Check Desert Shield prices on eBay (affiliate link), Check Desert Shield prices on Amazon (affiliate link), The relative scarcity of pristine Desert Shield cards has led to some big prices on the secondary market, including . The dominant design element was the player photo, big and clear (for the most part). A card from 1991 looks and, more importantly, feels like a card from 1961. Contact him at [emailprotected]. Was he originally slated to be the first card in the set but Topps decided to go with Dave Stewart at some point instead? Vertical images have long been one of Topps calling cards and this Ryan exemplifies why. The base card design is very clean and highlights the stellar photography. Copyright 2023 SportsCollectorsDaily.com | Web Design by Wickam Groupopens in a new window, Most Watched 2022 Baseball Rookie Cards on eBay, Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards, David Cyclebacks Identification and Authentication Advice, 1991 Michael Jordan Upper Deck Baseball Card Surges at 30-Year Anniversary. That said, prices for graded cards will increase the price in a hurry. 2020 Jose Canseco Stadium Club Bash & Burn Auto Orange /5 #BBAJC. Thats still quite a few by todays standards, but its tiny when you consider the typical flood of each issue from the early 1990s. And can you believe that the Desert Shield version of this card can sell for thousands of dollars? 1992 Leaf card list & price guide. During his debut season in 1982, Gwynn barely missed the .300 mark by batting .289 in 190 at-bats over the 54 games he played that year. Card Number: #302. And I was incredibly excited when these cards were released because of a special they were offering Because of their 40th anniversary of producing baseball cards, Topps randomly inserted a copy of every card they ever made into packs to help build hype. And, the numbers indeed show it as his slugging percentage and OPS plummeted to .383 and .714, respectively. 2. 1991 Topps #333 Chipper Jones Rookie Card Estimated PSA 10 Value: $85 It may not be quite as valuable as the Mark Whiten variation or Griffey's base card but the Chipper Jones rookie card is easily the face of the entire set. Once blinded by the bells and whistles of the new early 90s premium sets, collectors returned to 1991 Topps to find some of the most dynamic and interesting photos in a flagship set. Heres How to Tell Them Apart. 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. Our articles may contain affiliate links. Ungraded & graded values for all '91 Topps The record book says yes, seeing as how Emmitt owns most of the career rushing marks that mean anything, and he's second to only Rice in total yards from scrimmage. Other memorable portraits are packaged vertically, such as the overhead Benny Santiago shot and the striking from-the-ground-up Wade Boggs photo. During his 1990 campaign, Henderson led all of MLB with a .439 OBP, 1.016 OPS, 189 OPS+ and 119 runs scored. I have this box set too. 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. His iconic status help keep his baseball cards among the most desirable in any set in which he appeared. foil shields that are bigger and brighter than others when compared side-by-side (the real ones are generally the smaller ones), pointy shield bottoms on the Desert Shield emblem (real ones are more rounded), blobby, non-distinct coconuts (theyre clear on real copies), palm leaves that touch shield borders (real ones dont), obscured stars on the flag (more like simple points on some fakes). #18. 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. Track your collection and maximize your profit with Market Movers, the hobbys most powerful sports card pricing platform! I really have no clue, said Charles on how much 91 Topps hes opened over the years. Honus. I think its a great promotion, Richard O. Rieger, an analyst for a financial services company, told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. One Million Dollars, the pack advertisement continued. What is the value of that card? Above the bar is a ribbon with the team's name. 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. Fred McGriffs extended bat stays within the frame while Evans bat breaks all the way through. 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. Mike Mussina and Ivan Rodriguez are a couple of more standouts. It may be shocking but it's trueonly 31 examples of this card have been graded in PSA 10 condition as of this writing so collectors are willing to pay up big-time to own one. Or, they'd need to be one of the rarer Desert Shield versions Not to be confused with Topps' set of Desert Storm cards which featured military subject matter, the Desert Shield baseball cards were sent to soldiers who were serving in the Persian Gulf War during that time. By season's end, he added his ninth-straight All-Star appearance, second MVP Award, his sixth Silver Slugger, and his first Gold Glove. 1 set on the PSA registry with an amazing 759 of 792 cards graded a PSA 10 sold at auction for over $106,000. Tom Brady 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket /100 BGS 9/10 ($3,800,000) CardLadder. 2000 Topps Traded Miguel Cabrera 2. Check Tiffany prices on eBay (affiliate link), Check Tiffany prices on Amazon (affiliate link). Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $250 Upper Deck could not have chosen a better player than Ken Griffey Jr. to lead off the checklist as card #1 of their debut set in 1989. 