LCS Visit – Championship Cards – 1989 Fleer Pickup

Junk Wax Galore!

To my utter SHOCK there was many selections of junk wax in the shop, and I’ve never had an opportunity to buy a 1989 Fleer in person, and this box had 31 packs remaining, as they were selling it by packs. There was no hesitation, and I bought the entire box along with some other awesome items:

1989 Fleer Wax Box – 31 packs
2002 Topps Series 1 Wax Box – possibly retail – 30 packs + 3 extra packs
1994 Bowman – 2 packs
1990 Leaf – 5 packs
Random Bundle

1989 Fleer Wax Box

So in researching the box for this post, I was taking the pictures of the box and noticed the code on the back face of the box.

So I looked it up, and surprise, there is conflicting information regarding this. I would highly recommend reading the entirety of this post on Postwarcards – https://www.postwarcards.com/pulling-the-bill-ripken-ff-error-from-1989-fleer-wax-boxes/. This post states that the only way to guarantee is to pull it from a case with the CASE digits before 90171.

There are other posts which state that the 8610-A code on the box is a clue, as well as many ebay listings as well. It’s fun to speculate, and will be a fun rip. Really in the end I’m excited I have the opportunity to collect this 1989 Fleer, and I’m excited about the Fleer stickers!!

2002 Topps Series 1 – Retail confirmed

This caught my eye, as my rule is if I see something that I don’t recognize, I typically have to get it. I’ve never even saw this year for sale in recent memory, and I grabbed it during the visit. Turns out that this is a retail version, 30 packs + 3 bonus packs. There is some pretty fascinating things about 2002 Topps. First up the Mark Lorretta card history, and the Albert Pujols card with the Placido Polanco picture on the back. Hilarious!

2002 Topps – [Base] #160.1 – Albert Pujols (Placido Polanco Pictured on Back)

Here is the description of the set from TCDB:

Distributed as Series One (#1-365) and Series Two (#366-719). #7 was retired by Topps in honor of Mickey Mantle and does not exist. #365 has 73 different versions, one for each Barry Bonds home run, and a set is considered complete with any one of them. In late run factory sets, the 446 Mark Loretta error card was corrected. – TCDB

As far as what to look for in the box, here is what to look for, pulled from the 15 most valuable cards from 2002 Topps via OldSportsCards:

Topps #160 Albert Pujols – All-Star Rookie
Topps #225 Ichiro – All-Star Rookie
Topps #165 Rickey Henderson
Topps #99 Tony Gwynn

Notable Phillies Cards:

#574 Ron Jones Rookie
#575 Ricky Jordan Rookie
#582 Mike Schmidt – HOF
#562 Steve Bedrosian – Cy Young award winner in 1987
#571 Von Hayes
#573 Steve Jeltz

In addition there are a bunch of sub-sets that look cool to dive into as well. Series 2 features Joe Mauer Rookie card and the Ichiro series in the #700s. The hobby boxes have more packs and better odds on stuff, but I really do not care about it, as I was just happy to get a chance to get the box. Here are the odds.

1994 Bowman Packs

I saw these for sale on the shelf at Championship Cards, and I had to grab 2 packs. The foil is just spectacular, and in this shot I discovered some sort of pulling/indent in the cards at the spot it looks like it’s causing the foil to make that crease across. I wonder if this was from some sort of rubber-band around the packs to cause that. Not worried because as a collector, I’m just happy to get these cards since I know for sure I don’t have this year in packs.

As far as what cards to look for in the 1994 Bowman set, we once again go to Old Sports Cards to get some detail on what cards are people hunting for:

#38 Jorge Posada Rookie
#104 Torii Hunter Rookie
#232 Derrek Lee Rookie
#642 Billy Wagner Rookie – HOF 2025
#5 Ken Griffey Jr.
#15 Frank Thomas
#75 Cal Ripken Jr.
#80 Rickey Henderson
#120 Tony Gwynn

TCDB Description:

“Distributed in one series (#1-682). Foil cards #337-388 inserted one per foil pack and two per Jumbo pack.”

