Collecting 1989 Score Football Cards

Set Notes

Filled with stellar rookie cards and future Hall-of-Famers, and sporting a colorful, modern design, Score's 1989 football set was the must-have set of it's time.

Curator of Collections, Card Cyber Museum

Score's inaugural football set is arguably the best modern gridiron issue.

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Excerpt

In the same year that Upper Deck revolutionized the baseball card industry, Pinnacle changed the face of the football card hobby.

With its colorful design, firm stock and unparalleled rookie selection, the 1989 Score Football set is arguably the best modern gridiron issue.

“I think it’s a landmark set,” said Frank Massaro, who owns a complete PSA 10, 1989 Score Football set. “I think in every sport there are a few sets that will stand the test of time . . . and I think the ’89 Football set is going to be one of those sets.”

Rookies

More set notes

The 1993 Topps baseball set consists of two series, respectively, of 396 and 429 standard-size cards. A Topps Gold card was inserted in every 15-card pack. In addition, hobby and retail factory sets were produced. The fronts feature color action player photos with white borders. The player's name appears in a stripe at the bottom of the picture, and this stripe and two short diagonal stripes at the bottom corners of the picture are team color-coded.

This set contains 165 standard-size cards and was sold in 11-card packs for $1.29. The 1995 Topps Traded set features rookies, draft picks and players who had been traded. The fronts contain a photo with a white border. The backs have a player picture in a scoreboard and his statistics and information. Subsets featured are At The Break ((1T-10T) and All-Stars (156T-164T). Rookie Cards in this set include Michael Barrett, Carlos Beltran, Ben Davis, Hideo Nomo and Richie Sexson.

This set consists of 792 standard-size cards. Cards were primarily issued in 17-card wax packs, 50-card rack packs and factory sets. Card fronts feature wood grain borders encasing a color photo (reminiscent of Topps classic 1962 baseball set). Subsets include Record Breakers (1-7), Turn Back The Clock (311-315), All-Star selections (595-616), and Team Leaders (scattered throughout the set). The manager cards contain a team checklist on back.

The 1991 Topps Traded set contains 132 standard-size cards. The cards were issued primarily in factory set form through hobby dealers but was also made available on a limited basis in wax packs (grey backs) and collated factory sets (white backs) are from different card stock. Both versions are valued equally. The card design is identical to the regular issue 1991 Topps cards except for the white stock (for factory card sets) and T-suffix numbering. The set is numbered in alphabetical order. The set includes a Team USA subset, featuring 25 of America's top collegiate players.

This 132-card standard-size Traded set, numbered 1T - 132T, was distributed exclusively in hobby set form in a red and white box through hobby dealers. The set numbering is in alphabetical order by player's name. The cards are identical to regular-issue 1986 Topps cards except for whiter stock and 'T'-suffixed numbering. Key extended Rookie Cards (XRC) in this set are Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Andres Galarraga, Bobby Bonilla, Jose Canseco, Bo Jackson, Wally Joyner, John Kruk and Kevin Mitchell.

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