3. Considering his Hall Of Fame legacy and untimely passing, this is very surprising. This set was a monster and contained a 792 card checklist in total and that is not counting the enormous amount of errors and variations, some of which are still being discovered today. As part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations, Topps included buybacks and buyback redemptions for Topps Baseball cards released between 1952 and 1990. Its that 40th Anniversary, as collectors from that year recall buying box after box of 1991 Topps, attempting to Chase the Mick, as the company advertised that it had inserted randomly one of every single card it had issued from 1952-91 into individual packs. This 91 Topps sold for $47 around Thanksgiving 2021 and moved again for roughly $60 near Valentines Day 2022. I have a load of these cards from 91 but who buys them anymore? Love that Benny Santiago card you guys posted in the checklist page. However, injuries plagued him as well and his production dropped off drastically in the 1990's. In the opposite corner, Topps trumpets its 40th Anniversary, a 792-card salute to its reign as the preeminent bubble gum card company in the world. When I watched Griffey playing during the 1990's, it almost seemed a certainty he would one day be the all-time leader in home runs. Despite that rarity, many of these cards are very affordable. Whiten played 11 years in the Big Leagues but was never a star. The only box set I ever purchased. Sources vary on the exact distribution but that is the figure most commonly cited. Given the increasing prices of high-grade cards, the potential for unopened packs and boxes could be even greater by now. Many cards are inexpensive and simply not worth the time to grade. If they do, by very little. Its hard to believe but the 1991 Desert Shield baseball cards issued by Topps have turned 30. 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. And at the same time, Fleer threw its had into the premium card market, too. Average ungraded base card value (excludes parallels) for 1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr, Nolan Ryan, and Chipper Jones cards are among the most valuable cards from the 1991 Topps set. A bar runs along the bottom of the card has both the player name and position. Tucked into the upper left-hand corner was a Topps 40 Years of Baseball logo. You can easily distinguish them from the base cards by the Desert Shield logo on the front of the cards. 1952 to 1990. Read our methodology. My years of habitual buying were 87-91. Topps, in a furious battle with rivals Upper Deck and others in a card market that had been booming over the previous five years, added to its promotion by advertising its instant-win game in television commercials. Contact him at [emailprotected]. The 1991 MLB season will probably be best remembered for the epic Minnesota Twins-Atlanta Braves World Series, but the release of this Topps baseball set likely ranks pretty high on collectors list. 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. But make no mistake in 1991, these were not terribly easy cards to find. Im not collecting again till Topps bring back inexpensive cards like they did in the 1980s. After Jones, other big name stars present themselves. The combination of the low-profile design, the open presentation of the photos and traditional card stock has caused many collectors to come back to 1991 Topps Baseball with a new respect. After two years of balancing his efforts as a two-sport athlete for the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Falcons, the Yankees finally decided to part ways with Sanders in September 1990. Charles does not believe the many variations which include several statistical errors were intentional on Topps part, which has been a common accusation regarding the litany of errors found in a number of sets during the overproduction era. Most Expensive, Plus Bonus Listings! 1. I have most of them which is crazy I need help getting them graded I actually have the chipper Jones randy Johnson rookie cards an more all great condition. When you click on links to merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. So there you have it, the ten most valuable 1991 Topps cards in both their base and Desert Shield forms. The top card in the set is easily the rookie card of Hall of Famer Chipper Jones. Pretty neat find. So what are these cards? During his sophomore season in the big leagues, 23-year-old Frank Thomas broke out in a monster way on the Southside of Chicago. Ungraded & graded values for all '91 Topps Baseball Cards. 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 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. does adding the contest cards to the collection increase its value? Grade: Ungraded. Lets start at the beginning and work our way through the rest. 0% The main cards in the set essentially parallel those found in the main 1991 Topps baseball card set. Its a perfect card that still sells a handful of times every month. Is it that small? To put things into perspective, Mattingly led the Majors in 1986 with a .573 slugging percentage and .967 OPS. 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. Read our methodology . We don't know how big a role nostalgia plays with this one, but it still regularly sells north of $40. https://www.cardboardconnection.com/1991-topps-traded-baseball-cards. Yeah, 1991 Topps Baseball contained those old familiars the record breaker cards, league leader cards and ugh checklists, each issued on gray cardboard for one last time. 1. 