For some reason, after having bought complete sets from 1985-1989, I decided to go back to pack busting for 1990. Now, anyone who has taken the time to breeze through some of my Topps set pages may have picked up that I do not generally like sets which lack a consistent design from card to card and particularly within team sets. For me, the 1990 set was a rude, chaotic welcome back to set building; in fact, one of the most "WTF?" sets Topps has ever produced. Nevertheless, build it I did. 1990 was actually the first year I ever bought a complete unopened wax box - from Geppi's Comic World in Woodlawn, MD. Perhaps having recently graduated college and having a steady paycheck emboldened me. Some of the last cards I needed to fill out the set included Shane Rawley, Tony Fossas and Storm Davis.
Somebody stop the kaleidoscope! Six basic color patterns make up the border design of the 1990 set. The image sits within purples and reds and greens and oranges and blues and so forth, with the player's name in a calmly-colored banner along the bottom right. The team name appears in a similarly-colored wordmark in the upper left, with the Topps logo to its right.
Backs are printed in black and white against a gold-ish background. Space permitting, a '1989 Monthly Scoreboard' appears which breaks down the player's offensive (or pitching) stats from 1989 by month.
"A" Sheet
"C" Sheet
"E" Sheet
"B" Sheet
"D" Sheet
"F" Sheet
6 different printing sheets each held 132 unique cards, for a complete set total of 792 cards.
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Wrappers contained a side panel 'no purchase necessary' way to obtain a Spring Training Fever entry card.
Wax packs contained 16 cards (along with a stick of gum) and were priced at 50 cents each. Packs came 36 per box and boxes were packed 20 per case.
Each pack also contained either the glossy set offer card, a subscription form for Topps Magazine or one of 7 different cards advertising items from the "Topps Company Store" - t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, albums and sheets were available. The backs of all these insert cards served as entry forms for the 1990 edition of "Spring Training Fever", a sweepstakes where the grand prize was a trip for four to the 1991 spring training site of the winner's choosing. Each card was available on standard gray stock but could also be found on a lighter, thinner white stock.
By sending in 6 of these cards along with $1.25, you would receive one of 6 1990 'Glossy All Stars & Hot Prospects Collector's Baseball Cards' 10-card Sets, known in the hobby as simply 'glossy send-away cards'. For $7.50 and 18 cards, you could receive the whole set of 60.
The full glossy set included 60 cards.
The bottom of each wax box contained one of four different panels of 4 uncut 'limited edition' cards. Card backs describe some event from the player's 1989 season.
Some cases were earmarked for retail at large 'big box' stores. The code on this case indicates a probable destination of Price Club.
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In 1990 Topps test marketed cello "wax" packs - identical in every way to regular wax packs but sealed in cellophane. Because of the cello, packs were slightly larger and were packed in larger boxes. Presumably, cases were of different sizes than regular wax cases as well.
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Cello packs contained 31 cards and a stick of gum, as well as a entry/order insert card. Packs sold for 89 cents and were packed 24 per box, while cases held 16 boxes. For the first time, cello wrappers were completely opaque.
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Larger cello hanger packs contained contained 43 cards and an entry/order insert card. Packs were priced at $1.49 each and were packed 24 per box.
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So-called "Grocery Jumbos" contained 106 cards, a stick of gum, an entry/order card and 2 special glossy Rookies cards. Packs, which carried no MSRP, were shipped in cases of 24.
The glossy Rookies set contained a total of 33 cards.
Retailers such as K-Mart sold 100-card plastic blister packs. As in 1989, each pack contained 1 of 22 special "Batting Leaders" cards. Cards depicted the top 22 active batting leaders and were numbered from 1-22 in order of average. Because these packs were harder to find than other packaging varieties, the Batting Leaders cards are also rarer today than the other insert sets.
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Rack packs held 45 cards plus one special Glossy All Star Card, and carried no MSRP. They were packaged 24 per box and cases contained either 3 or 6 boxes. As with cellos, in 1990 Topps transitioned to opaque wrappers to counter the scourge of pack-searching.
The Glossy All Star set contained 22 cards. 18 starters from the 1989 All Star game are featured, as well as each manager and the honorary captains. Cards have either the A.L. or N.L. shield on the front, as appropriate. 1989 was the first year that All Star starting line-ups featured DHs and where pitchers didn't hit. However, neither starting DH (Pedro Guerrero, N.L. or Harold Baines, A.L.) are depicted in the glossy set.
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Vending boxes again contained 500 cards and came packaged 24 per case.
Factory sets came either in a drab white box or in an illustrated, full color variety. It is unclear which version the case pictured below held.
Of 792 total cards, 710 are basic player cards.
Included in the basic player card count are two subsets. Topps designated 5 young players as "Future Stars" and recognized the members of the previous season's All Star Rookie team with gold cups.