For the Phillies:

#224 Kevin Jordan Rookie
#336 Phil Geisler Rookie
#468 Mark Tranberg Rookie
#496 Ricky Bottalico Rookie
#552 Ryan Karp Rookie
#608 Wayne Gomes Rookie

1990 Leaf – 5 Packs

1990 Leaf – 15 cards per pack + 3 puzzle pieces

There is a fun theme running through the pickups I just noticed. Since some of the the boxes and packs are not Topps, the companies legally could not include gum, so that is why the 1989 Fleer includes those awesome stickers, and now the 1990 Leaf includes the Yogi Berra Puzzle. Leaf/Donruss ended the puzzles in 1992 Series 2. I’ve seen a trend where people are putting together the puzzles and I think that would be cool to do one day.

This was a high-end set upon release in 1990, Sports Collectors Daily has a great article on the impact of the industry. Leaf went from the Canadian version of the Donruss brand to a premium offering to compete with the seismic shifting release of 1989 Upper Deck. The article states that “Sometimes less is more and the set leaned on that narrative”, and I wonder if the modern card industry could take a lesson from this, but that is another post for another time. The article continues:

“The premium set was released in two separate series. The first series includes card numbers one through 264 and series two offers card numbers 265 through 528. The set was available through hobby dealers and in select retail outlets mostly along the west coast and in the Great Lakes Region. There was a definite perceived scarcity and this was a product that collectors had to find. It wasn’t one that found them at every turn. “

15 Cards per pack is simply unheard of these days! I had these packs, and I noticed they are thicker, but I didn’t even look at the number of cards per pack until writing this.

Key cards:

#300 Frank Thomas Rookie
#220 Sammy Sosa Rookie
#325 Larry Walker Rookie
#359 Deion Sanders Rookie
#180 Albert Belle Rookie
#297 David Justice Rookie
#107 Marquis Grissom Rookie
#237 John Olerud Rookie
#443 Carlos Baerga Rookie
#265 Nolan Ryan No Hit King
#125 Bo Jackson

Notable Phillies Cards:

No rookies at ALL in this set for the Phillies! No Hall of Famers either, but plenty of cards that feature the members of the 1993 team.

#20 Roger McDowell
#131 Charlie Hayes
#262 Len Dykstra
#284 John Kruk
#369 Darren Daulton
#474 Terry Mulholland
#500 Randy Ready

Random Bundle

2017 Topps 30th Anniversary 1987 Bryce Harper

The shop offered a random bundle of 3 items:

2017 Topps 1987 30th Anniversary – Bryce Harper
2024 Topps Hobby Rip Night – September 2024 – 1 Pack
2023 Topps Heritage – 3 packs

2024 Topps Hobby Rip Night – September 2024 – single pack

The reason I got the bundle was there was a Bryce Harper 1987 Topps 30th Anniversary, but also these Hobby Rip Night packs look so cool. I’ve yet to open it, but I will post up when I do!

2023 Topps Heritage – 3 packs

What I thought I would be another post I can simply address here since we have Topps Heritage in the discussion. I had a retail box of Topps Heritage I would rip while experimenting on filming opening packs. What became a joke was that I would NEVER pull any Phillies cards. A pack a day and it took like 3 weeks to pull a single Phillies card. It was quite demoralizing to only open pack after pack and not get anything you are looking for. So that feeling I can imagine if you are one who does not like base cards, and is only in it for the hits. That is NOT what Topps Heritage is. I LOVED the card stock, I love the look of the brand, and I was apprehensive before because of the lack of Phillies. The chance came up in this to get a few things PLUS three packs of Topps Heritage, and I figure why not.

There have been a few chances this winter that Blowout was having sales on Topps Heritage hobby boxes for super cheap, and I just didn’t pull the trigger. I have constraints on the rules of buying to build the Phillies collection primarily in person at shows or at card shops. As much as I really wanted to buy the hobby boxes for easy cheaper ripping of modern players, I began to focus on organizing the collection, and writing.

If you made it this far, this post took far longer than I imagined it would! In the future I’ll probably break these up, but thank you for reading!