Why Your Sports Cards from the Early 90s Are Worthless (2024)

Ryan is a former member of The Cardboard Connection Writing Staff.His collecting origins began with winter bike rides to the corner store, tossing a couple of quarters onto the counter and peddling home with a couple packs of O-Pee-Chee hockey in his pocket. Today, he continues to build sets, go after inserts with cool technologies, chase Montreal Expos and finish off his John Jaha master collection.

JHappel

The problem with this article is that you are only looking at raw number of cards produced and assuming that all cards that come out of a pack are equal. That is not how to look at vintage. Value varies greatly depending on centering, corners, edges, etc. If you find a well centered example of a card that is difficult to find centered you could have a very valuable card.

C Davis

30 years ago I started my own card shop. I did good until the 1994 strike of the MLB. 12 years before that there was another STRIKE of the MLB, almost like a 10 year event when in 1974-75 players again went on strike. That was it in 1994 when card collectors said NO to buying baseball cards. I ended up closing the doors, but I kept some of the good cards, sets & unopened boxes & cases of 1989 upper deck & 1990 leaf & other cards I did collect. So today I go into a sports card shop where I was last into my own in 1995. A MONSTER BOX with no cards $6.00 A SET BOX $2.50. No common card under .25 ALL cards were all displayed well, as 40% of them were all GRADED by 1 or another grading company all to make my own MINT CARDS not graded worth pennies to a dollar. WHO is making our cards ”’WORTHLESS”’ as they want us to believe ? Dr. BECKETT & E-BAY both have destroyed the hobby collecting & investing to the degree what I spent a few hundred or more on some of the cards I have kept since 1990 & years before that THEY ARE TO BE WORTH 0 zero, because THEY DID THE SAME THINGS AS I DID,, as I think HOW ? How did THEY collect the same cards I did, when I am looking at them seeing I am 20 to 35 years OLDER than they are ? Some of those people at these shop owners were not born yet & THEY did the same thing I did in the 1970’s to mid 1990’s ? So maybe when they were 20 years old, I was 45 to 50 years old & THEY may had paid MORE & LOST MORE, so I am not to make MORE on the price I paid for some things I bought in the 1980’s & 1990’s. And since I believe NO GRADING changes a condition of ANY sports card, MY CARDS are worth as much as any BECKETT, PSA or whatever graded card someone uses for a 10.0. 9.5, 9.0 or whatever. I lost BIG TIME when in 1982 I passed on 2 rookies for $100.00 & both were MINT with no grades on any card then, as they were Frank & Brooks Robinson rookies. If I had bought them they never would had been grades on each card, & according to all who supported this article THOSE 2 cards may had been the only cards I have worth anything, BUT later I got a deal from a friend in 1988, which was loaded of commons. With them there was a RC 1965 STEVE CARLTON MINT It’s still in that same card holder screw down as did I get a 1987-88 FLEER basketball set,, JORDAN’S 2nd year card. THAT I knew was 100% mint & it is in a top loader plus that was the last year that Dr. J had a card, who everyone thought was the BEST NBA player to play before Chamberlain, Russell, West, Robertson & JABBAR / ALCENDOR before the name change. So they made thousands of JORDAN’S to match the collectors because he was the next Dr. J. All to say this player named LeBRON JAMES can not match in character any of those other NBA players and the number of his rings not even close. But if all these new card collector shop owners had any idea WHO were great players OFF THE FIELD OR COURT in all sports of the NBA, NFL, MLB, & NHL, the demand of some of those players from 40+ years ago would still be on a collectors want list today. Instead poke-mon & other non-sport cards takes place of a Cal Ripken Jr RC card un-graded that sells maybe for $20.00 Forget that NO MLB player will ever play 2633 games in a row. Strange how it was THE STREAK that save baseball in 1995, after the 1994 strike season was destroyed, and he was no YANKEE or DODGER to play in NY or LA for his cards to be worth 10 to 100 X’s more. But BABE RUTH of all places got his MLB start in BALTIMORE playing baseball. Got it, more Ripken Jr cards than Ruth’s cards, but RIPKEN JR broke a MLB record that belonged to a YANKEE, and more like destroyed the 2101 streak to 2632 games. Yet BARRY BONDS cards will never go down even as he should never be in the HOF in Cooperstown, for reasons we all know why. Take out BECKETT & E-BAY out of fixing card collecting prices & then deal with the dealers differently.

Derek

peter

This is totaly wrong. The author probably did not understant a thing. He talks only about baseball cards. Yup, most of them are worthless. But NBA cards are the opposite! Fleer series 1986 is very valuable. Just Google MJ rookie card. Packs of NBA fleer 1987-1988 sell for hundred of dollars. Cheap junk cards are from 1990. But I still think someone just producing them….cause there is so many of them in perfect shape after 30 cards. And one more thing, dont confuse opened cards (which are really crap) with sealed wax packs.

deez

Kerry Kittles sux , what were you tinking, try cents.09 as in .02$
Smarten up guy