57 - Greg Vaughn, Brewers
162 - Todd Zeile, Cardinals
284 - Mark Gardner, Expos
563 - Alex Sanchez, Blue Jays 608 - Eric Anthony, Astros
461 - Carlos Martinez, White Sox 1B 457 - Gregg Jefferies, Mets 2B
718 - Gary Sheffield, Brewers SS
521 - Craig Worthington, Orioles 3B
288 - Greg Briley, Mariners OF
336 - Ken Griffey, Jr., Mariners OF
464 - Jerome Walton, Cubs OF
536 - Bob Geren, Yankees C
752 - Tom Gordon, Royals RHP
675 - Jim Abbott, Angels LHP
Cards 2-5 make up "The Nolan Ryan Years" subset, consisting of a card for each of his MLB stops - Mets, Angels, Astros and Rangers. The series was included on the heels of him getting his 5,000th strikeout the previous season. Card backs provided narrative descriptions of his highlights with each club. Ryan's 1990 basic player card is #1.
Cards 6-8 feature record-breaking performances from 1989. Card backs provide newspaper-like accounts of each.
Cards 661-665 make up the 'Turn Back the Clock' subset in which five past seasons - 1985, 1980, 1975, 1970 and 1965 - are profiled. Fronts feature a Topps card image from that year, and backs provide narrative descriptions of some of its most memorable events.
Cards 385-395 are A.L. 'All Stars' and cards 397-407 are N.L. 'All Stars'. Players appearing in this subset didn't necessarily appear on the rosters of either 1989 squad, but rather they seem to be Topps' selections for the best players at their positions in 1989.
A.L. and N.L. cards differ in the use of red and blue in on the card fronts. Card backs provide the top performers, by league, in a variety of statistical categories, as well as a few brief season highlights of the subject.
Card 396 is a tribute to Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, who passed away towards the end of the 1989 season and was viewed by many as having had the potential to be a great leader for the game.
Ten players taken in the first round of the June, 1989 amateur draft appear throughout the set. Backs detail their academic careers.
The set includes cards depicting the current managers of the 26 clubs. Card backs provide stats tracking the club's top 1989 performers.
The set includes 6 checklist cards which, in a colossal 'WTF' move, list the cards in the set by team and subset rather than numerically as had been the tradition for more than 30 years. This was a real head shaker that somehow would last for a few years.
A full checklist of the 1990 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
Hall of Famers Edgar Martinez (148), Frank Thomas (414) and Larry Walker (757) make their debut in the 1990 set, as do Greg Vaughn (57), Curt Schilling (97), Juan Gonzalez (331), Sammy Sosa (692) and Bernie Williams (701).
Hall of Famer Jim Rice appears for the last time, as do Darrell Evans (55), Dan Quisenberry (312), Jerry Reuss (424), Tony Armas (603), Bob Boone (671), and Doyle Alexander (748).
Topps again produced a 132-card boxed Traded set late in the season to reflect those players who had changed teams and rookies not included in the base set. Cards are numbered 1T-132T.
The set contains 124 basic player cards, as well as 7 managers and a checklist. Cards were printed on thinner, white card stock and were only available via dealers. Sets came packed in cases of 100.
David Justice (49T) makes his first appearance, and Keith Hernandez (39T) makes his last.
In addition to the traditional box, the 1990 traded set was also available in a full-color, illustrated box as well as via 7-card packs which came 36 per box. For some reason cards produced for distribution in packs were printed on more traditional gray stock.
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In 1990 Topps again produced what the hobby has come to call "Tiffany" editions of both their basic and Traded sets. Cards in each were printed on heavier, glossy white card stock.
Production occurred at Topps' facility in Ireland and each set was limited to a reported 5,000 units.
ach set was packed 6 per case and were only available via dealers.
Card 128, Checklist 1 of 6, can be found with and without the notation "Continued on Checklist 2" along the bottom left edge (such an advisement wouldn't be needed if the checklists went numerically...just sayin').
Traded set cards issued in wax packs can be found with a single or no asterisk in the copyright line.
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No discussion of the 1990 set would be complete without mention of the Frank Thomas no-name-on-front "error" card.
What happened here, unlike the 1974 Jesus Alou where the player's name was simply left off the card when it went to the presses and later added, is that as the F sheet was run through the press, something interfered with the application of black ink generally. The result was a swath of 'blackless' real estate on the sheet (the illustration above was created from observed impacted cards).
When you look at the Thomas card, it is clear that it isn't just his name missing, but that there is a strip across the card without any black ink at all.
After a light year in 1989, Topps came back with 8 paint jobs in the 1990 set. In each case, one or more of their competitors included the player in their basic sets photographed in the uniforms Topps had to paint them into. Still not a good look for "The REAL One".
