1988 Score: A Forgotten Gem

[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.

[Tere1071]

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

Phil aka Tere1071