Player Name: Gary Sheffield
Card Sets: 1989 Topps, Score ,Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, and Bowman
Card Numbers: 343, 625, 13, 196, 31, and 142 respectively
Why are these cards must have?: I remember many years ago seeing that Topps brace face card and giggling. Notice of all the rookie cards that’s the only one that showed his teeth. Kudos to the Topps photographer that pulled that one off. Back in the day though I thought that his UD rookie card was going to be on pace with the Griffey card in value. Of course now I know better, but still feel it’s probably worth more than what it books for. The sd truth is that in his later years, he became more of a diva. Never happy with his contract no matter where he goes or how much he signed for. It seemed that in the mid 2000s he was always complaining and threatening to sit out. I think that definitely deterred from his value on the field. I mean a career 0.292 hitter with 499 homers, 1633 RBIs and 251 stolen bases. The guy is definitely Hall of Fame material. His top 10 on the Baseball Reference site include the likes of Griffey Jr., Mantle, Schmidt, and Reggie Jackson. So why are his autographs and game used not worth more? Because he is not as beloved as someone like a Griffey Jr. He’ll always be that hard to get along with kind of player in some people’s minds.
Scale of 1 – 10, how must have are these cards: 9, most people are going to disagree with me on this one but numbers don’t lie and his are outstanding. Then take into account the 9 All Star appearances and 5 Silver Slugger awards, he’s a 9 and if he were a more popular player he would be a 10. The UD card still runs in the $4 region, the other cards run about $1 – $2 depending on the card (more if graded).
I know I’ve said it before – but I think this is easily the best series of articles on a blog since the 90-94 countdown on the baseball card blog – keep it up – look forward to this everday
I always like Sheffield. I agree with the 9. In a lot of ways this series of posts is a why, but with most of these cards even the 3-8′s, how can you not have these in your collection?