1. He also loves to write about the hobby and has written for Beckett, Topps, SABR and of course, this website. 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. Copies of the Whiten variation are currently going for $50-$80 ungraded. But, for a guy with a .338 career batting average and eight batting titles to his name, he and the rest of baseball had been used to a much higher standard of batting wizardry. A Baseball Card Database by Baseball Almanac. So why is the set so expensive? Investing in cards involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. This has to be one of the strangest choices of images for any Barry Bonds card in hobby history. 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. 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. The Legacy of Bowman Baseball Cards. By the time the 91 season began, Smith had already earned 11 Gold Gloves. Thankfully, McGwire took the offseason to work out all of the kinks and would be back on track for the 1992 season. What a joy reading! 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. I have hundreds of cards from this 91 set in plastic holders in my basement. Most are statistical errors, but some players have the wrong photo or wrong team. 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. 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. Download Price List, SportsCardsPro 2019-2023 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle: $12.6 million. Due to poor sales of the. Read our. You can email him at [emailprotected] or find him on Twitter @PreWarCards. Prices are updated daily based upon 1991 Topps Traded listings that sold on eBay and our marketplace. The cards were originally intended for soldiers in Operation Desert Shield, a mission to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi Arabia. Prices are updated daily based upon 1991 Topps listings that sold on eBay and our marketplace. The Red Sox won the AL East but were destroyed by the Oakland A's in the ALCS and Andersen never pitched for Boston again. 1969 Topps All-Star Rookie Johnny Bench Rookie Card #95 SHOP EBAY You can go back and forth on which is the actual Johnny Bench rookie card. They must have found their way into the hands of collectors quickly because I remember seeing them for sale at shows at the time. Calling them scarce would a bit much, even if many of the roughly 6,500-7,000 of each player estimated to have been printed were discarded. Price: $1,000. So, for the cards on this list to be worth much, they'll have to be graded by PSA to be in perfect, gem mint condition. 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. 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. Read our methodology . 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. Rickey Henderson headed into the 1991 season looking to somehow keep the momentum going from the career year he had the year before. There were only a handful of cards worth more that $50 during this time. 1991 Topps was, to be honest, nothing remarkable to my kid self while products like Upper Deck, Leaf and Stadium Club were demanding allowance dollars.. Get my weekly newsletter with the latest hobby updates delivered straight to your inbox! 2. Super rare and up to $5k graded mint. I was well into my prime childhood collecting days when the 1991 Topps baseball cards were released. A pair of thin frames are also around the photo. Get my weekly newsletter with the latest hobby updates delivered straight to your inbox! Topps had also returned to a more reserved design to celebrate its anniversary one year after offering one of its flashiest flagship designs ever, the comic book-themed 1990 set. The 91 design offers an element never before seen on Topps cards, instead of merely listing the team name, it utilizes word marks for each club, mimicking the script on the uniform. And the fact that Griffey Jr. appears on this list twice goes back to what I was saying earlier: he was one of the most popular athletes in the world at the time and collectors wanted any card on which he appeared. From 1984 through 1991, Topps gave collectors what we wanted sort of. There was no need for Bonds to panic, however, since he'd add six more MVPs and multiple top-five voting finishes before his storied career came to a close in 2007. 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. Nope, the Old Gray Mare aint what she used to be. For Cal Ripken Jr., though, there is no question: the 1991 season was his career year. 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. You can, after all, routinely find thousands of them on eBay. For whatever reason, 1991 Topps Baseball has an abnormal amount of errors. Most of the cards show the logo faded with the stats easy to read, while variations off er a bright, bold, red logo that dominates the stats. Be careful if you pursue these babies, though, and watch out for telltale signs like . The most valuable Jose Canseco Baseball Card is the 2020 1A. Key rookie cards include Jeff Bagwell, Luis Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez. - http://bit.ly/W. I remember he seemed to hit and run with a distinct style and grace and you can see that coming to life in this great image of him heading towards first base. The card of Jones, an eight-time All-Sar and former Most Valuable Player, has become of one of the more sought after cards in the junk wax era particularly in high-grade condition. Anyway, Ripken Jr. will always be known for that "other streak", the one in which he played in 2,632 consecutive games. A completely unopened wax box of 36 packs was sold in December 2020 by Heritage for $30,000. 