most valuable 1991 topps baseball cards most valuable 1991 topps baseball cards

1985 Topps Tiffany Nolan Ryan baseball card #760 PSA 10 Value: $1,079 1985 Topps Tiffany Nolan Ryan baseball card #760 graded PSA 10 Check prices on eBay With that likely came mistakes, he said. Within the set were also several different subsets, including: They may not have much value today but this was easily one of my favorite sets growing up during that time period. One of the most memorable cards in the 91 Topps set, this horizontal stunner shows Clemens posing in front of Fenway Parks famed scoreboard. You can count 1991 solidly in the hit column thanks to the first Topps cards of two future Hall of Famers Houston Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell and Texas Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The popularity of 1991 Topps Baseball does not come from the Rookie Cards that continue to carry so many other sets only the Chipper Jones draft pick retains significant rookie value it resides in its variety, the stunning photography and the continued collectability of the set, the ability to be all things to all collectors. The promotion captured the imagination of collectors everywhere as they opened multiple boxes of 1991 Topps Baseball in a bid to Chase the Mick the famed 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card and land the coveted card for free, or at least for the price of however many boxes were opened. The 1991 Topps set featured a thin team-colored border inside a traditional thicker white border (goodbye, comic pixels!). Still are. Topps used a special 40th Anniversary logo on the cards. I have a load of these cards from 91 but who buys them anymore? Of course, The Big Hurt was uber consistent at the plate (nine seasons of 30-plus dingers) and has proven to be similarly dependable in the card market. But hobbyists know its value, as this gem mint card consistently sells between $80 and $100. 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. You can easily distinguish them from the base cards by the Desert Shield logo on the front of the cards. The dominant design element was the player photo, big and clear (for the most part). I hve the whole collection of topps 40 baseball cards how do I find value. Other memorable portraits are packaged vertically, such as the overhead Benny Santiago shot and the striking from-the-ground-up Wade Boggs photo. Tommy Tom Lasorda Dodgers Topps Signed Card 7. So which of the 1991 Topps baseball cards are most valuable? & N.L.C.S. If you do not receive the verification code within 60 Seconds, we will send you the activation link again. Ken Griffey Jr, Nolan Ryan, and Chipper Jones cards are among the most valuable cards from the 1991 Topps set. The key to the brand's success lies in the fact that Bowman and Bowman Chrome rookie cards are typically the most valuable and sought after of all rookie cards. I do believe that Topps upped the production on this set, being a big anniversary issue with a massive promotion behind it. Forty collectors who found an X on their Instant Win Game card won a complete set from a random year from 1952-90. I have an actual 91 Topps unopened box set. Its hard to believe but the 1991 Desert Shield baseball cards issued by Topps have turned 30. Home Sports Card Sets Baseball Card Sets 1990-1999 Baseball Cards 1991 Topps Baseball Cards. 1991 Topps Traded Baseball has a straightforward checklist of 132 cards. Not my absolute favorite set of all time, but still an excellent product. 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. Fronts included full color images of players with white borders while backs had the typical statistic-laden layout found on Topps other sets. 1991 Ken Griffey Jr. Flawless Card 2. Due to the special nature of this anniversary set and because the errors were caught early enough in the press run, Topps decided to correct a number of the cards. 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. A rundown of the most expensive 1991 Topps baseball cards sold on eBay in April-June of 2022.See the most recent eBay top sellers of 1991 Topps baseball card. Copies of the Whiten variation are currently going for $50-$80 ungraded. There are faked versions of this card, so this is one worth buying authenticated. 1991 Rare Vintage Error Nolan Ryan Donruss "Highlights" It has been graded by PSA as a Mint 10 condition card. 1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr Seattle Mariners Rookie Card. Ozzie Smith was an absolute master with his defensive wizardry. Like so many kids of my generation, I was pretty hooked on cards by late 1990, said Dylan Charles, a collector on the West Coast. Many collectors reported opening countless containers without finding a single vintage card, not even a 1989 Topps common. PSA graded 3,178 of the '86 Topps Nolan Ryan cards. 1991 Donruss Original Ken Griffey Jr Error Card 3. I'd like to imagine him having just blasted one of his towering home runs by the looks of him in this image Don Mattingly was another one of those players who was on top of every collector's want list back in the late 1980's and early 1990's. And at the same time, Fleer threw its had into the premium card market, too. I was well into my prime childhood collecting days when the 1991 Topps baseball cards were released. 