Joy of a Completed Team Set - 1988 Topps

Everyone raves about '87 Topps and '89 Topps is oddly loved nowadays but for my money '88 Topps is the best looking set of the late '80s. Oddly enough the last card I needed was a Traded Kevin Coffman which came out of one of those Target Card Coffins. I now know why those are referred to as Card Coffins. Jayzus that was horrible. I got screwed out of my '60s card too unless the '6th decade of cards the box referred to was a 2021 card I didn't recognize at first glance. I'm happy about the team set though.

Last card there on the bottom is a perfectly centered Dion James with that mess on the back. Bonus Mahler Mojo!

1988 Topps Gotta Be Somewhere Around Here List

bluh

205 Nelson Liriano

seriously nelson liriano is the last card I need for reals

compleeeeeeeeeeeete

Mark K. is the best, yo

1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse Fun Pack

When you have writer's block... make a video!

And yes, the secret word is FUN and you are legally obligated to scream when I say it. So have fun.



I need to find a case of this stuff. This might be the best Topps set ever.

88 Topps Cards: Tourney Time

88 Topps Cards has reached the middle of the Traded set so Andy has set up a tournament for best card of the set. The choices made in the upcoming weeks will change history so go and vote!

Tournament poll #1 Bo vs. Eric

Tournament poll #2 Boggs vs. Yount

I kinda like this card here:

Greg Maddux. First Topps Card. Right handed pitcher, right for America.

I'm dayf the Junkie and I approved this message

Listen to 1988 Topps

80's wax has never led you astray folks... listen to the pack.

Gifts from '88 Topps Cards

These cards have been sitting in front of me for a while now, taunting me because I haven't gotten around to posting them. I got them from Andrew, who writes for the Baseball-Reference.com Stat of the Day blog, and has his own blog featuring the 1988 Topps set. He's had a few contests on the 88 Topps blog and I've gotten a few cards from Andy when he was in a generous mood as well.

First up, we have a pile of 1988 O-Pee-Chee, Andy got a set of these and started doling them out to his readers. I got a little pile of them including these two :

It was nice to get a Greg Maddux card I didn't already have, And I didn't know the Derek Bell existed. Derek was a nice player for a while, but he kinda fell of the face of the earth a few years ago. Cards with him in a Pirates uniform still make me sad. I got a bunch of 88-O-Pee Chee packs cheap a while back but I was still missign a ton of the set. Andy Hooked me up with a few I needed including:

Cecil Fielder
Joe Niekro
Wally Joyner
Claudell Washington
Rafael Ramirez
Billy Ripken
Steve Bedrosian
Doyle Alexander
Pascual Perez
Rick Mahler
Julio Franco
Terry Steinbach
Jimy Williams

Along with the 88s, Andy included a handful of Bowman Draft.

a sweet Terry Steinbach rookie and the best of all, a 1974 George Scott card.

Nice big cut by the Milwaukee slugger. Once I'm done with my 500 other projects I really need to pick a set from the 70's and just flat out complete it. The '74 set is a nice one, especially since it has the Hank Aaron love affair cards. Nice haul eh?, but wait there's more...

Andy picked up a 2003 Fan Favorites set to showcase the 1988 cards and he offered me a few to finish my set. He had two of the three I needed (down to a lone George Brett card) but he also included a couple of '85 Braves cards as well:

A Murph All- Star card and a Bob Horner. Very nice. The two Fan Favorites I needed was eventual Hall of Famer Jim Rice and this beauty:

Monte Irvin! Monte was one of the first vintage cards I ever got (a 1953 Topps card) and is a favorite of mine. What's even better is this is the 'no sig' variation from the set. Topps printed up a card with the facsimile signature and one without. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or a mistake but neither is any more scarce than the other. I just could never find the silly thing which was irksome since I had passed it up at one point without realizing I needed it.

Thanks again Andy, and I hope you get those Chien-Ming Wang cards signed! Show 'em off if you do!

Another contest

Andy runs a regular giveaway on his 88 Topps Blog, this week he's got something extra cool. He's giving away an entire set of 1988 Topps Gallery of Champions metal cards. Now that is not something you see everyday. To enter the contest go here and follow the instructions. You'll need to answer 5 questions about his advertisers (sneaky Andy!) and guess a random number from Steve Bedrosian's baseball-reference page. I've already entered, so go enter yourself into the drawing and screw up my odds of winning. Oh wait... maybe I didn't think this thing through as much as I should. Ahh, go ahead. There are no Braves in that set anyway. Check out the site while you're there, it's nifty seeing the '88 set broken down card by card.


Update: There's a certain question that asks for the name of a website on a Google ad. Unfortunately Google ads are painfully random and don't seem to want to come up all the time. I'm going to me nice and let you in on the answer... it can be found here. However, by clicking on that link you have to promise that you'll click on three other ads on Andy's site. Okay? Good luck to everyone, even though I've already guessed the correct number!