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mrmopar
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- Jan 19, 2010
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I bought a lot of those late 80s boxed sets when they were new. This was the tail end of my first wave of collecting, right before I graduated HS and joined the Navy. I would pretty much stop buying new stuff around 1988/89 for the most part and would resurface again in the early 90s just before my hitch was up and I was returning to civilian life. Many of these sets I never opened and although I have obtained numerous duplicates over the years by scouring dollar bins, some sets are still not in my collection and many I have never actually seen all of the cards from. That being said, it is a little hard to pick a favorite from the sets when I actually have not even seen them all, but I will select one that stands out for me anyway.
1986 Topps Woolworth Super Stars
Bill Madlock
This is my favorite boxed set card because for whatever reason I either didn't have or didn't open the set and had not seen the card until a few years ago. Madlock doesn't have many Dodger cards to begin with and I believe this is just a spectacular action shot, reminiscent of the early 70s Topps action cards that I love so much. it is also a fairly decent design, compared to many of those boxed sets. Again, maybe this is because they were less common to me, where as the other designs seem to be dime a dozen, so they appear to be better. A few other designs stand out for me later, but by that time the boxed set craze was dying off.
This was a 33 card boxed set made by Topps and distributed exclusively by retail giant Woolworth. It features a seemingly unpopular border color of yellow and many of the shots were the typical portrait and staged shots, although there are a few decent action shots. The set itself included various league leaders in recent years and although not a great set overall, it was in line with the many specialty boxed sets that were being used to promote stores or to be sold exclusively through certain stores (KayBee, Kmart, Toys R Us, etc). Most seemed to be made by Topps or Fleer, but Donruss would start making their own sets (Updates, Highlights, Rookies) to complete as well.
it is interesting to note that when I researched the set, I found that Woolworth was on the downward slide when these sets were sold. By 1997, Woolworth once the largest department store chain in the world, would close it's last store in the US and as a corporate entity is now know as Foot Locker.
This is a nice article about a number of those sets. http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/a-catalog-of-1980s-baseball-card-boxed-sets/
1986 Topps Woolworth Super Stars
Bill Madlock
This is my favorite boxed set card because for whatever reason I either didn't have or didn't open the set and had not seen the card until a few years ago. Madlock doesn't have many Dodger cards to begin with and I believe this is just a spectacular action shot, reminiscent of the early 70s Topps action cards that I love so much. it is also a fairly decent design, compared to many of those boxed sets. Again, maybe this is because they were less common to me, where as the other designs seem to be dime a dozen, so they appear to be better. A few other designs stand out for me later, but by that time the boxed set craze was dying off.
This was a 33 card boxed set made by Topps and distributed exclusively by retail giant Woolworth. It features a seemingly unpopular border color of yellow and many of the shots were the typical portrait and staged shots, although there are a few decent action shots. The set itself included various league leaders in recent years and although not a great set overall, it was in line with the many specialty boxed sets that were being used to promote stores or to be sold exclusively through certain stores (KayBee, Kmart, Toys R Us, etc). Most seemed to be made by Topps or Fleer, but Donruss would start making their own sets (Updates, Highlights, Rookies) to complete as well.
it is interesting to note that when I researched the set, I found that Woolworth was on the downward slide when these sets were sold. By 1997, Woolworth once the largest department store chain in the world, would close it's last store in the US and as a corporate entity is now know as Foot Locker.
This is a nice article about a number of those sets. http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/a-catalog-of-1980s-baseball-card-boxed-sets/