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. The highlights of the checklist are really the rookie card of Jones and the big-name cards of veterans. Baseball; Sets; 1991; Overview; 1991 Topps. KEY: RB=Record Breakers, MGR=Manager, AS=All-Star. From 1984 through 1991, Topps gave collectors what we wanted sort of. However, while some of them made their way overseas, there are reports of others remaining here in the states. Back in 1991, Topps issued them as a parallel to their regular baseball cards. 1993 Finest Ken Griffey Jr. Refractor #110 #5. 1987 Donruss Open. For some of those veterans, 1991 Topps will always be the last real baseball card set. Copyright 2023, Beckett Collectibles, LLC. What a joy reading! It then advertised the insertion of every single card, some 300,000 in total, from its 40-year archive into packs. But he was also a baseball legend who was on the verge of 3000 hits, and his cards were among the most consistently popular in the hobby. The O-Pee-Chee set is identical to the 1991 Topps offering - right down to the Topps 40th Anniversary logo. Like Griffey, Bo Jackson has seen his status in this hobby continue to rise in recent years as collectors who were kids during this era are now adults full of nostalgia scooping up cards of their former heroes. 9. Its that last cardboard set, tying son to father to grandfather. Topps entered the sports cards market in 1952, so the value of this set of cards is very high. Because of the sets high profile among other cards from the 1990s, there have been plenty of counterfeits to hit the market over the years. Although the conventional look of 1991 Topps Baseball may have conveyed a feeling of self-satisfaction from the company, evidence that the competitive wheels were still turning could be found on every red wax pack issued. 1989 Steve Avery Signed Topps Rookie Card Long red box 40th anniversary. And while it is probably less common to find counterfeits of the lesser names, the Jones card, in particular, is often a target to be forged. It probably does if you have ever seen an Upper Deck card they sort of changed how we saw desirable cards at the time. The 1991 O-Pee-Chee Baseball set consists of 792 cards, each measuring 2-1/2" by 3-1/2". Nolan Ryan's "1990 Record Breaker" card is also high up on the list of cards from this set. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Stay in the know about the latest sports card, hobby news, and promotions from Beckett. Like the 1991 Donruss, Fleer, Topps, Ultra, and Upper Deck sets, large print runs saturated the market with these cards, driving down their values. All Rights Reserved. Be careful if you pursue these babies, though, and watch out for telltale signs like . Its a perfect card that still sells a handful of times every month. 1991 Chipper Jones Topps Desert Shield RC #333 Buy on eBay Although it's not one of the card maker's most valuable releases, it's one of their most attractive. 4. This 91 Topps sold for $47 around Thanksgiving 2021 and moved again for roughly $60 near Valentines Day 2022. Our articles may contain affiliate links. However, the 1991 Stadium Club set will always be remembered as a game-changer for Topps with its unique place in hobby history. 2022 Topps Chrome Baseball, Sonic Base Cards Are Different. Traded https://www.cardboardconnection.com/1991-topps-traded-baseball-cards. Ripken's streak has since been broken multiple times. A bar runs along the bottom of the card has both the player name and position. Through 1989, when they produced 25,000 Tiffany sets, Topps actually released print run numbers publicly. Track your collection for free. We may earn an affiliate commission if you does adding the contest cards to the collection increase its value? Incredibly, his play during the first half of the season was far better than the second: As you can see, his production during the second half "tanked" compared to the first half. Slab Strong (Protective Slab Bumper Sleeves), 5 Things To Know About Victor Wembanyamas First Investable Card, Netflixs Full Swing: Top Golf Cards From the Shows Stars, Durants Deadline Move Shakes Up Multiple NBA Markets, Elly De La Cruz Rookie Cards: Best Sets and Parallels, Top 10 Most Valuable: 1981 Topps Basketball, Super Bowl Delivers Boost to Mahomes, Hurts and Kelce, Simons Surges; Fultz Returns: Top 5 Hottest Sports Cards, Pop Report: TCG, Ja Morant Rise in Latest PSA Returns. 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. Lets start at the beginning and work our way through the rest. Other subsets include All-Stars and Record Breakers. Get my weekly newsletter with the latest hobby updates delivered straight to your inbox! Some of the game's greats had more than one season that could be considered the greatest of their careers. Rating: 7.1 (153 votes) Click here to Rate. When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Though the Kid would finish third in voting for the 1989 AL Rookie of the Year Award behind Baltimore's Gregg Olson and Kansas City's Tom Gordon, he clearly showed the most long-term upside of any player in that season's rookie class. Heading into the 1991 season, Griffey had already notched his first All-Star selection and Gold Glove, and by season's end, he'd add one more of each as well as his first Silver Slugger. When you click on links to merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Auto Topps Card 5. Topps also used the horizontal layout a technique it still uses in flagship today to produce striking portrait cards such as Roger Clemens propped up against the Fenway Park scoreboard. 