Kudos to Sports Card Magazine and its readers in late 1993 for the “All Most Valuable Rookie Card Team,” along with the Best Name, Not as Famous, and All Ears Teams.
Before I share the article, I have to question why the author acknowledges that the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle isn’t his official rookie card but still includes it!! Okay, it’s a great card, whatever, but then at least give me the Worst Haircuts of All-Time Team!
The All-Most Valuable Rookie Card Team
The All-Best Name Team
The All-Not As Famous As The Other Guy With My Name Team
The I’m All Ears Team
Who among you has all the cards on one of these teams?
Upper Deck brought the first premium product to the hobby with their 1989 baseball set. They backed that release up in 1990 with another innovation, the first major chase card. Topps inserted 2500 copies of a signed and numbered Reggie Jackson card in the 1990 Upper Deck baseball high series. They called the promotion Find ‘”The Reggie.”‘ The card was like a myth!
First, Upper Deck inserted a header card into packs explaining the chase. The header card has the Baseball Heroes logo on the front. The back said that Upper Deck inserted a 9-card Reggie Jackson Baseball Heroes set in packs and that he signed 2500 cards that baseball artist Vernon Wells created. The header also explained that the signed cards had a unique hologram to differentiate them from the other Wells’ drawn Reggie cards.
1990 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Header Card – Front
Here’s an example of the front and back of a 1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Autographed Card.
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto – Front
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto – Reverse
You can see that he both signed and numbered each card. Also, on the back of the card, notice the diamond-shaped hologram near the top. Unsigned Checklist cards (card 9 of 9) have circular holograms.
I’ve read from a pair of sources that Jackson added the inscription “Mr. October” to every 100th card, meaning that 25 of these special variations should exist: cards 100, 200, 300, etc. However, I read on a forum that he added the inscription to every 50th-numbered card, and I found the following photo of a card sold back in July 2016, serial 850/2500, with the inscription. So, every 50th having an inscription makes more sense; however, another collector told me it’s every 25!
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto With Inscription – Front
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto With Inscription – Reverse
Collectors have discovered two other fun card variations: Harmon Killebrew also signed card 573/2500 (he had 573 career home runs), and Willie Mays also signed card 660/2500 (he had 660 career home runs).
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto With Harmon Killebrew
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto With Willie Mays
In terms of forgeries, indeed, some exist. No one thinks Reggie signed any circular hologram cards in person, so I wouldn’t risk buying one that doesn’t have the diamond-shaped hologram. It is possible that Upper Deck printed a few replacement cards that would have a diamond hologram but no serial numbers, as Upper Deck probably kept a few if a collector pulled a damaged card and wanted a replacement.
Now, 2500 autographed cards may sound like a lot, but companies printed A LOT of cards during this era. Folks have estimated that Upper Deck printed about 200M cards for high series boxes making the odds of hitting a Reggie auto about 1 in 148 boxes.
But as the guy who runs the Unopened Archive, I have to talk about the products you need to find if you want to try and pull your own Reggie Jackson Heroes Autograph. As I wrote, the cards came in the 1990 Upper Deck High Series product, and high Series cases sell for around $650 these days, despite some sellers listing them for well over $2k on eBay.
1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series Case – Angle 1
1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series Case – Angle 2
Factory-sealed wax boxes generally sell for around $35 (shipped).
1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series Box
For completeness, here’s a photo of the front and back of a foil pack.
1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series Foil Pack – Front
1990 Upper Deck Baseball High Series Foil Pack – Reverse
Now, back to the individual cards. 2500 cards were released, but some have probably made it to the garbage dump. The PSA Population report can be a little weird to interpret for autographed cards, but it looks like they have encapsulated ~200 cards.
Regarding cost, graded samples sell for between $550 and $600. Serial 1221 sold for $565 in June 2022.
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto With Inscription – 1221/2500
Serial 2337, a BGS-graded card, sold for $605 in July 2022.
1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson Checklist 1-9 Auto With Inscription – 2337/2500
Serial 1026, an SGC-graded card, sold for $554 in December 2024.
A slew of raw examples have sold for between $325 and $455 in the past few years, but the gap between raw and graded has been closing more recently.
Upper Deck had a lot of success in its early days, partially thanks to the Heroes Chase series that they continued in subsequent years and sports. They were all numbered to 2500. 1991 Upper Deck baseball had “Find the Nolan” (Nolan Ryan). 1992 Upper Deck baseball had autographed Ted Williams cards and dual autographs of Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan. In 1991, Upper Deck football had chase cards for Joe Namath and Joe Montana.
While companies overproduced their base cards at this time, Upper Deck set a new path for what the industry would become. Upper Deck’s Heroes series gave them the edge for a few years until another innovation emerged: the first refractors from the 1993 Topps Finest baseball set. But more on them another time. Happy collecting!