1991 Topps Turns 30 Rip for Chip? I was the winner of the 1959 complete set from mailing in the insert cards. That is probably the most fantastic shot of all time. The most obvious problem is there's no way in hell a Jose Uribe card from any year and in any kind of condition should go for $758,000. Although his career was limited by injuries, he still put up monster numbers and was an easy Hall of Fame inductee. 1991 Topps Traded card list & price guide. 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. 1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr Seattle Mariners Rookie Card. But Charles, and others, have opened that much 91 Topps for another reason, one that continues to make the set as collectible as anything issued by Topps today. One of the most memorable cards in the 91 Topps set, this horizontal stunner shows Clemens posing in front of Fenway Parks famed scoreboard. The title is a reference to the irreverent nickname given the famous (infamous?) I had them in their original boxes placed in shoeboxes in my closet, in fact in 2019 I offered the entire package to a friend in NY for $1000 plus shipping, fortunately his kid isnt into sports so he said no. If theres a cooler card capturing MLBs stolen base king in his dust-filled, head-first glory, we probably havent seen it. With that sweet swing of his, he seemed to effortlessly crush home runs left and right. Great article! Its the retro-appreciation for a set overlooked in its time. Of those submitted, eleven graded gem mint 10, 797 mint 9, and 1,460 near-mint to mint 8. 1991 Topps card list & price guide. Ungraded & graded values for all '92 Leaf Baseball Cards. For cards worth more than that amount or issued prior to 1957, Topps inserted redemptions, according to the spokesman for Topps at the time. Its that last cardboard set, tying son to father to grandfather. To some veteran collectors, it remains the last true baseball card set and has been elevated in their minds through year after year of glossy fronts and backs. 1991 Donruss Jose Uribe Brand New Card 4. The wide variety of variations and the obscurity of many of them is the reason why Charles created his blog, to counter much of the incorrect information he has seen. And because they corrected it, the limited number of Whiten cards where his hand is over the border instantly became a rarity and have shot up in value as a result. 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. Other subsets include All-Stars and Record Breakers. Upper Deck had an advantage over other. (Updated for 2022) SUBSCRIBE NOW! 1. That led collectors everywhere to "chase the Mick" in hopes of landing one of the most coveted cards of all time: the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. This has a produced a legion of 91 variation collectors who have been unearthing differences in the set for the past decade, years after it was issued. Cal Ripken Jr. also has a "Record Breaker" card in this set which acknowledges his achievement of setting the record for most consecutive games by a shortstop without an error at 95 games in a row. Despite losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1992 World Series, Sanders played lights out and nearly helped them to a title before rejoining the Falcons to finish off the NFL season. 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. 1989 Topps Randy Johnson Rookie Card 4. Nolan Ryan's "1990 Record Breaker" card is also high up on the list of cards from this set. How high can these cards rise? 1991 Topps Baseball saw the company celebrate its 40th anniversary. Theres a link to the price guide at the top of this page. Check out that one here. These frames are color-coded according to the team. But most collectors are probably focused on the main set. Still are. Click on any card to see more graded card prices, historic prices, and past sales. Given the amount of excitement Bonds was clearly bringing to the game, why did Topps choose to showcase such an explosive player in this manner? 1991 Topps Micro card list & price guide. 1991 Topps Emmitt SmithRookie Card (#360) Is Smith the greatest running back of all time? Don Mattingly was one of the most feared hitters during the 1980s, capable of hitting for both average and power. Only his other MVP-winning campaign in 1983 comes close to matching what he did in 1991. What Is the Most Valuable 1991 Topps Baseball Card? However, the 1991 Stadium Club set will always be remembered as a game-changer for Topps with its unique place in hobby history. My brother and I must have gotten tired of opening them, and moved on to something new. 1990 Topps George Bush USA1 Card #4. That may seem like a lot until you consider that collectors arent too likely to submit new cards unless they think theyre in top shape. Counterfeits. 2022 Bowmans Best Baseball Checklist, Team Set Lists and Details, One-Sheet Collections: Best Active NBA Stars Who Have Never Been All-Stars, 2022 Bowman Inception Baseball Checklist, Team Set Lists, Odds and Details, 2022-23 Leaf Exotic Basketball Checklist and Details, 2021-22 SP Game Used CHL Hockey Checklist and Details, 2023 GAS Arnold Schwarzenegger: Built to Perfection Trading Cards Carry Some Heavy Weight, 2022 Panini Flawless Collegiate Basketball Checklist and Details, 2022 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome Baseball Checklist, Team Set Lists and Details.