Bentley

I love this article I knew someone would write about it one day I love the litecher you can get from sports. I was collection in the mid 70s loved it and yeah I was in that era and I had them all but for some reason I seen things that most people don’t even talk about I call it the love of the game. I sen these guys coming in with some nice statis there rookie year than come back the next year the same guy and twenty of his bodies have made 35 or 40 home runs the next year I caught on quick I watched these guys play as a kid and I knew something was wrong with this picture I got straight in and straight out and I made a killing selling single cards to all my friends and there friends and I was making bank I got into the card at the end of 89 I was hearing about this kid coming in going to be something big and man he was you can tell when you see a natural and some one on the juice and I was dead on it I bought all the 89 upper deck and the fleer that was my two favorite brands I never was much on all the brands coming out I thought that was a down fall into the money of a card. I some how slide through and made a buddle off money buy the time I was 18 I was set the money I made off that 89 kid with a new stance like I have never seen I was selling his card for crazy money plus I could sell ice to a ESCO Mo to I have always been like that even when I was a kid. Than I made a trade on a couple of different 89 cards upper deck and fleer I even came up on a donruss I just liked the ratied rookie card I have talked a young boy out of a second year Michael Jordan for three of my best Ken Griffey Jr and told him the sky is the limit on what they would be worth ten years from now had to be a good investment for some one that I watch play when he was in college I am a sport freek as a kid. But I want lie I have ever card that came out in the era of the crazy time I ever seen in cards and I have ever one of them today and they are flawless I love them cards and I wanted to be able to tell my story to my kids now they are all girls and they are not interested in them what so ever my collection now is off the chain I am a big time collector now of only certain cards All through the late 90s and right on up and I am grateful to say I have grandbabyes now 5 matter a fact and I am still collecting and the money in hot cards that are minted is priceless I am not going to tell you the cards I have now but I will say this there winters or I would not have them I have been doing this right about all this happened the Wax box era is how I made my start and I have All the big stars to day to show my grandbabies what there papaw was doing at my age and how I did it I hope I can teach them something but I think you have to be born and have the drive to do it and just yesterday I found my 5 wander Franco card all different types of cards for all you other guys that might have gotten stuck with the bad error back in the day I will give you all a little secret this wander Franco is your next Ken Griffey Jr believe that you can’t go wrong on this card and all the money I made on my journey in school selling junk cards and my early twenties and still have all of them Hof cards put up for the past 30 years is priceless for me to still get to show my kids you guys that got hit at least you have something to show your kids and grandkids that is awesome right there I would not change none of it.

Delmarcus

Can’t believe this thread has run for 10 yrs. Reminds me of my father in law who started buying everyday 1963 postage stamps in the firm belief that they would put the new baby through college in 1981. Talk about oversupply and no demand! (You can still use them tho if you use big enough envelopes)

RHAMILTON

Some guy just sold me 7000 cards and they’re in awesome condition. I pull the cards out from time to time just for the fun of it. However, i checked the going rate for some of the cards i have and they are worth far more than I ever imagined.

jstrum

yes thats right, throw away all your 90’s cards, Store owners , throw them away, collectors, burn them up!! That way one day, my grand kids can cash in on them when they are all gone!! hehehehe

Leonard Nesrallah

Could someone please put me on the right trail to a good site to price cards, without having to pay for this service. It just seems to me that there are so many FREE sites, that are just as, or better than the average Beckett prices etc.. Much appreciated.

Leonard Nesrallah

I just seemed to notice most of these responses were from 2011-12 and up. So when I reached the bottom of the responses and Thank God there were still people talking about this issue in 2019-21. My issue is I had a friend whose brother had passed away, and his brother then gave me his collection. So here I sat with 1000’s of mixed up hockey, baseball, Marvel, football, etc.. in 3 boxes and a couple bags. Well I too was in that group that would shake their head everytime someone would try and argue that the late 80’s to mid 90’s was a bonafide money hungry time to have collections. Well in reading EVERYONE’S posts I had a huge chuckle cause now “I’M” stuck with trying to find the golden goose and his almost nonexistent golden egg. Yet to my surprise, I have found a few cards worthy of a high five or two. I came across a 1986 Fleer Micheal Jordan worth $5000 !!! BUT then wallow in self pity when a 1953 Topps Bob Feller All-Star fan favorites lists between $20-$40 bucks. Or a Stu Miller 53′ Topps card doesn’t even hit double digits, lol. I wish I could post a picture of these cards because they are in rather beautiful shape, but alas, the names on the back of the jerseys are just not up to snuff sadly. But dang it! I sure like them. And as a few people have mentioned, they will pass them on to their kids and teach them the importance of maintaining a possible tuition payment or two. Anyways I hope I may have added something to this long running conversation, rather than water it down. Cheers all ! And Merry Christmas to all !

Joseph Honeyblue

Ben

Very good article but very wrong in a way. To say cards numbered to 100 only sell for a dollar or two now a days is very very wrong! I’m an avid hockey card collector and I wish I only had to pay that lol just pulled a card numbered to 99 that sells for over $600 right now. It is very hard to get value out of late 80’s and early 90’s yes but if you have rookies and they are in mint and grade 9 or higher then yes you do have some value in them I just sold a psa 10 Bure rookie for $500. A 9 goes for about $150. But don’t look at your card with the naked eye and think it’s mint lol magnifying glass and ruler are needed. But with the market price for grading right now I wouldn’t grade a single card as all your profit will be lost to the fees unless your grading older or very high value cards.

Zack Valos

He’s 100% right it’s been 10 years and COVID is going on it’s now May 2021 the markets never been hotter. The sports card games exactly where it needs be. Before there was refractors tractors protractors refractors prisms parallels Panini’s and other sandwiches the OG was tops who created traded the 1st parallel and Tiffany Topps was a parallel that was polished and limited. While Panini has almost perfected the sales pitch PSA submission is still the path that is far more likely to show you the way.

TBird

Interesting and sad as have been a collector off and on for many years. Only basketball was a real hit late 80’s was 86 to 89 Fleer then came overproduction and lost interest for a while in mid 90’s after Shaq hit the court.. Came back in to find big push up in MJ cards and those aforementioned fleer sets. Now it seems like flood of new and varient cards I long for the single RC days. Now only collect old graded basketball as I try to keep it simple in my old age.