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. 9 Roger Clemens #530 One of the most memorable cards in the '91 Topps set, this horizontal stunner shows Clemens posing in front of Fenway Park's famed scoreboard. Almost every PSA 10 the man has ever been on baseball, football, whatever is considered a collectible. 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. For 1991, PSA has graded about 16,000 base cards and about a third that number of their Tiffany counterparts. After Jones, other big name stars present themselves. The top card in the set is easily the rookie card of Hall of Famer Chipper Jones. While some collectors continued to dismiss Topps amid its latest release Leptich also accused the company of putting out inferior products in prior years others noticed what many collectors wouldnt realize until years after the fact: 1991 Topps is a classic. The only box set I ever purchased. Its like they found old cards in a warehouse and held an auction.. That said, prices for graded cards will increase the price in a hurry. Especially, given that this was supposed to be their first premium product, it is just odd that they featured Bonds in such a boring image. 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. Prices are updated daily based upon 1991 Topps Archives 1953 Reprint listings that sold on eBay and our marketplace. So what are these cards? Honus. Fortunately, the Chicago White Sox quickly gave him a shot and signed him to a three-year deal. Aside from batting .325, well above his career average of .276, Ripken also set career highs in home runs (34), RBI (114), OBP (.374), slugging percentage (.566), OPS (.940), OPS+ (162), and total bases (368). The cards, if youre unfamiliar with them, are moderately rare. 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. No matter what form of packaging a collector purchased, the promotion appeared, exclaiming the chance to pull any card from Topps vast inventory from the previous 40 years. Card Number: #302. The most valuable Jose Canseco Baseball Card is the 2020 1A. I have some Topps baseball cards (1988-1991).How do I get the value of these cards? What is the value of that card? I think most were accidental and the result of Topps wanting to get things right as the presses continued.. The guy had just broken out, to say the least, the season before when he appeared in his first All-Star Game while winning his first MVP, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Awards. You can email him at [emailprotected] or find him on Twitter @PreWarCards. Thanks! Here are the top deals on boxes currently listed on eBay. 1990 Topps George Bush USA1 Card #4. 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. Im looking for the way to the honest price for a van load of NFL hockey baseball basketball collection. Read our methodology . Still, there were and are plenty of these dudes available, which dampens their value often less than $50 for PSA 10 copies, and south from there. Thanks to the inclusion of more than 20 Team USA members, the set also boasts rookies of Jason Giambi and Charles Johnson. Well, it depends on where youre standing and what youre holding. Ozzie may be last on this list but he is definitely not least. Great article! 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. That meant several never really made their way into the circulation of collectors. I got my dads card collection going back to the mid 1940s. Im not collecting again till Topps bring back inexpensive cards like they did in the 1980s. But there were still all those randomly inserted cards. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of (opened product) cards found in hand-collated sets, collections, thrift store hauls and miscellaneous boxes that I have picked up over the years. PSA Price Guide for 1991 Topps Baseball Card Values - Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) & PSA/DNA Authentication Services Services 1. The story of Jackson's professional sports career finally came to a close after the strike during the 1994 season cut his time with the California Angels short and caused him to retire for good. His iconic status help keep his baseball cards among the most desirable in any set in which he appeared. Find out for yourself with our FREE checklist to guide you step-by-step. That is probably the most fantastic shot of all time. Considering his Hall Of Fame legacy and untimely passing, this is very surprising. Bagwell was in the Minors at the time and showing decent promise, but the Red Sox were in win-now mode and trying to hold off the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East race, so management green-lighted the trade. There were only around 6,500 of the Desert Shield versions produced for each player making them very limited and on top of that, you can imagine how few survived war-time conditions in top condition. Prices for 1991 Topps Baseball Cards 1991 Topps card list & price guide. However, injuries plagued him as well and his production dropped off drastically in the 1990's. Due to poor sales of the. 