Zman Repack Box & Contest - Pack 4: 1989 Topps

Three packs down, four to go. So far the pack standings are as follows:

1 1990 Score
2 1988 Donruss
3 1989 Donruss

Can 1989 Topps possibly be stinkier than 1989 Donruss? It's possible, at 5 cents per common and 15 cards a pack, a pack of all commons could theoretically be valued at 75 cents. If one is horribly waxed up, 72 cents. Isn't is funny how the price guide listed even the worst possible pack as more valuable than the pack's retail cost? Amazing how that works. This pack will have nothing but rookies and error cards in it, so that will not matter. You didn't know thee were errors in 1989 Topps did you? There's a Bob Welch card with no career stat line on the back. Gues which rookies were big in 1991? Biggio and Smoltz you say? Nope. They are 40¢ and 25¢, respectively. No, you wanted Rob Dibble ($1.00), Chris Sabo ($1.50) and Sandy Alomar Jr. ($1.75). Let's do a trivia question and then open 'er up to count all the Sheffields I pull.

Trivia Question:

There are ads for oddball and non-sports stuff all over the May 1991 Tuff Stuff. Desert Storm cards, RockCards, Twin Peaks cards, even a set of professional jockeys. One of the features in the magazine is an interview with a very famous artist who worked on a different oddball set that also was being released at that time.

1) Who was the artist? and 2) what was the set?

Half a point each for these answers. The wrapper of this pack is really loose so I hope no one stole my Steve Avery draft pick card.

Puffy sweatshirt ad 0¢

A quick aside here... Did ANYONE ever buy one of these things? If I wore a puffy sweatshirt to school in 1991 that said "All-Star Card Collector", I would have been forced to move to another state from the embarrassment and abuse heaped upon me. Then I'd have to do it again because I'd keep wearing the stupid thing because IT WAS TOO COOL.

429 Minnesota Twins Leaders 5¢
532 Jerry Browne 5¢
659 Al Leiter 5¢
650 Kirby Puckett 25¢
404 Bob Boone All star 5¢
142 Mike Diaz 5¢
500 Jose Canseco 75¢
731 Mike Young 5¢
604 Paul O'Neill 10¢
722 Todd Stottlemyre 5¢
571 Billy Ripken 5¢
228 Nelson Santovenia 5¢
527 Dave Henderson 5¢
523 Andres Thomas 5¢
502 Duane Ward 5¢

Total Book Value: $1.70

This was a pretty good pack, especially in comparison to the Donruss ones. A Hall of Famer, one of the most infamous players of the past 20 years and a couple other decent players to top it off. We got the wrong '89 Billy Ripken, but oh well. Here's the top three:

Jose Canseco

Ok fine. Now he's fighting Danny Bonaduce. Back in 1989 he just came off a 40-40 season with a ton of RBIs and an MVP. This is about as iconic a card as '89 Topps is going to get.

Kirby Puckett

Why can't we have photos like this in Topps anymore? Kirby's half asleep and hasn't shaved, but at least you can see it's Kirby. No action shot squished by a bump at the top of the card. No generic pitcher throwing/batter at the plate that is seen in 50 other cards in the set. Just a good close up picture of a ballplayer.

Dave Henderson

I love this card. The weird shadows that don't seem to line up properly. The very odd looking warm up jacket with no collar. The hat that looks like it's made of terrycloth. All those airbrush disasters and still it's an awesome card due to Dave's broad gap toothed smile surrounded by the killer 'stache.

This pack doesn't match up to the Score, but it ain't bad. Tomorrow night: 1990 Donruss. I'm going to pull a Jose Rijo and Gary Gaetti and hold them for ransom.