1991 Baseball Cards A-Z (Part 6)

After some distractions, I'm getting back to my 1991 card collection. This will be the last part.

I've started working in earnest on my 1992 collection. I only need about 10 cards to finish that so maybe later in the year I'll do this again. That collection will have 76 cards.

1991 Ultra

1991 was the first year for Ultra, Fleer's entry into the premium card niche. The card featured several innovations such as upgraded card stock and full bleed printing, but in keeping with 1991 being a transitional year, did not have features which will become common, such as gold foil and a glossy finish.

1991 Ultra Gold

In future years, Ultra Gold will become a parallel set, in 1991 it was a 10-card insert set. It will be a couple of years before the card companies will convince collectors that they should chase parallel cards.

1991 Ultra Update

The 120-card update set was only available as a factory set. I only have a handful which I suspect I've acquired over the years in repacks. This Rodriguez card is one of the key cards from the set.

1991 Upper Deck

This was the third year form Upper Deck and they are starting to fall behind. With a design which has remained virtually unchanged since 1989, no foil, no full-bleed printing, and no gloss, their premium card is not as nice as Donruss, Fleer and Topps issues in 1991. They remain the leader in holographic logos, a feature that no one else will duplicate, ever.

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes

In 1990, Upper Deck introduced the Baseball Heroes inserts with Reggie Jackson. This year, they continued the set, picking up the numbering where the Jackson set left off, with two players, Aaron and Nolan Ryan. These were available as random inserts (Ryan in Series 1 and Aaron in Series 2). Each series also had one of 2000 cards autographed by either Ryan or Aaron. Although Upper Deck was falling behind in some ways, they remained the only set with inserted autographs for the 2nd year.

1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball

This was another insert set. Only three players were featured, Harmon Killebrew, Gaylord Perry and Ferguson Jenkins, plus a header card. I bought the 4-card set for about $15 in 2003.


1991 Upper Deck Silver Sluggers

This 18-card set was available in jumbo packs at 1 per pack. It featured the 18 players who had won the Silver Slugger award in 1990.  This is not an award you see celebrated too often. I got this card (the only one from the set I have) in a repack back in 2003.


1991 Upper Deck Comic Ball 2

This was a 198-card set, available in foil packs featuring Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson playing baseball with various Loony Toon characters. There was a 1990 set and also sets in 1992 and 1993. I know virtually nothing about them as this is the only card from the series I've ever seen. They seem to be pretty available on eBay. I found this in a repack in 2006.

1991 Upper Deck Final Edition

This was a 100-card update set only available as a factory set. Martinez is the key card. In 1991, I had small children. On the day after Christmas, my wife and I were in Toys R Us exchanging some duplicate toys the kids had gotten from relatives for Christmas. As we were waiting in line, a box of this was sitting on the shelf at my eye level. At $10 is seemed a bargain so I bought it. How good of an investment was that? You can go on eBay right now and buy a sealed set for $2.99 plus shipping.