1989 Upper Deck
Total Cards: 800
Rating: 8.1 (197 votes)
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Set Links
Overview | Checklist | Teams | Errors / Variations | Hall of Famers | Rookies | Inserts and Related Sets | Comments | Packaging | Pricing | Sell Sheets / Ads | Trivia | Videos | Forum | External Links | Change Log | Contributors | Glossary | Gallery | Card Rankings | Collection Summary
1989 Upper Deck
Trivia |
- This was the first set ever released by Upper Deck.
- This was the first set to feature the use of holograms.
- The first cards to be sold in tamper-proof foil packs.
- At $0.89 a pack, carried, by far, the highest suggested retail price of its time.
- Upon its release, there was speculation that collectors wouldn't pay that much for a pack of cards and that the market couldn't support a sixth card maker.
- Eighteen year old Upper Deck employee Tom Geideman is credited for wanting to make Ken Griffey Jr. the #1 card in the set.
- Ken Griffey Jr. was actually not wearing a Mariners cap when the picture was taken. He was wearing his minor league San Bernardino Spirit cap and the picture was edited to look like a Mariners cap.
- The picture was so convincing that Griffey himself, supposedly, asked an Upper Deck photographer a year later when the picture was taken because he didn't remember posing with a Mariners cap.
- The set arrived 3 months later than planned because of production problems.
- Card #117 of Gary Pettis shows him holding and looking at the very card he's on.
- The #1 Ken Griffey Jr. card was featured on the cover of the May 1991 issue of Sports Card Trader magazine.
- Some of the other players considered for the #1 card were Gregg Jefferies, Sandy Alomar Jr., and Gary Sheffield.
- Angels pitcher DeWayne Buice (card 147) owned a 12% share of Upper Deck.
- The 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey card is the most graded ever for both PSA and BGS.