And So Began Premium Cards - 1988 Upper Deck Anaheim Samples

Decided its about time to do what I've been wanting to since building this site...blog about interesting and/or unusual pieces of the collection. I want to start with a much maligned timeframe of the hobby...the junk wax era. Not much for most people to write home about until all the Griffey rookies arrived. But there are some fascinating and hard to find test issues, promos, and other crazy things and we're going to look at some of them here.

In 1987, an idea started that was going to change the face of the baseball card industry. This idea was Upper Deck. Their first set in 1989 would introduce the idea of premium base sets, more expensive packs ($0.99 each!!), and of course the most iconic modern era card there is. However before that set could be released, there had to be tests, samples, and promos. Starting with the 1988 National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, you began to see the three different versions of both DeWayne Buice and Wally Joyner. However between that time and the products release, there was another larger set of 25 cards made. They were distributed on November 26-27 at the Anaheim Sports Card Show, which was very close to their headquarters and therefore a quick and easy way to spread the word about the upcoming release.

It turns out that out of 25 cards, 5 of them ended up being Mariners. So far I've only picked up the Jay Buhner, which is by far the best one. He is followed by Harold Reynolds (ed. - which I acquired the morning after posting this), Scott Bradley, Bruce Fields, and Rod Scurry. I am somewhat relieved that they used cards between 206 and 250 for these because if they'd used say, card 1...well that card would be unspeakably expensive. The fronts are nearly identical to the ones eventually released, except the gray box where a position would be listed is empty. The backs however are blank, save for some of them being stamped as a sample.

As an interesting side-note, this is very possibly the first card picturing Jay Buhner as a member of the Mariners. That of course depends on when Score Rookie/Traded was released, though I haven't found an exact date on that. It was probably first, but I still like the idea that it might be a toss-up.

A quick thanks to both baseballcardpedia.com (part about Buice/Joyner Promos) and ebay user leema191 (part about this set, and the person I bought this card from). Hope you enjoyed this first look at some quirky older cards. Will try and do these every week or so...or something.