Nelson Low

Nick L

Really good article. Unfortunately those are the years I was collecting and trading as a kid, brings back so many memories. And as some one else mentioned, Becket Price Guide really did change everything. I started collecting in 1985. I was 6 years old, my collection came from my father, who had alot of 1981-1983 topps cards. And some from the 70s. Alot of them were not taken care of. But there was 3 cards Immediately Ifell in love with especially after I seen my first Becket price guide. This was all new to me, Ryan Sandberg rookie 1983, Tony Gwynn 1983 rookie, and wade boggs 1983. Back than they were all around $60 bucks each. And looking back in the 50s and 60s
Seeing how much those cards were worth gave me even more motivation to collect. My first 2 sets I bought were a $20 1988 Donruss set and a $30 1991 Upper deck. Lol. I know its sounds dumb now, but I absolutely loved my 1991 upperdeck set. I made alot of good trades as a kid, mostly trying to get my favorite players. Ken Griffey jr, Frank Thomas, tom glavine, etc etc. By 1994 I had a massive collection of all my favs. Football also. One day I just stopped collecting, around my highschool days I I think. Kind of forgot about them. Anyway my mom brought me my entire collection last summer, and I start immediately looking them all up. AndI had alot of winners, but a whole lot more losers. Most of my cards were kept in mint condition. All definitely 8.5 and above. And still have my 1st 3 valuable cards I originally got from my father. All in hard individual cases. So they didn’t fare to bad Ryan Sandberg sold for $1500, Tony Gwynn I sold for $700. And Wade Boggs is currently at p.s.a being graded and I’m probably going to keep that one more than likely. I have several other cards in the $100-200 values. From that era also. But the majority are worth noting. Cant even give a 1991 Upper deck Frank Thomas away or Griffey. But I do have the 1989 Bowman Ken Griffey Jr rookie card. I traded a 1991 upper deck Jeff Bagwell, Bo Jackson, And Mike Jordan Sp 1 for Griffey when I was in 5th grade. Smartest move I ever made. Keep your heads up wax junk era, yes never know in 40 years maybe the supply will disappear and you may have something to give your grandkids.

Thievius

I have a bunch of this stuff, as well as cards from the 70s. I never collected them to get rich, I collected them because it was fun. So they’re not “worthless” to me.

jish55

The major issue is that baseball is no longer a popular sport and has in turn lost its appeal around the late 90s/early 00s. The even bigger truth is that unless you have baseball cards from the 60s earlier, there’s really no value in them. This also includes other sports cards that quite frankly no one really cares about. The major reason for this has to do with the introduction of the tcg, with Magic, Pokemon, and Yugioh taking the place of sports cards, because the tcg has grown into its own entity that has appealed to such a vast audience that now those are the cards worth collecting, and unlike sports cards, tcg’s have continuous use as they’re more than just there to look at.

David Cee

Clayton L Winn

Actually if the hall of fame rookies from these years are in mint condition,centered good,get them graded,they come back a 9.5 or 10 they can be worth decent money. Think Chipper Jones,Ken Griffey Jr.,Frank Thomas,Randy Johnson,etc,or popular players like Bo Jackson,Mark McGwire,etc.

Sandy Robinson

A friend left me his collection when he died. Now I guess I can cry as I walk all those boxes to the trash.

Sandy Robinson

Well I guess I can take these tires out and have a nice big bonefire. I hate to burn some of them they are beautiful.

catsmoke

Mike O'Flynn

Does anyone remember the bulk card sellers like Megacards and Steve Niland (Miland?)? My father used to purchase 800 Ct boxes of guys, 12,000 ct boxes of some players and years. Yes, 12,000 at a time, 15 800 ct boxes of a single card! I try to explain this to people today but it’s hard to grasp. I also believe these wholesalers got the uncut sheets straight from Topps and cut them themselves, does anyone remember this? My father has long ago passed and I hope I’m giving the right info to people.

Vincent

The basics of this artical applies to all collectibles such as
sports cards
nonsports cards
comic books
coins
stamps
etc! and antiques, as well as most retail items! SUPPLY & DEMAND rules the day!

Dave

Adam

Wow, so much for my 91 Topps Chipper Jones…

collector Pete

I remember many of those names back when, can’t miss rookies that missed by a country mile! But when profiteers and people hoping to pay for their kids college took over, real collectors started to feel the pinch, seeing the cards sink into the quicksand pretty fast! I threw away a lot of the junk cards, as they were taking up space and the fun had kind of wore off which was sad! I have come back to card collecting the past few years and collect what I love, instead of jumping on this or that bandwagon, as I don’t want to get run over by the same bandwagon! Collecting should be a fun activity, not just to try and hope that you’ll die a rich man if and when you sell your collection, or pass it on to the next generation! Great post by the way, by someone who understands that collecting should be a fun activity, not some get rich quick scheme that usually leave behind a trail of broken dreams!

Man thank you for this article! My dad left me cards from 1989 and 1990 and I’ve held on to them for almost 30 years and just today I pulled them out after moving states and did a lot of research and realized they’re worthless! The only card of any bit of value is a Topps 1990 Ken Griffey, JR All-Star Rookie card, but for it to be worth something I have to have it graded and I’m sure that will cost more than the card. I guess these are all going in the trash! Honestly, I only had a sandwich baggie full of them, but I held on to them thinking they’d be worth something one day. I’m personally a video game collector who has games worth hundreds of dollars (my entire collection is about $20k) so I understand that some times value in items just disappears. I have games that were worth $100+ and are worthless now because they were re released and no one cares about the old version anymore.