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) . I Took No Shortcuts: Jerry Rice Talks Georges St-Pierre Sales Highlights Beckett Pricing Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 1991 Topps Baseball, Junk Wax Journeys: 1991 Donruss Baseball Cards, Upper Deck Hologram Baseball Card Box Sets of the 1990s Box Set Boom. (Updated for 2022) SUBSCRIBE NOW! 21 Surprisingly Cheap: Tony Gwynn 1983 Topps Tony Gwynn was arguably the best pure hitter of his era or perhaps any other. While they still fell short this set had great photography and design and was clearly one of Topps better sets in the Junk wax era. Nolan Ryan broke out the tuxedo to pose for this card and that fashion statement helped it quickly become one of the most popular cards in the hobby that year. When it comes to the most valuable baseball cards of the 1990s, only the Frank Thomas error exceeds it. And since complete sets of the Desert Shield cards were never issued, finding those today is very difficult because they were required to be hand-collated. The 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady will probably go down as the most iconic football card of all time. Among them are Hall of Fame-caliber All-Stars like Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and Jeff Bagwell. I have those 1991 Topps cards how can I get them graded and sell fo.the best price. It will be blast checking the cards out now for favorites, rookies, errors and all the memories. Check out eBay, and youll find complete sets for $10 or less, often under $5. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, 1955 Bowman Baseball Cards 12 Most Valuable, Emmitt Smith Rookie Cards: Values and Details. Nope, the Old Gray Mare aint what she used to be. #1. 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner: $7.25 million. Most Expensive, By utilizing Kodak technology, Topps delivered an incredible product that firmly put them as a serious competitor in the premium segment of the hobby. As the fortieth anniversary of their first sets 1951 Topps Red Backs and Blue Backs dawned, Topps unveiled a classy, understated base set in the spring of 1991. Outside of Bowman, which was owned by Topps, the 1991 Topps flagship set stood alone as the only set issued that year on gray stock. Premium: You can, after all, routinely find thousands of them on eBay. Most of the prized rookies from 1991, including Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez, were not issued until the Topps Traded set was released later in the year. Whether its the wide-angle photo of Dwight Evans following through at the plate or Sandy Alomar Jr. chasing down a pop-up in full catchers gear, arms outstretched, 1991 Topps offers photographs that had never been seen before and in some cases never been seen since. Additionally, unopened product is sometimes found. And there are only a couple worth over $300-$10,000. 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. I have cards from early 1900s and up my son inherited them some are in books all in good shape . Although his career was limited by injuries, he still put up monster numbers and was an easy Hall of Fame inductee. Giants Signed Topps Baseball Card 2. The photography and premium look and feel of the cards have held up quite well to this day. Or Hunt for Errors? 1991 Topps Baseball sticks with a then-standard 792-card checklist. The 1991 Topps Desert Shield baseball card is a thing of beauty and is a must-have for all Nolan Ryan fanboys. Ken Griffey JR HOF 2000 Fleer Focus Pocus 6. 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. #163 To pay homage to that longevity, they added a 40th Anniversary logo on the cards and that is found in addition to the Desert Shield stamp. 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. Heck, even many minor league sets avoided gray cardboard. The blog covers a number of sets from that period, even from other sports, but readers keep returning to the posts about 1991 Topps, and many are armed with questions: * I have a Carmelo Martinez (who) played for the Pirates (and) all the Pirates cards have a black border around them but Car-melos border is grey is it (an) error., * I have a Steve Olin #696 with a faded logo, and the E*F* print code., * Is there a way of finding out all the errors that people have found (and) posting them on one post?, Dylans answer to the last question was, No, there is not. During his 1990 campaign, Henderson led all of MLB with a .439 OBP, 1.016 OPS, 189 OPS+ and 119 runs scored. A card from 1991 looks and, more importantly, feels like a card from 1961. Card #311 Mickey Mantle is one of the Topps baseball cards with the highest value on the market. Check out those clouds! Well past his prime but still pitching at a high level in 1991, it was anyone's guess at how long his career would eventually last. On January 5, 1920, the Boston Red Sox dealt Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for cash and we all know how that turned out. 1991 Donruss Jose Uribe Brand New Card 4. READ OUR DISCLAIMER. An earlier Sports Collectors Daily article with a first-hand account from a soldier in the Middle East mentions cards being thrown away and even burned as part of fires. We don't know how big a role nostalgia plays with this one, but it still regularly sells north of $40. Even the population reports are not terribly helpful since a large number of these cards remain ungraded. Anyone have any idea how much a unopened box of 4 decades of baseball cards worth. The most valuable glossies are pretty