Why this high of a price???

[dgo71]

Originally Posted by mschwade

Read this thread too.. Guy said he has searched eBay for 10 years for a Ricky Wright.

Just in case anyone here is working on the 87T set and read the above link, I thought I'd offer my opinion based on my own experience with these guys.

Some of the problems you will run into with this set:

Dick Howser- Most people insert a cut auto on the card and consider the project done.
Alan Wiggins- HIV victim and even when he was out of baseball he was in out or rehab.
Damaso Garcia- Stroke and cant sign anymore
Donnie Moore- Suicide
Juan Espino- Never made it back to the states
Roberto Clemente- Most have Roberto Clemente Jr sign the card
Ricky Wright refused to sign the card since it was issued

This is mostly correct. Howser is very tough, and Wright nearly impossible. Wiggins (whose card is actually in the traded set) played until 1989 and died two years later. He was in general a tough graph though, and his drug problems made him impossible to track down after his career ended.

I can't speak to Clemente Jr. as I've never seen him or tried him TTM, but I can't imagine he's terribly hard.

Donnie Moore played into the 1989 season (he was with KC's AAA team in Omaha in early '89) before passing away. Signed examples of this card are hard to find, but not in the extremely rare category. Heck, I actually have an IP one myself.

Espino did play in the U.S. for a couple more seasons after this card came out. He played for the Richmond Braves and Columbus Clippers and was a very willing signer, though he always signed his cards upside down for some reason. Again, I have several IP examples of Espino on this card.

Garcia also played another three seasons and was a willing signer. He's tough to get NOW because of his health issues, but this card is not terribly tough to find signed from his playing days.

Al Pulido is a toughie not mentioned above, because he played only a short time (all in the minor leagues) after this card was issued and then retired to Mexico where he was basically inaccessible to collectors in the States.