Wow. Look at all that gold. The strangest thing, though, is seeing Pedro in another uniform. I can only mentally picture him in Blue.The inaugural Upper Deck set in 1989 was earth shattering. It changed everything about the hobby and cards. For the first time quality cardboard with phenomenal photography ruled the day. Clean simple designs with bleach white boarders on sturdy cardboard showed collectors that we should expect more from the manufacturers.
I remember in 1988 when I was a budding teenage entrepreneur I had set up at a card show at the Los Angeles Convention Center. A palpable buzz was in the air. Word had spread that a new player was out and about talking to dealers about a new card company. They were to be called Upper Deck and free sample were made available to dealers.
I remember getting my hands on the design and thinking good things. After all, I had just turned 17 and any notion of the backroom deals that would become commonplace at this new company was the furthest thing from my mind. I just new these cards looked great. Below is what the original design looked like- both front and back. There is another promo card made of Wally Joyner. If I remember right (correct me if I'm wrong), both Buice and Joyner were to be part owners in the new card company, but Baseball had restriction in place about current players being involved in the business like that. Too bad, maybe Upper Deck may not have gone down that slippery slope if they stayed
This Pedro card is one of my favorites. Of course my all time favorite is the 1986 Fleer Mickey Hatcher(which I know has been featured here). I do think it is strange seeing Pedro in red, but the jewelry was what always intrigued me. Pedro looked like a poorman's Mr.T .
ReplyDelete"...any notion of the backroom deals that would become commonplace at this new company was the furthest thing from my mind."
ReplyDelete"Too bad, maybe Upper Deck may not have gone down that slippery slope if they stayed."
Can you expand on this? I'm curious.
Hey Orel... Upper Deck has a mixed history of business ethics within the card collectible industry- especially the CEO McWilliam. A book came out in 1995 called "Card Sharks" that details much of the shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteHere is a great review of it: http://fielderschoice.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/essential-reading-card-sharks/
There is much more, of course. Since I was a young dealer at the time in SoCal I pretty much was familiar with everyone in the scene. In fact, in retrospect, I know I knew some of the guys who got reprinted stuff. Heck, I'm sure I sold some of the reprinted cards I bought from friends. I remember a buddy would point out McWilliam whenever he showed up at card show. He was at shows all the time. Little did I know he was making contacts to sell cases and cards out of the backdoor.
Ya know, there was a lot of strange unscrupulous folks in the industry in the late 80's and early 90's in CA. The market got extremely overheated back then and every huckster imaginable came out of the woodwork.
ReplyDelete