much who you would expect Chipper, Nolan, Maddux, Ripken, Griffey, Big Hurt etc. What wasnt known at the time was that only vintage cards valued at $50 or less were randomly inserted into packs. And the rarest of them all is the Mark Whiten card where his hand extends over the border of the card. Above the bar is a ribbon with the team's name. Would the set have held up better if other major rookie cards materialized over time? Ryan was 43 years, 4 months and 11 days old when he threw that record-breaking no-hitter (his sixth) against Oakland on June 11, 1990. This action shot of a post-swing Griffey doesnt get the props it probably deserves in Juniors canon of cards. Is it that small? Most are statistical errors, but some players have the wrong photo or wrong team. I have a lot of these football cards late 70s and up baseball basketball Im wondering if the have any value. Topps relied on a sales gimmick, tied to its anniversary, to entice collectors to the old standby, while still dressed in the familiar, old, gray cardboard. 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. Counting down the most valuable baseball card sets from the late 1990s using the highest recent sale in any grade 9 or below from any grading company (PSA, B. Which Was Your Favorite Old-Time Baseball Cards Publica 1987 Topps Baseball Cards 25 Most Valuable R 1978 Topps Baseball Cards The Ultimate Guide, 1991 Topps Baseball Cards Complete Your Set U-Pick (#'s 1-200) Nm-Mint, 1991 Topps Baseball Cards Complete Your Set U-Pick (#'s 601-792) Nm-Mint, 1981 Fleer Baseball Cards 12 Most Valuable, 1986 Donruss The Rookies 10 Most Valuable, How the 1974 Topps Pete Rose Baseball Card Steamrolled Me Like Ray Fosse, 1998 Topps Baseball Cards 10 Most Valuable, Chipper Jones Rookie Cards Still Scorching After All These Years, 1991 Bowman Baseball Cards - 10 Most Valuable - Wax Pack Gods, 7 Great Ivan Rodriguez Cards Even Old-School Collectors Can Love - Wax Pack Gods, 1957 Topps Baseball Cards 15 Most Valuable, 1967 Topps Baseball Cards 17 Most Valuable, 1959 Topps Baseball Cards 17 Most Valuable, 1961 Topps Baseball Cards 16 Most Valuable, 1986 ProCards Pittsfield Cubs Rafael Palmeiro Left Room for Interpretation Wax Pack Gods, 1998 Upper Deck Final Tribute Captured Eddie Murray in His Second Home Wax Pack Gods, Players with 3000 Hits and 500 Home Runs Wax Pack Gods, Card Traders Near Me: Where to Find Them! Love that Benny Santiago card you guys posted in the checklist page. 25) 1990 Topps Sammy Sosa Rookie Card (#692) Sammy Sosa entered 1990 with designs on a starting job for the first time in his big league career, thanks to a midseason trade in 1989 from the Rangers to the White Sox. You do see sets for sale on occasion (more on that in a bit), but it doesnt happen all that often and usually requires not only a collector with some patience, but one with a little bit of money to spend. Those sets that followed just dont seem like trading cards to them. 2021 Sports Card Investor, LLC. But compared to other cards in the junk wax era, the somewhat rare moniker probably fits. To put things into perspective, Mattingly led the Majors in 1986 with a .573 slugging percentage and .967 OPS. Capitalizing on improvement in photography, Topps unveiled powerful images, such as the action-packed Carlton Fisk (with big Cecil Fielder barreling toward home), Walt Weiss and Rickey Henderson cards, all with horizontal displays. Its no surprise that this beauty of Bo blazing around the base paths made the list. That wasnt the case in 1990 and 1991, but you can get some idea of relative print runs based on the PSA Population Report. This was the year Topps finally woke up and decided to try to put out a set to try to compete with Upper Deck. Click on any card to see more graded card prices, historic prices, and past sales. 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. Dont forget chipper jones rc with frank minefield football back. 33 cards. He'd appear in just 23 games for the White Sox in 1991 before missing the entire 1992 season due to hip replacement surgery. Pitchers with 300 Wins and Their Baseball Cards! But those kids are adults 30 years later and many now appreciate a clean design that may have been too subtle for younger collectors. Anyways, we all know that Barry Bonds was anythingbutboring, and the 1991 season saw him add a second Silver Slugger and Gold Glove to his resume while finishing just short of a second MVP to Atlanta's Terry Pendleton. Issued in two 300-card series, the set featured a 600-card checklist that showcased many of MLB's brightest stars and talent in the highest quality manner to date. There are clearly two, distinct, packaging types for two different market destinations and with each, specific variations are found. While his 1992 Bowman rookie is one of the iconic cards of the 1990s, it's actually his 1992 Fleer Update card that earns a spot on this most valuable list. By the time the 1980s came to a close, Donnie Baseball had an MVP, batting title, six All-Star selections, three Silver Sluggers and five Gold Gloves to his name. Vintage Topps Cards. 2. The Best Topps Baseball Rookie Card from Each Year - 1952-2020 The following list includes a year-by-year breakdown of the most valuable card for each flagship Topps baseball set. Upper Deck had an advantage over other. 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.