30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Top 5: Beckett Covers

A few weeks ago, I went over to my buddy's house to play some video games on his brand new television. Unfortunately... we never made it into his house. As we entered his garage, I saw a pile of my boxes that he lets me store there. The boxes on top had cards I dropped off sometime in September or October... but underneath it were six bankers boxes that I've accumulated over the years.

Four of the boxes had Kenner Starting Line Ups with a few sets scattered here and there. One of these days I'll go back, take pictures and show off some of my favorite SLUs.

Another box had a few sets that I built and put into binders: 1990 Leaf baseball, 1992 Fleer Ultra baseball, and 1985 Topps baseball. I built these sets by busting packs and paid top dollar during the early 90's on these boxes. It's a little depressing to think about how much I spent on cards over the years. Oh well... on the bright side... I was glad to see that these sets weren't sold when I dumped my collection about 10 years ago.

The last box contained my collection of Beckett price guides from back in the day. It's funny because I recently picked up a few back issues from my local card shop and was wondering where my old issues were. I figured they were sold off, but I guess I was wrong.

Inside the box were over 15 back issues of Beckett stored in sleeves with backing boards. I must have thought that one day these were going to be collector's items. LOL... guess I was wrong. Because I picked up a few of the same issues for less than the cover price a few weeks back.

Anyways... today I'm going to show off my top 5 Beckett covers:

#1: Beckett Basketball Issue #24 (July 1992)


It was tough between this cover and my #2 cover... but ultimately I decided on this as my favorite because of my love for the original Dream Team. I mean... c'mon... how can you go wrong with a cover containing five HOFers?


#2: Beckett Baseball Issue #63 (June 1990)


Bo Jackson is one of the greatest athletes I've ever had the privilege to watch in person. There's no telling what this guy would have done had he not suffered that hip injury. He is one of the best two-sports athletes in the history of sports and this iconic photo celebrates those two sports.


#3: Beckett Basketball Issue #10 (May 1991)


This cover features the greatest basketball player of all-time before he ever played in an NBA game. I have a ton of Jordan memorabilia (cards, figures, and magazines) with him wearing our country's colors... but this is the only one from his days on the gold winning 1984 Olympic basketball team.


#4: Beckett Baseball Issue #66 (September 1990)


Rickey Henderson and I had kind of a love/hate relationship. Well... he doesn't actually know me... but when I was growing up there were times that I loved him... and times that I hated him. He was with the A's when this issue came out... so I was a fan of his. And I'm still a big fan of this cover, because he's doing what he did best... stealing bases.


#5: Beckett Basketball Issue #3 (July/August 1990)


Byron Scott was my favorite basketball player during the 80's. Magic Johnson was a close second. He led the Lakers to 5 NBA championships during the 80's and he's one of the reasons I'm such a huge fan of the game today.

So there you have it... my top 5 Beckett covers. Here are some of my other favorites that didn't make the list:

Beckett Basketball #1, Beckett Football #1, & Beckett Hockey #1


Weren't these suppose to be worth thousands of dollars by now? LOL... you gotta love collecting for investment purposes.

And here's the rest of my collection...





What about you... did you ever save your old Becketts thinking that they might be worth something one day?

What's your favorite Beckett cover?

Happy Tuesday everyone... time to play another nine holes right now. Sayonara!

7 comments:

Ryan H said...

I still have my collection of Becketts. I have an entire bookcase in my closet with these things. I have issues from about 1993 to the present. I don't have an uninterupted run though, just when I was collecting... It's hard to pick a favorite cover but I do like pulling one of them off the shelf and looking at them every once in a while.

Dodgerbobble said...

My favorite is the first issue of basketball Beckett, with Michael Jordan. I was so happy when this came out. I bought ten of them thinking they may be worth something someday. I think I only have like three or four left.

Charles @ Hoopography said...

I do save the old Becketts, SI's and Tuff Stuff Mags, but my fav was Sports Card Trader.

I def like your Top %. Very Solid.

Fuji said...

ryan - i've flipped through a couple of mine... it's crazy how prices have changed over the years... especially some of those vintage cards.

dodgerbobble - lol... i think i had about five of those myself. all i found was the one though... i must have sold them at the flea market.

charles - i've never owned an issue of sports card trader... i'll have to hunt one down the next time i'm at the flea market and check it out.

Unknown said...

I have at least issues 1 through 15 basketball beckets, also sports illustrated with the Jordan hologram on the cover

Fuji said...

Awesome. It's always fun to look back at old Becketts to see what the hobby was like years ago. And I love that copy of Sports Illustrated with the Jordan hologram.

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