1988 Topps Gallery of Champions

Set Size: 12 cards, 1-1/4" x 1"

Design Notes: These cards are made of aluminum, using the 1988 Topps design in a relief format. The backs contain statistics and biographical information. The cards are actually parallels of the players' flagship 1988 Topps cards.

Parallels and Similars: Bronze and silver parallels exist.

Distribution: Complete sets in velvet cases were sold through dealers; 1000 of the silver sets were produced.

Thoughts: I really like these sets, despite their small size. The detail is pretty good, especially for such a small card, and they can display well.

1988 Donruss Baseball's Best

Set size: 336 cards

Front Design: The cards follow the 1988 Donruss design, but use orange, red, and black colors fading into each other in blocks as the border. The player's photo appears in an inner white frame, with his name and position in white text in a red band across the bottom. The team logo is also placed at the bottom of the photo.

Back Design: The vertical backs have a yellow/orange-ish border, with a rounded-corner black frame surrounding the text. The player's name, vitals, team, and the card number are in an upper box, with career statistics in the middle box. The bottom section of the card describes how the player was acquired by the team.

Parallels and Similars: This set uses the 1988 Donruss design, though it isn't a parallel of the set. There are a few other issues in 1988 that follow the same design, but the orange borders are unique to this set.

Distribution: The set was sold complete through retail outlets in a special box late in 1988. Six copies of a 15-piece 3-1/2" x 2-1/2" Stan Musial puzzle were included with the set.

Thoughts: It's easy to see why this is called the Halloween set. It's the only full set I can recall (other than team issues) that relies heavily on orange (EDIT: OOPS!). The set reminds me of 1987's Opening Day - a similar set issued early in the 1987 season. Maybe due to the unique color scheme, this set is much more appealing to me than the regular 1988 Donruss release. I had to borrow the image from COMC because my example is locked in a storage box 2511 miles away.

1988 Star McGwire Green and Yellow

Set size: 12 cards for the yellow set, 11 for the green

Front Design: Both sets are identical - a color photo is framed by a small black and white lined border, with the A's logo in the lower-left corner and McGwire's name and the card's title along the bottom border. The cards have either a green or yellow border, depending on the set. "Star '88" appears in the upper-right corner.

Back Design: The backs are identical and all printed in a green ink, repeating McGwire's name, the card title, and the A's logo at the top. The majority of the card is devoted to statistics, one season's highlights, career highlights, or other information about McGwire. These two sets are identified by the 1984 copyright date (despite the Star '88 notation on the front).

Parallels and Similars: All 1988 Star sets follow the same design, and there are two more sets issued that year with Mark McGwire.

Distribution: Cards were distributed by Star through dealers as complete sets. It is very rare to find a set broken up, especially given that most sets feature only one player.

Thoughts: While none of the cards would win an award for best photo, trying to fill forty cards with different photos of the same player means some of the photos are rarely seen on cards. Well, back in the 1980s, I suppose Fleer was really good about getting photos of players in the dugout, but these days images like the two above don't show up often on cards. Given the amount of recycling Topps does with photos, you would think some more (interesting/fun) dugout and non-action shots would make it onto cards. If you'd like to see more of this set, head over to my main blog, where a post hit earlier today with more photos from the set.

Additional Images:
card backs