1988 Score: A Forgotten Gem

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

John:

I just noticed your comment. Those were promo cards with those zeroes. And yes they are much more difficult than cards out of packs.

Rich

Rich,

There are also a number of promos/prototypes that either have no back photo or front photo (or both) but all of the design elements still visible, with missing 1987 stats. They affect the same 10 players as mentioned previously (McGwire, Larkin, Mattingly, Boggs, etc).

Al,

There are several more errors and variations in this set beyond the 8 caught by Beckett back in the day. Even the Greg Walker has a 3rd variety.

[ALR-bishop]

Dylan-- I do have a 3d Walker but it is just a color difference on the back. Do the other variations you mention involvie changes by Score to correct the card, or recurring print defects or differences ? I collect variations and recurring print defects for all my Topps sets, but try to stick to "true" variations for non Topps sets

[steve B]

It probably got missed, but there were lots of changes over the year.

Three different die cuts,
possibly as part of correcting mistakes, the screening of the printing was entirely redone at least once, probably more.
If you follow a line of dots for instance in a border on the back one card will have that line at a 30 degree angle to the edge, while a different printing may have it as 45 degrees.

And that's just from a batch of the second die cut, which is pretty tough. I misplaced the main portion of my collection, and haven't found it yet. I suspect there will be more small differences.

[mrmopar]

An oldie revived.

I enjoyed the Score cards. I think they had some great subsets, like the Franchise. They always had great photos too. They held their own as we entered the insert era too, with some decent insert sets. Still love those 1993 Franchise inserts.

1994 was the end of that though. The still had some decent inserts, but the base sets went to pot. Hated those dark blue borders (but the gold parallels were nice) and 95 was 10X worse and pretty much every set releaesed after that one.

[ALR-bishop]

The factory sets had a group of small sportsflick like inserts. I am sure those are extremely valuable

[1952boyntoncollector]

If i can recall the Score set has a picture of Boggs popping up which was his only infield POP of the season? Maybe thats just mikey and life cereal but i sort of remember reading that when i was a kid

[tulsaboy]

I know I'm late to this party, but i absolutely loved the 88 Score set when I was a kid. My brother and I sat on the floor of the local Kmart while our mom shopped and went through every pack they had out, looking for stars on the fronts. Since you can only see the purple cards on the front, you were limited to the players that showed up in that color, but that was still quite a group! Brett, Sandberg, McGwire, Mattingly...lots of star power to find. We also looked for the Gregg Jeffries cards on the back. We didn't know about Glavine then, so I don't remember looking for him at all.

Regarding the pictures, for those of you who have your binders handy, look at the Matt Nokes and Kirk Gibson cards. Those photos, in my opinion, are some of the neatest photos to show up on cards in that set. Really well framed looks at those two players, in Tiger Stadium to boot.

Recently I bought a storage tub of unopened packs for about $10 bucks. In that tub were around 400 loose packs of 88 Score. My kids and I had a blast looking for star packs, and found quite a few. 4 Glavines in there! Then we opened a huge pile of the rest. That was just a fun trip down memory lane.

kevin

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by jacksoncoupage

Rich,

There are also a number of promos/prototypes that either have no back photo or front photo (or both) but all of the design elements still visible, with missing 1987 stats. They affect the same 10 players as mentioned previously (McGwire, Larkin, Mattingly, Boggs, etc).

Al,

There are several more errors and variations in this set beyond the 8 caught by Beckett back in the day. Even the Greg Walker has a 3rd variety.

You know my mantra, if we have variations at COMC, let me know and I'll add them to the data base. Always in favor of showing there are interesting quirks in the over-produced era.

[jacksoncoupage]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

You know my mantra, if we have variations at COMC, let me know and I'll add them to the data base. Always in favor of showing there are interesting quirks in the over-produced era.

Great example of two other types of 1988 Score promo/proofs (not mine):



https://www.ebay.com/itm/273866941448

[JUrsaner]

I see this is an old thread at the top of the Modern forum, so figure now or never to comment. I've been building out my "junkwax" collection as one of my primary collecting goals this year and I have to say that I love the '88 Score set/design. As with a lot of the "junkwax" sets, it squarely fits the bill from a production/value standpoint and will probably never be worth much more than the cost of shipping. I think that notation also creates the image though that a lot of these sets were "junk" -- which in my opinion couldn't be farther from the truth. Part of why there was so much overproduction is because the product sold so well. It is a beautiful, innovative initial set! Colorful design. First to use real color photos on the back. Great bios. Going back to look at some of these early 90's sets that you can still pick up for less than $10 for a complete set, I've been shocked at how nice many of them were. The initial Pinnacle years are the same story.