Archangel072

I myself have been heart broken by these card shops. My dad alays brought me home hand fulls of packs of football and baseball cards from the late 70’s till after the mid 80’s! I had boxes of them and some really good ones also even a terry Bradshaw rookie. I was too young to remember all of the good ones but dad THOUGHT he knew what would be nice to have, He told me to hole on to these till im his age and I will have something good. Back in the 90’s I checked some of my baseball cards and some were up to 20 to 40 bucks a piece and some I had a few doubles many others were worth maybe 75 cents to $3.00 I put them all in a separate box and held on to them till around 2008 and decided to see if I could sell some. And I came up against the same heartbreak of them telling me they are not worth anything and IF I am lucky and take them to a card show someone MAY give me approx $30 for ALL of them! I wanted to punch this dude right in the snot box! Not only did I have sports cards but also collected many other cards from Tv shows, rock bands,Movies, Nascar, Operation Desert shield and Desert storm. I cant even name all the ones I had Even the Pac Man sticker packs. Elvis, The Hulk. Mork & Mindy,Dukes of hazard.Dallas.Grease, Village People.Kiss,Micheal Jackson,Star Wars,Star Trek,Battle star Galactica,Et And many more! I really thought they would be worth something buy now. I remember to my dads dying day he remembered posing his Mickey Mantle ROOKIE CARD when he was pitching cards as a teen. Once he found out what that card was worth he just could not believe hoe stupid that was. It was worth A LOT at one time! Im not sure about now.. As a kid I even had the football sticker albums.

Jay

Bill

To think that in 2018 we are still talking about sports cards tells you only one thing, this is not dead yet or anytime soon. Just look what happened recently with an SI Tigers Woods Card. Unbelievable!

tim

Charles

Should of played Magic:The Gathering instead of collected worthless baseball cards. I did in the 80s when I was a kid, and learned REAAALLL fast this was worthless because of the amount of duplicates I was getting and 0 rarities PLUS no one would give me a penny for them, and even then, they laughed. At least with M:TG if you bought cards in 93-95 you would be filthy rich today, my old collection shot upwards of 250k, beta lotus, moxen, duals. That is a real hobby plus you can PLAY with them!

Roman

I saw the writing on the wall a few years ago after rediscovering my collection that spanned 88-92. Like guy in the article, I had visions of wealth and retirement.
Sadly, after checking a few cards against what folks were TRYING to get for them on eBay, I realized my collection was worth less than the plastic show box they sat in for nearly 30 years.
I think the only folks with the last laugh are the card companies who must have been laughing all the way to the bank.
Oh,well. Back goes the box for another 30 years. lol

John

My parents bought me a 1992-1993 Hoops Draft Redemption set for my birthday back in 1992 for $300. The shop owner at the time was telling me how great of a deal we got. Just have to laugh lol :)

GOOD BUSINESS

Uh…buy low, sell high–isn’t that what makes them savvy businessmen?!

VOICE OF REALITY

the problem is the cheap card vendors NEVER DID pay anything for cards. they sold them high and paid little for them on the backside. it was always that way !! they are typically these lazy sports types who don’t know antyhing about business, but know how to be cheap.

RobZ

I found this article way to relatable. I recently had an injury and have found myself with way too much time on my hands, so I decided to break out the cases upon cases of cards and flip through them. I do enjoy finding the random RC I didn’t know was hidden along the commons, but then I look it up and I’m a little diminished in my enthusiasm.
I have enjoyed the stroll through memory lane and recalling the feeling I got upon (finally) getting my first (and only) 1989 KGJ Upper Deck. It is still miraculously preserved in the ironclad 4 screw plastic case that it’s been resting in for the last 20+ years.
Now I can grab a lot of 10 ungraded RC cards for a few bucks. And I did because I could.
Amazingly well written and relatable article thank you.

Grant

I collected with my dad throughout the late 80s and early 90s, amidst the era you’re writing about. In the early 90s my dad and I would set up at local card shows, and each month when Beckett came out we adjusted prices, wheeled and dealed, and had a blast. Today I have thousands of cards that aren’t worth the monetary value either of us hoped they would be into my late 30s. I recently organized all of my sports cards, and have been riding this wave of nostalgia that has manifested itself into purchasing HOF cards and wax boxes I could not afford as a kid. I live near Orlando, and there’s been a sports card show every three months. I walk in with about $50 looking to spend on cards I couldn’t afford as a kid. It’s fun again – even when I am not looking to sell any or make a profit. Funny this article brings up Kevin Maas. I picked up a wax box of 1990 Upper Deck and pulled three Kevin Maas RCs. That would’ve been a heck a box in 1990. Who didn’t I pull? Griffey, Maddux, Glavine, etc. For $5 for the entire wax box I had a blast and almost put the complete set together between the box and cards I’ve kept for nearly 30 years.

Darik

I bought a flat box full of basketball cards for $3.99. I use the flat boxes to organize Magic the Gathering cards. Ended up here looking to see if any of the cards have value. At lest the box is worth $5!!

Bite me

I love my baseball cards. They’re valuable to me.

jkriz

Ray

Destroy, Destroy that’s the only way to give these cards any hope of having any possible value and even then it’s slim but at least you’ll give them a chance.

Sonny

dru

dru

Sean

So, the best course of action would be to buy up lots of your favorite cards and destroy all but a handful… Then, give the handful of cards to your grandkids on your deathbed… Then, 300 years from now, your descendants can sell those cards to the smithsonian for a $20 to get the ninetendos in the primitive video games exhibit to work.

Alex

Anyone know how many cases of 1992 Upper Deck baseball were produced?

Mike Lawton

sam

To all of the people who are going to throw them away, why not just donate them or give them to a kid that likes sports. I remember like 5 years ago when my neighbor gave me a bunch of his cards from the 80s and I was so happy to get them. Because if you just shred them or burn them nothing will happen, but you could donate it to make someone happy.

max

i collected in the early 90’s . i thought when i was older i could cash them in and be rich and retire lol. i spent lots of money on baseball cards and they are worthless now . i would of been better off collecting just about anything or even the dollars

king

just put them in fire place and burn them . there worthless

CL

Just took down a big box full from rafters in the garage…..guess I will be throwing them all on the trash….goodbye Jose Canseco, Dennis Eckersly, Dave Stewart, Tony Gwynn etc. Rookie cards…

Shawn

7890

Eric B

Josef Tompa

Here is what I started to do about a week ago…made a 3min video and posted on you tube showing me shredding NFL cards. I plan to continue this for each type of card I have including NBA. MLB, NHL etc.

