Well, it's taken a lot longer to get this post out than I thought. I was distracted for the last couple of weeks by the WORLD SERIES CHAMPION TEXAS RANGERS!
Let's get back to the '80s. This is the third of three installments about my 3 favorite sets from the '80s. The fourth installment will be about my 3 least favorite sets.
Once again, this won't be a deep dive into the sets, but will hopefully, be a little informational and a little bit of opinion. The 3 favorites are not ranked in any order, just like my 3 least favorites won't be either. I'm also sticking to Topps base sets. It's not like that's all I collected back then. I have tons of Fleer and Donruss cards that I collected in the '80s, but my focus these days is on Topps so that's what I'm sticking to.
My third favorite Topps set of the 1980s is the 1988 Topps set.
This 792 card set was released as one series at the height of Junk Wax Era. I really don't like the name Junk Wax Era, I wish there was a better way to describe it. The Overproduction Era? Anyway, the '88 Topps have a white border with the team name in block letters set behind the larger player photos. The player's names in block letters are on a diagonal strip in the right bottom corner of the card. The backs of the cards are orange with player stats. There are 80 rookie cards in this set (81 if you count the Leiter corrected card) led by Tom Glavine.
I really like the simple design and larger player pictures. The team and player names are easy to read. The older I get and the worse my eyes get make that kind of important!
There are four subsets in the '88 release; Record Breakers, Future Stars, Turn back the clock and All-Stars.
I really like the cut-out picture with red background. I think that it really focuses on the players.
There are five Future Stars in the set. I'm not in love with this subset, but I don't not like it either. I do like the fact that Future Stars on the card is easy to spot.
Card numbers 661-665 are the Turn back the clock subset. I think these are pretty cool cards. I do think they could have chosen a better player than Ron Blomberg. No disrespect to Mr. Blomberg, he was a Major Leaguer, but there are a lot of other players that would have been better.
Card numbers 386-407 are the All-Star cards. I like the close-up design of the cards. I think Topps could have chosen a better color than the yellow, but it's still a nice looking card. I really like how it looks when when all of the subset is together.
Here are a few more cards from the set.
I always like manager cards. Okay, not always, but I'm starting to like them more and more the older I get.
I think the way the team cards are cropped is pretty cool. Not something you normally see on cards. It's different and I like the pictures with players highlighted.
Overall, for a set that was massed produced and mostly ignored by card collectors this really isn't a bad looking set.
Very soon (I keep saying that, but it never really is very soon!), I will have out my least favorite sets from the 1980s. Let me know in the comments what you think about the 1988 Topps set.
Peace,
Michael
Isaiah 40:31
