Allen Bored
I would like to say that I’ve curtailed my rediscovered baseball card collecting addiction since last week’s article but alas it has not happened. Here’s what I’ve purchased since we last spoke.
2002 Topps Reserve Hobby Box (comes with an autographed mini-helmet, come on Pujols!)
2012 Bowman Retail Box
2012 Topps Update Retail Box
2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Retail Box
2013 Topps Heritage Hobby Box
And this is not including the supplies I’m having to buy now to store all these cards. I’m still not sure what the purpose of this all is but hey I did sell a rare Elvis Andrus card for $60 which I then gave up immediately to help pay for the Topps Reserve box. But hey I didn’t give out any hand jobs for Bryce Harper cards…yet.
Much like with basketball cards, for whatever reason in the late 1980’s football cards were not nearly as in demand as baseball cards were. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s Topps was the only company mass producing football cards up until 1989 when Score would release it’s debut set and the NFL itself would join in with their awful NFL Pro Set cards. What I thought was kind of cool with Topps Football was they would group teams together in the set and they would be ordered by how that team finished in the previous season. So for the 1988 set the two Super Bowl participants would come first, the Redskins and Broncos, and then from there they would be ordered based on regular season record with the 3-12 Falcons bringing up the rear for this set.
Now in this pack we have something truly momentous. So far we’ve had three cards share the title of Least Worthless Card out of my worthless pack lot (1990 Upper Deck Nolan Ryan, 1992 SkyBox Tim Wakefield, and 1994 Collector’s Edge Dan Marino). Each of those cards is worth $2 apiece but today my friends we not only crack the $3 barrier, we have a card that is worth $4! Remember this day.
#25
Card Value: $0.20
1988 Stats: 16 GS, 68 REC, 896 YDS, 5 TD, 8 AV
Johnson was best of the Broncos “Three Amigos” receiving trio.
#78
Card Value: $0.20
1988 Stats: 16 GS, 88 TKL, 11.5 SK, 10 AV
Long before he was a terrible wrestler, McMichael was one of the best interior linemen in the league. He had a career high 11.5 sacks in ’88 and had the only three sack game of his career in Week 7 against the Cowboys (box score).
#102
Card Value: $0.40
1988 Stats: 11 GS, 54.4 CMP%, 2327 YDS, 17 TD, 8 INT, 11 AV
Moon missed five games after injuring his throwing shoulder in the season opener but despite that he was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time. On the year the Oilers finished 10-6, defeating the Browns in the Wild Card round (box score) before falling to the Bills in the Divisional round (box score).
#107
Card Value: $0.20
1988 Stats: 16 GS, 60 REC, 976 YDS, 5 TD, 12 AV
By Approximate Value, Givins was the second best receiver in the AFC in 1988 (Eddie Brown of the Bengals was #1) but he was left of the Pro Bowl roster. He did have a poor postseason as he only caught two passes for 31 yards in the Oilers two playoff games.
#148
Card Value: $0.20
1988 Stats: 6 GS, 48.0 CMP%, 1264 YDS, 5 TD, 9 INT, 4 AV
For the second straight year Kramer and Wade Wilson split time as the Vikings starting QB. Wilson started Week 1 but Kramer was given the reigns after the opener but was yanked early in a blowout loss to the Packers in Week 7 (box score) and Wilson would take over the job for good.
#207
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: 1 GS, 36 REC, 279 YDS, 1 TD, 3 AV
James was a diminutive running back (listed at 5’6”); he did most of his damage as a receiver and return man. For several years he held records for most receiving yards by a running back (1,027 in ‘85) and most all-purpose yards (2,690 also in ’85) in a single season. But at this point he was no longer an effective player and ’88 was his last year in the league.
#225
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: 8 GS, 23 RC, 354 YDS, 1 TD, 4 AV
Burkett lead the Bills in receiving yards the previous two seasons but he missed several games due to injury in ’88 and Andre Reed emerged as Jim Kelly’s favorite target.
#228
Card Value: $0.20
1988 Stats: 15 GS, 73 TKL, 2.5 SK, 7 AV
Talley was kind of the forgotten man in the Bills excellent linebacker unit that included Cornelius Bennett and Shane Conlan. They were a big part of the Bills breakout 12-4 season in ’88.
#256
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: 16 GS, 53 TKL, 14 SK, 7 AV
Nunn was a pass rushing specialist; only Reggie White, Kevin Greene, and Lawrence Taylor had more sacks in ’88.
#265
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: 32 KRT, 690 YDS, 1 AV
Clack was a running back but saw most of his action as a return man.
#305
Card Value: $0.20
1988 Stats: 15 GS, 93 REC, 1067 YDS, 5 TD, 11 AV
Toon’s 93 receptions lead the league and had single game career high 14 receptions in a classic game against Dolphins in Week 13 (box score).
#331
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: 62.1 FG%, 91 PTS
Bahr had the honor of having the 25 year old gum in this pack getting stuck to his card. I’m just going to leave it there, maybe it’ll be worth more.
#341
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: Did Not Play
Kinnebrew was a preseason holdout, he never came to a deal with the Bengals who would waive him but no one else wanted him either. He’d reemerge with the Bills the following season.
#346
Card Value: $0.15
1988 Stats: 44 PNT, 38.0 Y/P
What is the point of making a punter card? He wasn’t even a good one.
#352
Card Value: $4.00
1988 Stats: 15 GS, 47.6 CMP%, 3240 YDS, 13 TD, 35 INT, 6 AV
And here ladies and gentlemen is the new undisputed Least Worthless Card title holder in my worthless pack lot I’ve received to date. $4 is going to tough to beat. As you can see Testaverde struggled mightily in his second season. His 35 interceptions are the most ever thrown since the NFL-AFL merger and no quarterback has even thrown 30 interceptions since this season.
#5 1000 Yard Club
Card Value: $0.30
1988 Stats: 13 GS, 59 REC, 892 YDS, 7 TD, 8 AV
I could be wrong but I believe the 1,000 Yard Club cards were the first true insert cards. This was a down year for Clark as it was the only season between 1986 and 1991 where he failed to reach 1,000 yards receiving.
Next Week: The three week Topps theme comes to an end with a pack of Topps Basketball.
Please visit the Sports Cards Hobby Thread on the TRTSM forums.