Bob S

Great article. Have cards I bought for my son when he was collecting… 1978 thru 1989. He is now married. Out of state. Checked pricing on line. Do I take the few cards with values over $5 out and sell, or try to sell full set @value of the few $5 + cards inside, or donate to some charity? Approximately 50 full sets ..most 81 thru 89. Thanks for any advice. Would like to move these out of my home.
RHS

Nathaniel

I’m enjoying collecting certain singles I wanted as a kid but we’re over priced . Even though the value isn’t as high anymore having a Bonds rookie is fun cause I always wanted one . Collecting will always be around . Ebay will ruin value . But once people get rid of their collections and dump them then Hofers and productive players will maintain value . My advice is everyone throw away your cards . Just dump them. That way the select few I collect will maintain greatness . I’m making bank off eBay selling cards that are “sp” even tho I pulled 8 kris bryant “sp” at wal mart . Collect cause you love it not cause you think you have a gold mine . Even a car looses half value after you drive five miles . Still you need the car.

Jonny Moir

Blair Minyard

Ivan

For the most part this article is accurate but you can’t dismiss well graded cards from that era…. Also Minor league cards of big names that grade high will bring nice $… I saw a comment about someone laughing when their friends asked him if ken Griffey jr was worth anything. BGS 10 1989 ud rookie sold a couple months ago for 2,600 and psa 10 go all day long for 300. Not bad if you ask me!

Rose Marie King

Awesome article Ryan! I gave away crates full of cards to a elderly man who was in the card business as a hobby and many more crates free at garage sales. People feel good about getting something for free. I have some signed baseballs by Griffey, Mantle, Hank Aaron and Whitey Ford. Might they be worth anything? What king of signature verification would I need?

Z

Yes, I agree with the repo bit. I also think that a large part of the worth dropping is due to the internet itself. Now you know how much of one thing is readily available rather than going to your local hobby store or ”trade” paper . You did not know how many of one thing was out their so the value was high. My Ricky Henderson rooking was worth $500 back then. Ebay comes along and you see 50 of them for sale…now check the price.
Supply and demand and internet I attribute it too. I also have over 3000 comics and the same deal there. I collected all the Image #1 when they came out. Was worth so much , now unless you have classic Marvel and DC you have nothing. Luckily I invested in silver age Marvels as well.
Good article! Don’t forget about the Mike Piazza rookie from Stadium Club LOL

Jerome Walton

Just went through the process of dumping most of my 90s baseball cards. Hah, that Tod Van Poppel was all the rage, as well the Ben McDonald rookie. Also had the baseball Jordan. Never could afford the 89 Griffey JR UD rookie. While it was kinda sad to dump a large chest full of cards for nothing, at least it’s nice having that free extra space in the house again. BTW, if anyone wants to trade an 89 Griffey JR UD RC for a a Todd Van Poppel UD RC, drop me a line. I’ll throw in a Greg Vaughn rookie, too!

Nick

I remember how painstakingly I put together the 1987 Topps set. Was so proud of myself and loved the “wooden borders”. My all time favorite is still the 1989 Topps Big set. The only saving grace is the plethora of ’89 Ken Griffey jr. rc’s laying around.

Scott Ross

This is a great article, and it raises a question for me. I am new to collecting and I am wondering what the lesson is for collecting now. How do we avoid being in the same position with cards produced today in 20 or 30 years?

Chance Bond

Hello from the largest sport card collection in Alaska! I used to buy, and still do buy old 1980s and 1990s cards. The reason being, is that after people wise up to the worthlessness of their cards, people will probably just burn them, thereby accelerating the cards values near, at, or above 1990 levels! I own Bond’s Bonding Collectibles here in Fairbanks Alaska, and I’m proud to say, that we do purchase old collections. After we purchase them, what we do is go and sort them into complete sets. Then, we file them online and sell, sell, sell! You wouldn’t believe the people who buy the sets! I guess the set market is still out there, just not the singles markets for the 1986-1992 stuff! Oh well….

K.K.

I just recently received me and my fathers collection from 80 upto 87 topps 87 packs unopened upper deck packs not open 3 Frank Thomas rookie cards, Brett farve rookie card etc. no real value I’ve found , yes I agree they killed the cards with all the reproduction, But get this they sale solid clear packs at my local dollar tree for a dollar a pack 10 to 15 cards per pack less the pack better the cards I thought reprint I was wrong all years mixed all brands as well

Brian

I too, am a product of the card-craze of the late 80’s/early 90’s. Just like Nathan’s post earlier, I have focused now on vintage baseball and football cards, which I find much more interesting, anyway. The t206 tobacco set is as popular as ever, especially HOF portraits, though I will never get
close to owning a Honus Wagner :) The T3 Turkey Red cabinet issue might be the most beautiful set ever produced. You can’t go wrong in investing in players like Ruth, Gehrig, Mays, Mantle, Clemente, etc…and buy them in the highest grade you can afford.
As for modern cards, there still is value in some of the highest graded cards of the most popular players. A PSA 10 Gem Mint 80 Topps Rickey Henderson recently sold for 30K–yes, 30,000 dollars! 81 Topps Montana PSA 10…12K. So there is a market for high-end product. It’s just that vintage cards are a safer bet. However, if you have the nostalgia bug like I do for this era, another route to go that’s a
little expensive but won’t break the bank is game-used bat collecting.
I recently got into this niche of the market. My first purchase was a Wade Boggs gamer from his 1994 season with the Yankees. Ball and stitch marks, cleat marks, blue ink transferred from American League baseballs to the bat, pine tar on the handle and middle barrel, his uniform no. written on the knob where the factory info is stamped into the barrel…these are characteristics you won’t find on a baseball card. And to hold the bat in your hands and know you’re holding a part of history–it doesn’t get much better than that. Anyway, for those looking to collect from the players of the 80’s or 90’s the game-used bat genre is certainly an option, and they are much more valuable and rare than collecting the cards…

Bern Sroka

Yeah guys, I’m in the same boat. Started collecting in early ’60’s and still have them but restarted in mid-80’s to about ’93. Card shops don’t even consider them now (the 80’s to 90’s). I like someone’s’ suggestion about donating to some charity like maybe a children’s hospital. Hopefully some kid will get some enjoyment out of them, eh?

