The 1991 MLB season will probably be best remembered for the epic Minnesota Twins-Atlanta Braves World Series, but the release of this Topps baseball set likely ranks pretty high on collectors list. Pretty neat find. Of those submitted, eleven graded gem mint 10, 797 mint 9, and 1,460 near-mint to mint 8. Because of his NFL contract, Sanders missed all of the Braves' games in August and most of September and couldn't play for them during their playoff run that year. Wax Pack Gods, 100 Most Expensive Magic The Gathering Cards Sold on eBay in the Last 30 Days, 1989 Upper Deck Baseball Cards 28 Most Valuable Wax Pack Gods. The 1991 Topps set featured a thin team-colored border inside a traditional thicker white border (goodbye, comic pixels!). Read our methodology . Prices are updated daily based upon 1992 Leaf listings that sold on eBay and our marketplace. Through 1989, when they produced 25,000 Tiffany sets, Topps actually released print run numbers publicly. All cards feature a "Topps 40 Years of Baseball" logo to commemorate Topps' 40th year of baseball releases. 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The perception of the time was the king had lost its crown. The photography and premium look and feel of the cards have held up quite well to this day. For some of those veterans, 1991 Topps will always be the last real baseball card set. 1991 Topps Turns 30 Rip for Chip? I have a small printing plate of the of the Ken Griffey Jr. card,have no idea if is real.Please send comment.Sincere Thanks,Mary B. I dont specifically remember hearing of any 1991 printing plates that made it into the hobby, but its possible, given the Topps Archives sales several years back. No More Secrets Puzzle Game, Mark Whiten [Hand Inside Left Border] #588. But upon 30 years of reflection, that gray-cardboard set marks the dividing line between the traditional baseball card sets issued the 40 years prior to 1991 and the bright, white and slick sets that have dominated the industry in the last three decades. When 1991 Topps Stadium Club baseball cards first hit the market, it was clear what Topps was attempting to do: offer a premium set to compete with Upper Deck. Despite losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1992 World Series, Sanders played lights out and nearly helped them to a title before rejoining the Falcons to finish off the NFL season. And the rarest of them all is the Mark Whiten card where his hand extends over the border of the card. 1991 Topps Traded card list & price guide. Read our. It requires a lot of work, especially if you want to collect the more nuanced and questionable varieties.. Contact him at [emailprotected]. The variety of Topps photography in the set stands out to this day. Pitchers with 300 Wins and Their Baseball Cards! However, they have a special gold foil stamp on the front of them with a palm tree inside of a shield. It then advertised the insertion of every single card, some 300,000 in total, from its 40-year archive into packs. I was told graded its 10k. Apparently, at least, as we were unwilling or simply unable to absorb the oceans of product on the market even as we continued to slobber over the gorgeous UD offerings in their second year. Cards have a white border. How much are YOUR cards worth? See, in 1990, Topps had issued a set of comic-book bordered cards that marched alongside the garish red of Donruss and the general ickiness of a crappy Fleer set as the three traditional. To honor our troops and maybe give them a tiny taste of home, Topps produced a parallel of their base set, designated as Topps Desert Shield. The picture of the legendary pitchers body uncoiled after what we can presume is another heater whizzing past a helpless hitter. If you continue to use this site, we'll assume you're OK with that. 1991 Upper Deck #345 Nolan Ryan Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $15 Remarkably, Nolan Ryan was 44 years old when he was pitching during the 1991 season. INSTANT WIN, each pack proclaimed in the bottom right corner. Above the bar is a ribbon with the team's name. More than 150 players have rookie cards in the set. 1. And in this guide, we take a look at the 10 most valuable 1991 Topps cards. Ungraded & graded values for all '91 Topps Traded Baseball Cards. The card of Jones, an eight-time All-Sar and former Most Valuable Player, has become of one of the more sought after cards in the junk wax era particularly in . Couple that with the wartime conditions under which most of these cards first saw the light of day and that they had to make a long trip home to find their way into American collections, and its little wonder these cards are hard to come by in top condition. Thankfully, McGwire took the offseason to work out all of the kinks and would be back on track for the 1992 season. #10 1962 Topps Joe Torre (RC) #218 PSA 10 sold for $15,344 1962 Topps Joe Torre rookie card on eBay That led collectors everywhere to "chase the Mick" in hopes of landing one of the most coveted cards of all time: the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. Like the 1991 Bowman, Donruss, Fleer, Leaf, Score, Stadium Club and Upper Deck sets, far too many of them were printed and the market is over-saturated with them. Ungraded & graded values for all '91 Topps Archives 1953 Reprint Baseball Cards. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. During his sophomore season in the big leagues, 23-year-old Frank Thomas broke out in a monster way on the Southside of Chicago. Here is a look at the baseball cards that have exceeded a million-dollar price tag, including two by one of the sport's top active players: 1. foil shields that are bigger and brighter than others when compared side-by-side (the real ones are generally the smaller ones), pointy shield bottoms on the Desert Shield emblem (real ones are more rounded), blobby, non-distinct coconuts (theyre clear on real copies), palm leaves that touch shield borders (real ones dont), obscured stars on the flag (more like simple points on some fakes). Premium: The title is a reference to the irreverent nickname given the famous (infamous?) Investing in cards involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. 1987 Donruss Open. Many of the rookies come from the Draft Picks subset, the best of which is Chipper Jones. I have those 1991 Topps cards how can I get them graded and sell fo.the best price. There were only a handful of cards worth more that $50 during this time. For this reason, and others, 1991 Topps Baseball is timeless, as it offers a number of attractions as varied as the hobbyists who are collecting the set still. Topps issued many spinoffs of its 1991 set, from the glossy Tiffany sets, to the Micro set, to the box-bottoms, rookie debut cards and the tough Desert Shield versions. But make no mistake in 1991, these were not terribly easy cards to find. Topps Tiffany gave us all those things we wanted, as listed above, in complete set form that we could by at a premium. But they weren't just any regular bonehead deals, they were two of the worst in MLB history. 1991 Topps, still, is the last flagship set from the company to use gray, cardboard stock, a look and feel that has gone the way of paper rituals like penning thank you notes. With that likely came mistakes, he said. Or, they'd need to be one of the rarer Desert Shield versions Not to be confused with Topps' set of Desert Storm cards which featured military subject matter, the Desert Shield baseball cards were sent to soldiers who were serving in the Persian Gulf War during that time. 3. In that year Uribe won the Millie Mac Award for his spirit and leadership efforts with his team. does adding the contest cards to the collection increase its value? So there you have it, the ten most valuable 1991 Topps cards in both their base and Desert Shield forms. collecting period of 1986-93, a time in which trading card companies oversaturated the market with cards to meet the demand of an expanding consumer base. You can, after all, routinely find thousands of them on eBay. On the other hand, Bagwell began his career with the Astros the following season in 1991 by capturing the NL Rookie of the Year Award. 1991 Topps. That helps to explain some of the rarity of this set. Your Account has been confirmed and activated successfully. So, for the cards on this list to be worth much, they'll either have to be graded by PSA to be in perfect, gem mint condition. I began buying in 1967 and in 1972 I got lazy and just bought complete sets, that I did mail order not at the corner store. Those "618" error cards are much more rare and valuable than the other. The fact that he didn't appear in the 1991 Midsummer Classic has to be one of, if not the biggest, All-Star Game snub in the game's history. 1991 Topps Baseball Cards Complete Your Set U-Pick (#'s 1-200) Nm-Mint Emmitt Smith Rookie Cards: Values and Details 2020 Hall of Fame 2020 Spring Training 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge Baseball Books Baseball Briefs Baseball Card Challenges Baseball Card Statistics Baseball Card Values Baseball Cards Baseball Cards Daily Baseball Cards for Sale I have a Chipper Jones rookie card mint not graded. Thank you for highlighting such a beauty! It will be blast checking the cards out now for favorites, rookies, errors and all the memories. Vintage Topps Cards. The record book says yes, seeing as how Emmitt owns most of the career rushing marks that mean anything, and he's second to only Rice in total yards from scrimmage. His batting average also nosedived to .201 and Tony La Russa, the Oakland A's manager at the time, even decided to bench McGwire for the final game of the season just to avoid his average potentially slipping below .200. The Red Sox won the AL East but were destroyed by the Oakland A's in the ALCS and Andersen never pitched for Boston again. After two years of balancing his efforts as a two-sport athlete for the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Falcons, the Yankees finally decided to part ways with Sanders in September 1990. However, we also know that many were discarded . I started high school in 91 so by late summer I packed all the cards safely away and never checked them out. Still are. We are user supported. I always loved how Topps displayed Ryan on this card. That would change in 1992 as the company would follow the trend of other modern issues and move to a light-gloss style of card. Ripken's streak has since been broken multiple times. The rise of the Bowman brand dates back to 1927 when Jacob Bowman founded Gum Inc. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And can you believe that the Desert Shield version of this card can sell for thousands of dollars? His 368 total bases were actually tops in MLB that year. He had incredible range and could get rid of the ball with lighting speed making him one of the best defensive shortstops the game has ever seen. At 600 cards total, the Stadium Club checklist was much smaller than the regular 1991 Topps baseball card set but packed a much better design. That fact probably helps drive the graded card market, too, as having the PSA or BGS stamp gives you at least some assurance you have the real thing. The set was also special as Topps celebrated its 40th year of issuing baseball cards. I was lucky enough to find an original George Bush senior in his yale uniform. buy stuff after clicking links on our site The cards, if youre unfamiliar with them, are moderately rare. I have some Topps baseball cards (1988-1991).How do I get the value of these cards? He also loves to write about the hobby and has written for Beckett, Topps, SABR and of course, this website. In 2018, the No. However, while some of them made their way overseas, there are reports of others remaining here in the states. Those sets that followed just dont seem like trading cards to them. Griffey eventually turned into the Hall of Famer everyone thought he would be and his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card has since solidified itself as one of the most iconic cards in the hobby. Ultimately, Topps slotted Dave Stewart in as card #1 in the set, but I have to believe there is a story behind why they were the only two players who posed in tuxedos. I really have no clue, said Charles on how much 91 Topps hes opened over the years. Was he originally slated to be the first card in the set but Topps decided to go with Dave Stewart at some point instead? And as the article points out, even the ones that did legitimately enjoy the cards may have found it challenging to bring them home or even keep them in decent condition. Mike Mussina and Ivan Rodriguez are a couple of more standouts. Fortunately, the Chicago White Sox quickly gave him a shot and signed him to a three-year deal. 1991 Topps Baseball Checklist Base Set Checklist 792 cards. There are faked versions of this card, so this is one worth buying authenticated. Albert Pujols Cardinals Signed 2000 Multi Peoria Minor Rookie Card 5. Now that we got that out of the way, let's take a look at the list: 1991 Topps #360 Emmitt Smith Estimated PSA 10 Value: $100 After making his rookie cardboard debut in the 1990 Topps football set, the company included Emmitt Smith in their "Super Rookies" subset the following year. The problem, in terms of value for the 1991 Topps set is that the cards were everywhere, and they still are. This unique close-up shot of The Big Unit only adds a different dimension to the mans massive mystique. Despite that rarity, many of these cards are very affordable. Not my absolute favorite set of all time, but still an excellent product. Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter was an avid baseball card collector who said during a 1994 interview that he had every Topps card manufactured from 1959 through 1993 (except 1962) . This is just another case of where the value of a card can be boosted by a simple variation. 1991 Topps, still, is the last flagship set from the company to use gray, cardboard stock, a look and feel that has gone the way of paper rituals like penning thank you notes. These frames are color-coded according to the team. Among the more popular ones are Ken Griffey, Jr., Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and others. Ozzie Smith was an absolute master with his defensive wizardry. Find out for yourself with our FREE checklist to guide you step-by-step. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Page: Related: FAQ - Pricing Theres a link to the price guide at the top of this page. As you read through this list, please keep in mind that most cards in this set have little to no value these days. We may earn an affiliate commission if you Honus. PriceIt Game | Some of the game's greats had more than one season that could be considered the greatest of their careers. 