1989 Upper Deck
Description
The landmark 1989 Upper Deck Baseball is a 800-card set released in two series. The first series (also known as the "Low-Numbers") consists of the first 700 cards, and was released to The Hobby in April, 1989. The High-Number Series, which has both the 700 Low-Number cards, plus an additional 100 cards, was released in October.
Collectors should also note that many dealers consider that Upper Deck's "planned" production of 1,000,000 cards of each player was increased (perhaps even doubled) later in the year due to the explosion in popularity of the product. The cards feature slick paper stock, full color on both the front and the back and carry a hologram on the reverse to protect against counterfeiting.
Subsets include Rookie Stars (#1-#27), 1988 Award Winners (#658-#663), 1988 Postseason Highlights (#664-#667), and Team Checklists (#668-#693) which were painted by the father of future Major League outfielder Vernon Wells.
The more significant variations involving changed photos or changed type are listed below. According to the company, the Dale Murphy RevNeg and Pat Sheridan "no position" cards were corrected very early, after only two percent of the cards had been produced. Similarly, the Gary Sheffield "upside-down SS" was corrected after 15 percent had been printed; Gary Varsho, Mike Gallego, and Bill Schroeder were corrected after 20 percent; and Brian Holton, Fred Manrique, and Herm Winningham were corrected 30 percent of the way through.
1989 Upper Deck is notable, of course, for card #1: The Star Rookie of Ken Griffey, Jr. Other rookies included Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson (all, like Griffey, included in the "Star Rookie" subset) Craig Biggio. Amoungst the Hi-Series rookie are Tom Gordon, Steve Findley, Jim Abbott and Omar Vizquel.
Cards with missing or duplicate holograms appear to be relatively common and are generally considered to be flawed copies that sell for substantial discounts.
Legacy of 1989 Upper Deck and the Ken Griffey, Jr. Star Rookie
In the 1989 Upper Deck baseball set, Ken Griffey, Jr. was selected to be featured on card #1. The decision to make Griffey, Jr. the first card in the set was reached in late 1988.
A teenage employee named Tom Geideman (who later went on to found football draft-pick card producer SA-GE) was the one who suggested the use of Griffey as card #1. Traditionally, Topps had a system for reserving various numbers in their sets (such as numbers 1 and 100) for the biggest stars in the game. Geideman decided that a top prospect should be honored with the number one card in the inaugural 1989 set. After reviewing Baseball America, Geideman narrowed the list of candidates to four: Gregg Jefferies, Gary Sheffield, Sandy Alomar, Jr., and Griffey. Geideman was a Mariners fan and decided that Ken Griffey, Jr. should be the prospect featured on card number one of the 1989 set.
At press time, Griffey had not yet played a major league game, so Upper Deck used an image of Griffey in a San Bernardino Spirit uniform and used computers to make him appear as though he was in a Seattle uniform.
Make no mistake, the '89 Upper Deck Griffey is one of the most significant baseball cards ever produced. It is the "'52 Mantle" of the post-vintage era. Unfortunately, unlike the '52 Mantle, it is not a scarce card. The card was situated in the top left hand corner of the uncut sheets and was more liable to be cut poorly or have its corners dinged. Company policy was that if a customer found a damaged card in its package, the company would replace it. Many Griffey cards were returned and the result was that Upper Deck printed many uncut sheets (sheets consisting of 100 cards) of just Ken Griffey, Jr.
According to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. is the most graded card of all time. Between PSA and Beckett Grading Services (BGS), over 100,000 copies have been slabbed.
Distribution
Both series were issued in 15-card, 36-pack boxes. Each High-Series pack contained two cards from cards 701-800, and the rest from cards 1-700. A team-logo hologram sticker was included in each pack.
Two different factory sets were also issued. One with all 800 cards, and the other with just the 100 High-Number Series cards.
1989 Upper Deck, both packs and sets, were issued exclusive to Hobby outlets.
NOTE: Wax boxes were NOT sealed, while the two factory sets were. Collectors should be advised that, while the factory sets are sealed in shrink-wrap, the practice of watermarking shrink-wrap with the logo of the issuing company did not begin until the early-1990s.
Reviews
Checklist
Promos
Base Set
Low Series
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High Series
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