John

Article is very true. I know! How about the cards made in the fifties, sixties and seventies? I am sure they are worth something. What about cards from the year 2000 to now? Just curious if the card companies are still printing too many to make these most recent cards worth anything. Does this supply and demand determine the Beckett pricing guide values? Thank you.

Jimmy

david

You would assume there would be a class action lawsuit regarding this SCAM. Especially the pricing books like Beckett. If it wasn’t for those books nobody would have known what the price of their cards were (or the price we all were conned into believing they were). So I wouldn’t get rid of those cards just yet. May need them in case a class action ever gets started so people can at least get some of their money back.

doogie howser MD

baseball card pack cost like 5 bucks each today. who has the money to spend like that on a kiddie hobby? kids have moved on to technology and video games as a hobby. packs should still be 50 cents each maybe a dollar for a premium pack. it’s not easy to make money as a kid. it’s a shame the industry became so greedy with useless inserts and over saturated the market, on top of pricing out the kids, the next generation of card collectors. for me, baseball card collecting was part-scam, part-ripoff (once the prices for packs escalated astronomically – some cost $500 a pack today! i am NOT joking!), and part times-a-changin’. how? kids have easier to access hobbies now. they have internet, technology and video games which are even more social as you can game around the world from your couch. the baseball card data can all be viewed and downloaded onto their xbox systems. why keep a piece of cardboard around? it’s junk that takes up space and collects dust and invites bugs. EA sports games also have live stats updates and kids can actually play as their favorite players with real time data. compare that to a static baseball “card” which does nothing but sit there. why would you want to go backwards? i was like you too. i fell for the scam but i sold my stuff a year or so later in 1996 after shaq was in LSU (i sold his 4 sport rookie card) and came to magic. even i knew as a teenager that this was a scam.

fred

I suppose the only exceptions would be the 89 UD Griffey and the 90 Leaf cards. They’re at least worth something, right?

Steve H

What a trip down memory lane. I wonder if Beckett Baseball/Basketball Card Monthly is still a thing. Who can forget scanning the entire 1988 Donruss list of approximately 600 cards to find, among all the $.04 cards, that one card that had been worth more than a dollar – the vaunted Gregg Jeffries rookie card – listed at a whopping $7.50. “If only I could get that in a pack,” I had thought, “I would be rich someday.” I would muscle my younger brother out of the way at small-town sports card shops to get first crack at the cases, and I would gaze with silent, intense jealousy at my friend’s superior collection. “If only I got his allowance,” I thought, “I too could have those unspeakably awesome cards.” It was not about peace, love, and brotherhood – it was a fiercely competitive sport in and of itself. Oh, the arguments we would have over which cards we were willing to trade, or which prized card was the ill-gotten gain obtained by running full speed into the store while the other had to climb out from the middle seat in the family station wagon. I could go on, but will stop there for now. It was the best of times, it was not the best of times, it was a fairly sizable portion of my childhood. Thanks for a great, incredibly nostalgia-inducing article.

Brice

Great article. I just recently brought my cards out of storage and wondered what they might be worth. I probably paid more for the cardboard storage boxes then what the cards are actually worth.. Complete sets of 1990, 1991, 1992 Topps, Topps Gold set, 1991 Upper Deck, 1990, 1991 Fleer, all collected from packs, and hundreds of extras. Pro Set football cards, fleer basketball and nba hoops..I probably have cards from every manufacturer almost from that era. It’s kind of disappointing all the time and money spent into collecting, and trying to accomplish complete sets. But hey, maybe in another 30 years.. I could get my money back. Probably not.. The memories are wonderful tho..

Rob

I get that the cards are worthless in money value but i had a lot of fun negotiating with my childhood friends for some of these cards. I see my rifleman bo jackson card and am still laughing about the sam bowie trade my friend and i made bowie for jackson. Both ened up doing nothing. My micheal jordan trade for joe montana. When ever i pull out my 80s 90s cards it takes me right back

Gary

Zoe

James

Hang on to them anyways… Who knows, 10, 20, 30 years from now and how history will unfold.

Robert Wayne

I started collecting baseball cards in the early ’70s. At that time I liked collecting players from the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers because they were from my region of the country and I liked Cincinnati Reds players because back then they were the Big Red Machine of Pete Rose and Johnny Bench. I ended up selling all my cards from the ’70s and kept the ones from the ’80s and early ’90s and those are the ones that are worthless. I should have kept the old ones. Heck, I even had some players from the Seattle Pilots, Washington Senators and a lot of Montreal Expos…teams that have since moved on to other locales.

John

After reading this article I called my parents and apologized. Back in 1992, I was 12 years old and my parents bought me the 1992 Hoops Draft Redemption set with Shaquille O’Neal for a little more than $400 for my birthday. Looked it up today and I probably could get $45 for the set.

