Mark Prior Rookie Collection
- 2001 Donruss Elite #248
- 2001 Fleer Platinum #529
- 2001 Ultimate Collection #116 – In the alternate dimension that Mark Prior had the career that people thought he would, this would have been the card to get. The 2001 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection was the first $100 a pack product, and at the time was supercharged by rookies of Ichiro, Albert Pujols, Prior, and Mark Texeira. This card booked for roughly $300 in mid-2002.
- 2001 Upper Deck SPX #208
- 2001 Upper Deck Star Rookie #1
- 2002 Fleer Premium #204
- 2002 Multi-Ad Iowa Cubs #22 – His first minor league card. And I have a soft spot for it since I saw him pitch in Iowa during the 2002 season. He was every bit as good as advertised.
Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie Collection
- 1989 Donruss #192
- 1989 Donruss #365
- 1989 Donruss The Rookies #3
- 1989 Fleer #548
- 1989 Score Traded #100T
- 1989 Topps #46
- 1989 Topps Traded #41T
- 1989 Upper Deck #1
- 1990 Fleer #513
1998 Leaf Rookies and Stars
This set was a weird, fun set. The set was created and produced by Pinnacle but was released by Playoff. And while it’s a 1998 set, it was released in the last days of the year. The set had a great collection of rookies, many of which feel into the high number portion of the set (#301-339). There was also three parallels of each card: True Blue (# to 500), Longevity (# to 49), and Longevity Holographic (one copy).
But the base cards were what everyone was after. Roughly a year after release this was one of the most popular sets for collectors, and the popular rookies were going to crazy money. Becket values on these cards reflected how crazy people were for these cards: Glaus at $150, Mateo at $80, Drew at $150, Hernandez at $15, Kepler at $70.
- 1998 Leaf and Stars True Blue #332 J.D. Drew
- 1998 Leaf and Stars #332 JD Drew
- 1998 Leaf Rookie and Stars #309 Orlando Hernandez
- 1998 Leaf Rookie and Stars #314
- 1998 Leaf Rookie and Stars #316 Ruben Mateo
- 1998 Leaf Rookie and Stars #319 Adrian Beltre
1986 Donruss
This is one of my all-time favorite sets. When I was a little kid (late-90’s) I read an article in Beckett about how this was an underrated set and a great investment. And there were few things I loved more as a kid than buying cards and seeing the little black “up” arrows next to cards that I owned. So I rushed down to my local card shop to see if they had it. Sure enough, they did. I still remember how much I paid: $18. The popularity of the set was driven by the Jose Canseco rookie–one of the more iconic cards of the decade. It also had Rated Rookies of Fred McGriff, Paul O’Neill, and Andres Galarraga. Not sure I can say that I made good on the investment, but I have no regrets buying it.
- 1986 Donruss #28 Fred McGriff
- 1986 Donruss #33 Andres Galarraga
- 1986 Donruss #37 Paul O’Neill
- 1986 Donruss #39 Jose Canseco
- 1986 Donruss #172 Roger Clemens
- 1986 Donruss #512 Cecil Fielder
1991-1994 Topps Traded
- 1991 Topps Traded #45T Jason Giambi
- 1992 Topps Traded #39T Nomar Garciaparra
- 1993 Topps Traded #19T Todd Helton
- 1994 Topps Traded #29T Rusty Greer
- 1994 Toops Traded #70T Chan Ho Park
Oakland Athletics Big Three Rookie Collection Collection
-Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson-
- 2000 Pacific Omega #231
- 2000 Topps Prospect SPX #148
Cleveland Indians Rookie Cards – Non-Topps
Barry Bonds Rookie Card Collection
