Is '89 the most important year in sports cards?

Over the last 35 years, would you consider '89 the most important to this hobby?

Think about it, upper deck debuted and was incredibly ground breaking proving that cards could be made MUCH better and people will gladly pay $1 a pack.

What would cards be like today without upper deck?

Now, even though the baseball card hobby had already started blowing up by the start of 1989, no other card that year put our hobby on the GENERAL PUBLIC'S radar as the infamous F FACE Billy Ripken card.

Once that card made NATIONAL news, it went from five cents to A HUNDRED BUCKS over night. "Hey, Baseball Cards are an awesome investment, let's hop aboard"

But consider that before 1989, Football, basketball and hockey cards meant NOTHING in this hobby.

Thinking Those sports cards having investment potential was a joke.

But then '89 happened and several new companies (pro set, score and hoops) blew up these sports cards.

Surely if basketball and football can explode, hockey has got to follow even if the hobby had to wait until '90 for new comers.

Imagine what this hobby would be like without the above events.

going back 35 years , i'd say some of the biggest would be :

1981 - topps monopoly broken up....
1992 - topps gold introducing pack-pulled parallels...
1998 - upper deck introducing their game-used cards (not the FIRST , but the one that really got the whole thing going)....
1989 - high end (upper deck) and the return of bowman....
2002 - pristine opening the doors for the ultra high end products that poor boys like me will never be able to afford ....
1997 - the dawn of bowman chrome (though this could really be traced back to the advents of topps chrome in 1996 , bowman's best in 1994 , and finest in 1993 - or 1992 if you include the football set)....


edit to add - i came up with my list of notable years only considering baseball....if you add in football and baketball i'd definitely mention these :

1989 - pro set and score coming on the scene for football and hoops entering the basketball card market....
1998 - the introduction of on card true rookie autographs that included a sweet draft class with names like manning , moss , taylor , etc ...
2003 - the first exquisite basketball arrived , featuring lebron , wade , carmelo , bosh , jordan etc and that sector of the hobby has never been the same since
1996 - topps chrome basketball blowing up , flat out blowing away the previous standard bearer (finest)...

If you're limiting discussion to 1980-2015, I think 1980 or 1981 is much more important. Yes, Upper Deck upscaled the card market, but if that judge hadn't allowed Fleer and Donruss to produce cards, there probably wouldn't be an Upper Deck. The Billy Ripken was just one of those curiosity stories that used to circulate in the newspaper that now fuel a whole section of the internet (paste, buzzfeed, 9gag, etc). It's not like baseball cards hadn't been in the news before that. And its not like national media hadn't fueled a card's price before. The Joe Montana RC wasn't worth $200 until Bob Costas or someone was on the air during the Super Bowl and said it was (but that might be an apocryphal story).

2001 and it's not even close.

game****fanatic said:

going back 35 years , i'd say some of the biggest would be :

1981 - topps monopoly broken up....
1992 - topps gold introducing pack-pulled parallels...
1998 - upper deck introducing their game-used cards (not the FIRST , but the one that really got the whole thing going)....
1989 - high end (upper deck) and the return of bowman....
2002 - pristine opening the doors for the ultra high end products that poor boys like me will never be able to afford ....
1997 - the dawn of bowman chrome (though this could really be traced back to the advents of topps chrome in 1996 , bowman's best in 1994 , and finest in 1993 - or 1992 if you include the football set)....

Click to expand...

Thank God Topps no longer has a monopoly...oh, wait.

No offense intended to anyone but Topps, since 1981 came to my mind as well.

I agree with 1981. Competition in the marketplace caused every major change in the hobby since that time.

'81, '89, 2001 in that order IMO...

2001 Made it what it is today. Not 81, or 89.

Landmark issues and two rookies that changed the game. 1997 Chrome was the first, but 2001 made it relevant.

2001 Sweet Spot
2001 Ultimate Collection
2001 SPx Ichiro
2001 Topps Tribute ($50 a pack)
2001 Heritage whole new genre (Ginter, Gypsy Queen, Goudey, t206, etc...)
2001 Archives
2001 Legendary Cuts
Product after product that was insane.

Without these products I don't think the industry is alive today. I really don't. Many collectors came back in 2001 because of Pujols and Ichiro and they've been chasing them since. They basically re-invented prospecting.

jbhofmann said:

2001 Made it what it is today. Not 81, or 89.

Landmark issues and two rookies that changed the game. 1997 Chrome was the first, but 2001 made it relevant.

2001 Sweet Spot
2001 Ultimate Collection
2001 SPx Ichiro
2001 Topps Tribute ($50 a pack)
2001 Heritage whole new genre (Ginter, Gypsy Queen, Goudey, t206, etc...)
2001 Archives
2001 Legendary Cuts
Product after product that was insane.

