1989: THE YEAR THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
WHAT HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO STILL IMPACTS THE WAY WE COLLECT TODAY.
WHAT HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO STILL IMPACTS THE WAY WE COLLECT TODAY.
The San Francisco 49ers were the greatest team in football. The NFL was in its 70th season. Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Derrick omas and Deion Sanders were taken within the top five picks of the draft. They are all Hall of Famers.
The 1989 season was one of the most impactful in NFL history, and it just may be the most important year the football card hobby has ever seen. Everything changed that year. The baseball card market was soaring, and football cards were quickly catching up.
For the first time, there were three NFL card sets. Topps enjoyed a two-decade run through the ’70s and ’80s as the only option for licensed cards, but Score and Pro Set joined the market just as the hobby was skyrocketing in popularity. Many rookies and top draft picks were given special treatment and design, which was a monumental advancement that changed the industry forever. Later in the year, the first issue of Beckett Football Card Magazine released. It added a level of legitimacy to the hobby, and gave collectors
an unprecedented tool helping them organize and track the value of their collections.
The 1989 Score set was at the top of collectors’ want lists. Despite the print run being through the roof, collectors clamored for what they considered to be higher-quality cards. Joe Montana and Bo Jackson, the top two superstars of the time, led the checklist with the first two cards. The set also was the first to highlight rookies with a unique design, including “1989 Rookie” printed across the top border. It brought Rookie Cards of some of the greatest to ever play the game, including Barry Sanders (#257), Troy Aikman (#270), Cris Carter (#72), Michael Irvin (#18), Tim Brown (#86), Deion Sanders (#246), Thurman Thomas (#211), Derrick Thomas (#258) and Rod Woodson (#78). All are in the Hall of Fame, and these RCs have held their value quite well over three decades.
Score was the only set in 1989 to release a Sanders Rookie Card early. Pro Set didn’t include him until the second series, and Topps didn’t fit him in until it released the Topps Traded set.
Pro Set, with its nearly 600 cards, was the official football card set of the NFL. But it didn’t rival Score in popularity. Pro set also identified top 1989 dra picks with a special design, including #490 of Troy Aikman and #494 of Barry Sanders. The appeal of offering is in the sheer size of the set. To promote the set, a unique Santa Claus “player-coach” card was made picturing the jolly fellow dressed as a coach and holding his own card. It still sells for $20-$40 today. Higher grade versions can bring more than $100.
The regular Topps release that year was missing key rookies, as it was not yet common to include rookies from the current season. That’s another reason why the Score product was so ahead of it’s time. Topps made up for it by packing its Topps Traded set will big-name rookies.
FINISHING TOUCHES
The monumental year delivered football’s first supplemental sets—1989 Score Supplemental and 1989 Topps Traded. This had been a tradition in baseball for several years, and instantly became a hit in football delivering key Rookie Cards. It helped create even more buzz and anticipation. It also set the tone for the following years to make rookies the focus of each set.
Score Supplemental (110 total cards) added RCs of Neil Smith and Sterling Sharpe. It also includes one of the most recognizable photos ever put on a football card—a black-andwhite image of Bo Jackson wearing shoulder pads and holding a baseball bat.
The Topps Traded set brought 132 cards, and is known for packing in key RCs that were not in the regular Topps release. You can find Barry Sanders (#83T), Troy Aikman (#70T), Deion Sanders (#30T) and Derrick omas #90T.