Nathan

Mike

Although the article is based around baseball cards, the same applies to Football cards, which I collect. I’d been collecting Cowboys since I was a kid, and 1989 is when I got my son into the hobby. Fortunately, I saw the overproduction, and didn’t see it as an investment. We just collected our cowboys. Turned out good, because the Cowboys are some of the very few that are worth anything these days. But, it is time to get rid of the cards and free up some space. if the card has any value, I put it on ebay. If not, I’m trashing them. Literally. If enough of us do it, maybe some normalcy will return to the cards of that era. Just last week, I must have sent 10,000 to the recycling bin. I guess in retrospect I should be glad I didn’t fall for the hype on the Andre Wares and Jeff George mania that went on. We just collected our cowboys. If we pulled one of the hype cards we sold it almost as quick as we picked it. I was an old-timer n the hobby and could see where ProSet was going to take the market.
if you have cards from this era, trash them.

Casey

Robert

I think collecting should be for the love of a team or player, most things collected for profit in the modern era wont turn into a good investment. I collect for fun, if one day my collection makes money, good. If not I’m making memories and having fun .

charlie

the point it its a hobby , if you like the card get it save what ever , I have no plans to sell any of mine not even when I started in the 70s , so what you have a box of junk when you pass away , you had fun doing it , that’s the whole point people miss today ,

Kurk

Will

badhabit

If everyone burned their doubles and kept one of each, that would help. For me, just sitting in my living room and sorting them is fun. Though it is taxing.

Jon

Sometimes I mentally calculate how much allowance money I spent on hockey cards. I try not to think about it too much because I’m sure it’s over $1000. I’d have been better off putting the money under my mattress.

I’m interested in doing some trading to complete a diamond king set I’d like to frame and I’m missing a couple of puzzle pieces to a Clemente puzzle. I have lots of extra diamond kings, puzzle pieces, and tons of donruss 87-91. And by the way, this is what the cards were for…trading and enjoying not an investment. I was a teen back then and investing was for adults. Cards were for kids. So if any of you want to work together to do some swapping around, I’m all for it. E mail me directly at mongo at athenatechs dot org.

Mike

I think its great that all these cards from the era 86-92 are so affordable now. This is around the time that I started to collect and I didn’t have a big collection because they were so expensive. I enjoy basketball and football the most when it comes to collecting. I just bought 4 boxes of skybox 90-91 series 2 basketball cards for $12.99 on eBay free shipping. Now I can afford to buy boxes to share the hobby with my nephew. If it hadn’t been for overproduced cards then cards would never been affordable and the hobby would been too expensive for kids today to experience.

Jj

I sell and collector still with the modern stuff. This guy may be a little out of touch I make a good 1k a week off of it. I buy people’s modern collections of soley autographed and jersey cards and they often sell like hot cakes with the common players still player. I actually just sold a zach cozart gold refractor out of 50 for 110$!!! So it’s really selective I guess but the newer stuff I find plenty of buyers and competition out there. Shoot I pulled a serial 10/10 lakers 5 auto booklet of magic Johnson, Kareem, cooper, worthy and Scott! It’s worth over 1k!! I got it from a 10$ pack…. So I dunno I say don’t judge the new stuff like the 90s crap. I just use those as fillers to make sure my newer cards don’t get damaged and have packing!! Hahaha :)

sigh

Mitch

Sam

For those kids that grew up watching those guys (Bo Jackson etc.) we weren’t concerned with value. I sense a very bitter attitude in the article over paper? If someone has the sense to know what an investment is they wouldn’t be buying baseball cards. That being said it was fun as a kid and I have tons of mint late 80’s early 90’s cards but their purpose was nostalgia not$$$$$$$$. People who break even on a card should be happy if they are indeed “investors”

Will8bitX

I think there is a small glimmer of hope for some. If you happen to have gotten your hands on Wax Boxes and did not open them, there is definitely a market for that. Opened boxes/packs loose cards are not worth nearly as much as unopened boxes from this period. I think folks will want to relive their youth opening up cards again if they can get their hands on them. Oh the joys of 1991 tops, and the Wade Boggs “Sky Card”!!

vcuhokie

I started collecting in the early-to-mid ’90’s, and have found this to be pretty painfully true. My first box – 1990 Pro Set Series II football – had some cool stuff for the time (Emmitt Smith RC, etc), but nothing worth the trouble of even trying to sell now. That said, I wish I had bought up every unopened box of 1989 Score football I could find! Those do still command a decent premium.

Architeuthis

I guess collectors from most generations feel regret…For many of us, it was spending most of our money as kids, on now worthless sports cards, while most kids from the 50’s-70’s didn’t have the foresight to buy more cards or keep what they had in nice condition.

Architeuthis

Oh no, don’t tell me that my 100 ’87 Topps Pete Incaviglia rookie cards are no longer worth $2.75 apiece….

Buimfan77

I started collecting cards in the late ’70s but really caught on to the hobby during the “boom” of the early ’90s. ‘Tis a shame since probably a third of my collection is from that era. But who could’ve known that those cards would be worthless today. If I had, I would never have traded two Warren Moon rookie cards (’85 Topps) for three boxes of ’91 Pro Set football. Dumbest move I ever made as an educated collector (I have good – or bad – stories from when I was a kid and knew nothing about collecting cards). Anyway, having a ton of worthless cards just means I have a large collection that isn’t worth much. But like the author said, sometimes having cards just for the aesthetic value or simply to say, “Yeah, I have a handful of ’64 Philadelphias,” is good enough.

anthony

take those cards from that era and try to get them autographed. maybe they will be worth something then lol

80s kid

Tony Saloom

I’m another poor sap that got into collecting during this era. I bought up a bunch of 89 Score football becasue I was told the quanities were limited being their first year of production. As the years went on I found this to not be true. I also believe that card grading helped to diminish prices greatly. I always thought that whole process was another racket.

card geek

You know what they are worth? What someone will give you for them. Too many people think price guide prices are etched on stone tablets in the archive down at the hall of Beckett.

