New FB Acquisitions

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Shawn - 88 or 89 sounds about right. I think Larry is firm on 81, but I was just thinking there's a natural cutoff in the late 80s. I only say that because at some point in there picking a rookie card becomes really arbitrary. We know the 86 Topps is Jerry Rice's rookie. But a few years later in 89, Barry Sanders had a Score, a Pro Set, and a Topps. Soon after I think Upper Deck, Fleer, Action Packed??, SP??, Pacific??, etc. (I'm not even sure if these are all separate companies or what) were issuing sets - I've never really seen an article that explains the history of it, maybe because the late 80s aren't all that historical yet...

[jefferyepayne]

It all hit the fan in 1989. That's when Score and Pro Set showed up on the scene. So for me I consider 1988 the last year worth trying to get all of the mainstream cards that were produced. I have most of the base Topps sets thereafter but that's about it.

jeff

[Laxcat]

I'm like yall. My cutoff is '79. I do however have a few graded singles and raw sets of '89 score. There is WAY less of that stuff floating around than you would assume.

I have accumulated an embarrassingly large number of post-1987 football cards at garage sales and Goodwill. 99 cents for a bag of junk era cards are still fun to sort through for an hour or such, and if nothing else collect a few HOF's. I do not think I would ever bother pursuing a set, though sure to be close with a few different ones. I typically donate duplicate HOF's, Seahawks & Mariners to the library who give them away as bookmarks or reading benchmarks.

If I'm spending more than change on my collection, I try to keep it 1958-1977.