1. Great article! Its that 40th Anniversary, as collectors from that year recall buying box after box of 1991 Topps, attempting to Chase the Mick, as the company advertised that it had inserted randomly one of every single card it had issued from 1952-91 into individual packs. Heres How to Tell Them Apart. Prices are updated daily based upon 1991 Topps Archives 1953 Reprint listings that sold on eBay and our marketplace. Some of the logos and card backs glow when placed under a black light, demonstrating the resourcefulness and zeal of 1991 Topps collectors to find such an anomaly. I dont know what to do with them all . I have a load of these cards from 91 but who buys them anymore? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2008-2023 The Cardboard Connection. So what are these cards? If you would've asked anyone at the time if he was on his way to an eventual induction into Cooperstown, they may have looked at you in disbelief, unsure if you were joking. The most valuable glossies are pretty much who you would expect Chipper, Nolan, Maddux, Ripken, Griffey, Big Hurt etc. Would the set have held up better if other major rookie cards materialized over time? Given the increasing prices of high-grade cards, the potential for unopened packs and boxes could be even greater by now. I have about 200 cards baseball, my oldest son started collecting ,Dow to youngest,49 yrs ago , how do I find value. We use cookies to improve your experience. A double border in two different colors houses the photo image, except when that image is breaking out of the design. 1989 Steve Avery Signed Topps Rookie Card Its too bad that Topps unrelenting printer press prevents the majority of the 792-card collection from ever having much value. Ross is the founder of Old Sports Cards and has been collecting sports cards for over 30 years. The error was corrected and most versions of this card are seen with the.618slugging percentage instead. 1989 Deion Sanders Yankees Signed Card 6. But, Ryan wasn't the only one to dress up so nicely as Dave Stewart put on a tuxedo for his card as well. List by Card #, You own: 0 / 850 items Other cards in the set also show hats, bats or body parts extended over the border as well but for some reason Topps decided to correct this on Whiten's card. This action shot of a post-swing Griffey doesnt get the props it probably deserves in Juniors canon of cards. Chipper Jones was a flat out superstar during the 1990's and fans adored him. The top card in the set is easily the rookie card of Hall of Famer Chipper Jones. Card fronts display a vivid color photo surrounded by colored piping and an outer white border. Almost every PSA 10 the man has ever been on baseball, football, whatever is considered a collectible. Amazingly, during his twenty years in Major League Baseball with the San Diego Padres, Gwynn hit below .300 just once. 1991 Topps Baseball sticks with a then-standard 792-card checklist. If you do not receive the verification code within 60 Seconds, we will send you the activation link again. Among the more well-known and difficult variations to discover include the Doug Drabek card (a white inner border rather than a black one), the Dennis Oil Can Boyd card (hand under the flag on the Topps 40th anniversary logo) and the highly sought Mark Whiten card variation, in which Whitens hand gripping the bat handle overlaps the white outer edge of the card. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last time he was snubbed, either, as his five All-Star appearances are far lower than they should have been. Set Links - Overview - Checklist - Teams - Errors / Variations - Hall of Famers - Rookies - Inserts and Related Sets - Comments - Packaging - Pricing PFEW as I did sell every card to one guy who appreciates them and will take care of them, and yes, much more than $1000. Unfortunately, like a switch zapping the lights in a room, back injuries zapped Mattingly's power in 1990 and forced him to miss a large chunk of the season. Back then, we were always clamoring for limited print runs, premium (white) card stock, and clear photography. I was 13 when this came out and it was the last year I really went nuts buying cards. There was no need for Bonds to panic, however, since he'd add six more MVPs and multiple top-five voting finishes before his storied career came to a close in 2007. He also loves to write about the hobby and has written for Beckett, Topps, SABR and of course, this website. 1989 Matt Williams S.F. I think its a great promotion, Richard O. Rieger, an analyst for a financial services company, told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. Copies of the Whiten variation are currently going for $50-$80 ungraded. Many collectors reported opening countless containers without finding a single vintage card, not even a 1989 Topps common. 1992 Leaf card list & price guide. On the back of the card, Topps paid tribute to Nolan Ryan becoming the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter, a feat previously held by none other than the legendary Cy Young.