1989 Upper Deck Baseball Cards
A Change In The Hobby
The 1989 Upper Deck Baseball set made hobby history when it was introduced to collectors as the first truly premium-type card set available, with high quality stock, glossy finish, fantastic photography on front and back, and little silver hologram on the back. This was a big leap forward from the traditional cardboard sportscards.
1989 Upper Deck cards were distributed in two separate series - a low series numbered 1-700 and a high number series numbered 701-800. Both series were issued in foil packs and also factory sets. The foil packs came in either low or high number boxes. The high number boxes were released later in the year and included cards #701-800 found at a rate of approximately 2 per pack. There was a factory set featuring cards #1-700, and later a High Number factory set that contained cards #701-800.
Cards #1-26 in the set feature "Rookie Stars" including one of the most popular modern cards in the hobby, The #1 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. Other notable rookies in the subset are Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield, and John Smoltz.
Nolan Ryan has two interesting cards in the 1989 Upper Deck Set. On card #145, Nolan is shown on a "triple exposure" photo showing his wind-up pitch, and on card #774 (high numbers) Nolan is shown throwing a football.
The 1989 Upper Deck set has plenty of error cards also. The most notable error in the set is card #357 Dale Murphy, which is found with a reversed negative photo, but the card was pulled from production early in the print run and a corrected card was issued. Another error can be found on some of the #13 Gary Sheffield rookie cards, in which his position (SS) is printed upside down.
Even with the premium quality of this set, there are still condition sensitive areas of the cards. The corners are easily dinged, and there is also centering problems with some cards. Sometimes you even find a card with no hologram on the back. Also, the card fronts are easily scratched if not handled with care. All of these issues contribute to making it more difficult to find truly GEM MINT examples of the cards.
1989 Upper Deck marked a turning point in the hobby, and for that reason it will always stand out as the beginning of the modern premium card era.
