked asked for the card, he never had one back in the day and still keeps his 77 Topps RC close. I obliged, gave it to him, then went on Ebay and bought one for a little over $50...so the long and short of it I ruined my big wind fall...but all I kept thinking about was this card was worth a bit more in the height of the craze. I can't remember what it topped out at, but the card currently in my set has been on quite an adventure I'm sure...

Good memories...and luck hit me...32 years later!!!!

[Blackie]

Way to go John!!! That is AWESOME!!

[hockeyhockey]

great find! that's one of my favorite error cards. sadly it is at PSA getting graded and may not come back for 6 years

[ALR-bishop]

First Blue Dots and now back to back Murphys, you are on a roll John
The 89 Upper Deck set has some neat variations. Still looking for one of the CLs with missing holograms

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0ge...3YQQ_439gUTDs-

[Bigdaddy]

Nice story, congratulations on the pull - after 32 years.

I certainly remember that card but never did add one to the collection. Those were fun times, buying and selling 1989 Upper Deck. We had never seen a baseball card of that caliber - photography, holograms, writeups, generally good centering, etc. My dad and I stood in line at Price Club (now Costco for you young 'uns) and bought a low number case. He sold several boxes in 1993 and gave me the money to help with a down payment on my house.

[Piratedogcardshows]

Good share John. I will be checking my already open set for kicks later.

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

A friend of mine who is a Murphy freaked asked for the card, he never had one back in the day and still keeps his 77 Topps RC close. I obliged, gave it to him, then went on Ebay and bought one for a little over $50

If that's how things panned out, did you consider just buying a Murphy for your friend and keeping the one you've had all these years?

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

If that's how things panned out, did you consider just buying a Murphy for your friend and keeping the one you've had all these years?

I poorly worded that...I bought the new Murphy after regretting giving away the original... I guess now we are both happy...