Jose

James

I’m glad I did a search online for this topic. Great article! It helped to affirm what I had already figured was the reason for the pathetic decline in the pricing for cards of this era. When the supply is ratcheted up to the enth degree as it was by card companies back then,the market is going to be over saturated with product, driving down its overall price and value.
I have found that there are many uses for cards from this era though (other than kindling and making the “clicky” sound in bike spokes). With the prices for sets, boxes,singles and even cases of cards from the era so low(I was on a site and saw a case of 1991 Score football selling for $90!),its a good way to build up my daughter’s collection pretty fast and teach her how to build sets,and care for cards properly. Granted it would take all 5000+ cards in there collectively to even get close to getting my money’s worth out of it, but its a great way for her to experience what its like to rip into all those wax packs. She likes it and finds it to be a fun thing to do with good ol dad. :)

Matthew

I remember how mad i was walking out of a card shop with stacks of cards from the 1990-1991. Well, the worker at the store said “when you get lemons make lemonade” I didnt really understand him but after a while of thinking about it i started to put the cards in order. I sold my whole baseball set to some guy on ebay for $200 in order! Now, to start with thoese football cards…

A

Woody

I really appreciate this article . It sounds like cards produced between 86-92 are basically worthless .I started collecting in 93 so I hope that I missed the over produced card boom :-)

Curt

This article was well written and certainly answered the question I have had as to why I can find these sets so cheap on Ebay. I actually benefited from the glut of cards produced then as I bought low and sold high. I collected cards from 1973 till 1976 then quit. In the early 80’s my brother gave me his cards from 1981 to 1983 when I started collecting again in 1984. I stopped collecting about in 1991 because I was so fed up with all the different card companies (Topps was and is the only card that matters to me) and the prices. In 1995, I sold my whole collection for $2000. Now, I am collecting again and it is so nice to get these sets again cheaper than what I paid for them when they came out!!

Dan

I had the misfortune of 1987 being the year I got into collecting and went strong right through 1991 and got away from the hobby for 4 or 5 years and one day dusted off my collection of thousands of worthless 88 Topps, Donruss those awful 91 yellow Fleer cards and got a fresh price guide and was blown away that the most “valuable” cards where roughly one dollar. Even that ridiculously overhyped 88 Donruss Greg Jefferies was now a quarter. I still have these sets and cards and my collection has swelled into something large enough to fill a small room in my home I started purchasing vintage HOF rookies and sets recently the 1978 Topps set along with present day products and now have some very valuable pieces but in all honesty thumbing through my 1987 Topps set is something I do 3-4 times a year and it always brings back memories such as trading my Jose Canseco rookie for a Wade Boggs all star and my mom telling me it go ripped off haha I believe the Canseco is .50 cents and the Boggs at .25 today or waking down to the local gas station with my 2 dollar allowance to grab 3 or 4 cello packs on a summer day so it was more about the journey than the destination though when I still see mountains of 88 Topps/Donruss cases plastered all over ebay it does highly annoy me that the hobby was wrecked and tainted by blatant commercialism and profiteering. I personally destroy ever card from those sets except HOF players and i suggest everyone does the same or give them to small children to share the hobby.

Danae

This is a wonderful article. My 12 year old son started collecting cards about 1 year ago, our local grocery store sells them in the $.25 cent machines. How convenient that they are all from the era mentioned above….HaHa! We both read this together and YES, he was a little disappointed. Now he knows, and he wants to start buying “Memorabilia Cards”. Great Great article!!!!

Tom

I here you. I have so much. I wasn’t shocked when some prices of older football cards dropped from 5¢ to 4¢. I am an avid collector. WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE TRADING CARD GAME GENRE!

Carl

all good suggestions. What I am going to do is set up my own website. I learned to build websites about two years ago and decided …why not build site for my card collection. I think I will get higher value cards graded. Should be fun experience.

Paul

Awesome, awesome article. I figured this out about ten years ago and went through my collection (over 10,000 cards, mostly from 86-92) and kept maybe 100, just the ones that had senitimental value to me: stuff like an ’87 Topps Bruce Ruffin All Star Rookie that I found in the school hallway in 5th grade. The rest of my cards I donated to a charity auction for a food ministry. Best decision I ever made. Some lucky kid got to live all through all those cards again.

rich moss

i agree that we should concentrate on the positeve from this era. There are many paralell sets that are extremely nice looking and slightly harder to come by… usually 1 card per pack instead of 10-15… “only” a hundred thousand instead of 2-3 million copies. My personal favorite is the 1992 Leaf gold set. The black borders with the gold frames are beautiful cards. There are many others to choose from and collecting these and collating complete sets can be a worthwhile challenge. I do not know if they will carry much monetary value, although I bet I could get a ham sandwich or 2 out of a few… just not a semester of tuition for my kids!

frank rogers

MAYBE,THE CARDS COMPANYS WILL TOGEATHER HAVE A BUY BACK OR TRADE IN FOR 80,S 90,S THEY WERE THE ONE WHO MADE THE MONEY.

Nick

How’s this for a solution to the supply and demand issue for over produced cards. Lets have a giant late 80’s to early 90’s card drive and just get as many people to send in there junk cards and then we will literally destroy them. Once we burn enough of the cards maybe we will see a rise in there values. Just a thought. Maybe the Cardboardconnection can even sponsor it!

jake1230

Great article…I’ve had some luck getting rid of these by sorting all my sets into teams and selling lots of team sets…of course, I have many older and new cards included in the lots. Likely the only way to get rid of this overproduced “junk”, other than the kindling you mentioned.

Im going to email this article to about 100 of my friends. This is always an awkward situation when they ask what their cards are worth. my favorite is when they say I have a ton of Ken Griffey Jrs

Chuck

Painfully true.