I’m lucky my office/Hobby Library walls don’t have any space left, or I’d be all over vintage baseball star advertising memorabilia like this ad for Popsicle featuring Bob Feller. Popsicle is Topsicle!
Mastro offered this one in their Fine Sports Auction catalog in November 2000. It was described as “a classic original window advertising display, circa 1948, picturing a ‘cartoon’ image of World Champion Indians ace Bob Feller endorsing his favorite summertime treat. ‘Popsicle is Topsicle!’ is the pitch, and the vibrant display vividly recalls the days of Mr. Softee and the Good Humor Man. In exceptional Near Mint condition with incredible color. The display measures 8” x 17-1/2.”
Memory Lane Inc. has sold one of these, perhaps the same one, twice, most recently in August 2018 for $565 and $352 in September 2007.
In its Summer 1990 issue, Topps Magazine published Kenneth M. Liss’s great article about “The Rarest ‘Rookie Cards.'” PSA has only slabbed 252 cards from this 35-card (ok, 36-card) set!
I want to draw your attention to two things from the article. First, instead of a program in booklet form, in 1964, Topps presented a boxed set of 36 over-sized cards with all the same information. Second, Topps only made 600-700 sets, making them exceedingly rare.
Here’s the original sleeve/box that held the cards.
Leland’s included that box and 35 cards, a handful of which were PSA-8 graded, in their 2018 Invitational auction. The lot sold for $1,886.40.
But what’s really interesting is that it seems Topps pivoted at some point and printed a sample program! Huggins and Scott sold a newly discovered, potentially one-of-a-kind example in August 2023 for $1,740.
They also wrote that only about 300 (or so) invitees attended. The auction believed that after this 1964 program was made, someone at Topps realized they were card manufacturers and that a card set should be made instead of a program. Topps didn’t do much work, as there’s a page number on the lower right-hand corner of each card (see the Page 12 notation on the following example)!
Huggins noted a few differences between this program and the cards:
The thicker card stock versus the thinner paper pages of the program, the cards are blank backed versus the back-to-back printed program pages, and the size. The program is 3/16″ wider than the card set (so, the bigger program was not part of the snugly fitting boxed card set.) We believe the programs were likely deemed redundant and were probably trashed, assuming they even made more than one or two to begin with.
Unfortunately, Topps went back to banquet programs in 1965 and 1966. REA offered a complete run of seven 1959 to 1966 Topps Rookie Banquet Programs in their 2018 Spring auction. They sold for $2,040 then but would command A LOT more today.
Ron Oser Enterprises offered a collection of five 1960 Topps World Series Cards’ Original Artworks in their December 2000 auction. A sixth showed up for sale in 2013 before REA re-sold the five from 2000 in the summer of 2020. I’m still hunting for the original artwork for Hodges’ Winning Homer (card 388).
Ron Oser Enterprises described the five pieces in their December 2000 auction as flexichrome artworks that measured approximately 4 x 5 inches, in beautiful condition, and still mounted to the artist’s board. They included an example card with each piece (cards 385, 386, 387, 389, and 391). Only ‘Furillo Breaks Up Game’ (card 387) was pictured in the catalog.
It turns out that REA sold the original artwork, without an example, for another item in the World Series subset, card 390, ‘Scrambling After Ball,’ in their 2013 Fall auction for $593.
Then, REA re-sold the five items Ron Oser offered in their 2020 Summer catalog. The artwork for card 385 (Neal Steals Second) sold for $1,170, 386 (Neal Belts 2nd Homer) for $1,170, 387 (Furillo Breaks Up Game) for $1,170, 389 (Luis Swipes Base) for $1,620, and 391 (The Champs Celebrate) for $1,200.
As I said in the intro, I haven’t been able to find the original artwork for card #388, ‘Hodges’ Winning Homer,’ but here’s a PSA-graded sample. Let me know if you have a lead on the artwork, though!
Welcome to the Original Artwork Archive! This is the hub for all the articles I’ve written about original artwork used to produce cards, sorted by sport and set. A lot of these pieces originate from the Topps Archives and Guernsey’s Topps auction, while others remain “lost,” buried in private collections. But thanks to the hobby library, I can scan and share photos from these and other past auctions and magazines, preserving these treasures for collectors to enjoy.
If you have any examples to share, shoot me an e-mail.
The Cleveland Indians hired San Francisco photographer Pat Johnson to create the cover for their 1993 media guide. The Cleveland expat mainly used his collection to create one of the greatest collages the hobby has ever seen!
Topps Magazine highlighted the cover in its Spring 1993 issue. Johnson said shooting the cover was a dream come true and likened it to a puzzle. He said, “The big items are a focal point at first, but two weeks later, you’ll find other things hidden in there.” Topps added that it was like one of those “Where’s Waldo?” cartoons.
