30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Friday, April 22, 2011

Cheap Cool Cards #13: 1990 Score #697 Bo Jackson FB/BB

Everyone has their opinions on Beckett and their price guides. It's pretty obvious that most of their prices are inflated, but I won't lie... I use their online price guide on a regular basis.

Sometimes it's to compare trade values... while other times I just like to cheer myself up and pretend I can get certain dollar figures for my cards.

Well today, I came across a card that actually sells for more than Beckett's book value on a regular basis. While sifting through a box of star cards, I came across my 1990 Score baseball card #697 of none other than Mr. Bo Jackson.

Front


Back

If you collected in the early 90's, than you know about this card. From what I could find, the image was taken from a 1988 Nike poster called The Ball Player. I was able to find one completed auction on eBay and the final price was $32.87 (+$5.00 shipping).


The actual card is much cheaper than. Currently Beckett has card #697 listed at $.50. However recent eBay auctions have showed that this card goes for as little as three times book value and up to over eight times book.


I'm sure you can find these in common bins across the country, but I'm please to see Bo Jackson is still a hobby icon and that these cards can still command some change.

Earlier today, I took a little drive over to my buddy's garage and looked up some values Beckett listed back in the early 90's. Here's what I found:

June 1990: $10
September 1990: $12
December 1990: $9
June 1991: $4.50

June 1990

I'd like to see how much Beckett listed these for in October and November of 1990, since that's probably when it peaked in book value. I read over at Wax Heaven that dealers once sold these in the $25 range. This doesn't surprise me, because Bo was a beast in the late 80's and early 90's. He's arguably the best two-sport athlete since Jim Thorpe.

Bo Jackson NFL Highlights

Bo Jackson MLB Highlights

Luckily for us... collector's can now pick up an amazing piece of history for the price of a couple candy bars. And although this card may be cheap... it's definitely cool.

Do you own this card?
If so, did you purchase it back in the early 90's?
Do you remember how much it sold for in your area?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I owned 10 or more copies of this card at one point. I have no clue what I paid for them, but I'm sure I overpaid. Today, I'm down to this one copy... which is plenty enough.

Does anyone know if Bo signs TTM's? This would be a sweet card to get signed.

Oh one more thing... if you were as huge a fan of Wax Heaven as I was... then here's some good news... Mario is back! Check him out over at his new blog: The Wax Morgue

I made the discovery last week and I was stoked. He's the major reason I started this blog. Well... I guess I should head over there to see what he's posted today.

Happy Friday everyone. Sayonara!

13 comments:

Dodgerbobble said...

Bo is the greatest athlete of all time. I also think this is one of the greatest cards of all time. I own a few of these. I did get all of them back in the day. I opened a lot of packs back then, I'm sure I pulled a few. I don't remember what they went for though.

Charles @ Hoopography said...

No matter the value, that is one of the coolest cards ever made!!! Love seeing that card.

Napkin Doon said...

I distinctly remember how excited I was when one of these showed up in the box of Score I bought at a card shop. At the time, the dealer had a few in his case and was selling them for $20 a pop. I figured it was only a matter of time before it was in the '84 Donruss Mattingly range... Still have it, and it's still a very cool card.

Fuji said...

dodgerbobble - i agree 100% with both of your statements... i never tire of watching his highlights.

hoopography - you're right... definitely one of the coolest cards produced. btw... was wondering if you had this poster in your collection?

Anonymous said...

I have this card and it used to be one of my favorites. Still a great looking card, back when they used to creatively come up with card designs.

Wes Moore the former JBF said...

Alabama's Own! Bo Knows! What a great athlete indeed? I remember going to card shows in '90 and seeing 25 bucks on this card. If I'm not mistaken, I picked up my first one by trading an 87 topps mcgwire for it. Brings back some fun memories

Fuji said...

baseball cards rule - yeah... it's hard not to appreciate some of those older card designs. no wonder topps has it's heritage line... and recently panini honored the 1984 donruss baseball design and 90/91 score hockey design.

jaybarkerfan - those were the days indeed. i love the 87 topps mcgwire card too... great photo of big mac in his a's uniform.

hiflew said...

One thing that I have thought about before is would Michael Jordan have become as big an icon as he is had Bo Jackson not gotten hurt?

If you were around back then Bo was the commercial king and Jordan became that by default following the hip injury. That was also the last time that a baseball player was a commercial star as well (for the most part). Who knows how that one little hip injury changed American sports landscape in the 90s.

Fuji said...

hiflew - interesting point... i know jordan had a couple of huge commercial contracts by the early 90's.

the mars blackmon campaign kicked off in the late 80's with spike lee... and then the "be like mike" gatorade commercials were in 1991 or 1992.

i guess we'll never really know... but it's pretty obvious that bo was a beast... and he had athleticism like no other.

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