Without these products I don't think the industry is alive today. I really don't. Many collectors came back in 2001 because of Pujols and Ichiro and they've been chasing them since. They basically re-invented prospecting.

Click to expand...

But with no 1981 there would not be 4 of those 7 products...

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jmc280zx said:

But with no 1981 there would not be 4 of those 7 products...

Sent from my XT1060 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

Click to expand...

That's speculation that non-monopolization would never happen.

jbhofmann said:

That's speculation that non-monopolization would never happen.

Click to expand...

Everything in this thread is speculations / opinions...

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I guess I'm just looking at this from a different perspective. It could be argued that '81 was the WORST year in modern history. Literally no collectable rookies to speak of.

I'm looking at it from amazing releases standpoint and how it influenced many different issues. Of course Upper Deck was important in '89 but you have to believe the other companies were developing technology that would have come along without UD.

1981

Everyone forgot about 1993 SP made a ton of cards and the set was still crazy. This also was where the graded cards come into play. Just look at Jeter ungraded rookie now sells between $80.00 to $150.00 if the condition looks good. Then add BGS 9.5 grades it goes for $2,000.00 plus, PSA 10 $20,000.00 plus. I am sorry but I would take a BGS 9.5 copy and convert it to PSA to try my luck. To me PSA is a corrupt company. Without mentioning names I sold a PSA 8 1996 Studio Silver Proof Jeter for $800.00 a few years ago and the guy ends up a few months later listing a PSA 10 copy and I questioned him about it and he said he had a few Silver Proof Jeter cards but couldn't show me it. Then just look at the last 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold that sold on small traditions for $33,000. My PSA 8 Mirror Blue Jeter double has the exact same centering and no refractor line and I see no other visible flaws on my Mirror Blue with my 40x loop glasses. I guess I am a little bias as I like beckett as well but at least they show you sub grades PSA looks at the card puts a grade and doesn't explain how the grade came about. Plus there greedy send a high dollar card and have to pay more than the asking price. I am surprised they don't give higher grades to make more money. Beckett has set values no matter the card or grade.

jbhofmann said:

It could be argued that '81 was the WORST year in modern history. Literally no collectable rookies to speak of.

Click to expand...

The topic is about sports cards, not just baseball cards.
1981 football had the iconic Joe Montana rookie card, and the '80-'81 basketball set had the legendary Magic-Bird rookie.

Austin said:

The topic is about sports cards, not just baseball cards.
1981 football had the iconic Joe Montana rookie card, and the '80-'81 basketball set had the legendary Magic-Bird rookie.

Click to expand...

In 1981 how important were those two cards?

If the scale went from 1-10, ten being the most, I'd say negative 3.

In baseball, 1981.

For or all sports, the 1989-90 timeframe was incredible. Added UD for baseball, and broke the effective monopoly in other sports.

Pre-89 football: Topps.
Post-89: Score, Pro Set, Action Packed and UD ('90)

Pre-89 basketball: Fleer
Post-89 basketball: Hoops, Skybox, UD

Pre-89 hockey: Topps/OPC.
Post-89 hockey: Score, UD, Pro Set, etc

As mentioned it seems like 2001 was a respectable pivotal turning point in cards, yes. That's about when game used and autographs really appeared to start defining the game more and more, especially more so with the addition of Michael Vick stuff.

jbhofmann said:

In 1981 how important were those two cards?
If the scale went from 1-10, ten being the most, I'd say negative 3.

Click to expand...

How important were the Montana and Magic-Bird rookies in 1981? A negative 3? Are you serious?
I was collecting in 1981 and those cards were in huge demand that year.

Magic Johnson was coming off a season in which he was the only rookie to win the NBA Finals MVP.
He won the NCAA title the year before. His rivalry with Larry Bird from college was already legendary.
The Magic-Bird rookie card was red-hot in 1981, and Topps paired them together on purpose because they were already so famous from college.

Joe Montana's '81 rookie became mega-hot that year as he led the 49ers to a 13-3 record in his first full season, threw "The Catch" in the playoffs and won the Super Bowl MVP in January.

And in baseball, Fernando Valenzuela's '81 rookie cards started the whole rookie card investing and hording craze.
"Fernandomania" was a national phenomenon.
"Super Joe" Charboneau's rookies were also red hot and hoarded, but he's just a tragic footnote now.

'81 was when rookie card speculating began, when investors bought cards in 100-card bricks.
Before '81, rookie cards weren't worth multitudes more than a player's later cards.
And I have the price guides and sports card magazines from back then to prove it.

'89 UD Baseball, '89 Score Football (same year RCs) and '01 Heritage, BC, Sweet Spot and Update baseball sets were hugely important but without the breakthrough '81 baseball sets they wouldn't have happened...