The main reason for starting this series other than having a post for the blog is to land some easily obtained cards of my team from that super-plentiful decade of the 1980s.
Hopefully, I half-thought, I could be done with collecting '80s cards forever.
Well, from the point I first started researching the first post of the series, I figured out that wasn't going to happen -- there were plenty of obscure and hard-to-find cards created in the '80s, and so many of them.
But I have been able to grab a few cards, even complete some team sets, thanks to this series. Often what happens is I nab a card or two while I'm writing the next post in the series ... and then I stall out. That's what happened with the last post in April.
I quickly grabbed the Pee Wee Reese 1987 Hygrade card to finish that team set, except for the variations that I'll probably never pursue.
And I nabbed the final card I needed for the 1987 TCMA 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers team set in Don Newcombe, a long-overdue acquisition.
That's all I did and now here comes the 1988 Elusive '80s cards post and I've fallen into the same pattern. I recently purchased the card you see at the top of the post, the 1988 Conlon National League 1933 All-Stars card of Johnny Frederick.
I also added a card from another set you'll see later in the post. Now let's see if I can keep up the momentum for 1988 -- or any of the past years that have been covered in this series, really. There is plenty out there still.
But let's stick with 1988, since it's a year from the late '80s, there's plenty to get to, some of which doesn't appeal to me much.
1988
1988 Card Collectors 1949 Bowman reprints
They're still churning out reprint sets in 1988 and since this set replicates 1949 Bowman there are lots of Dodgers to track. What's more, there is a separate 1949 Bowman reprint set that is called "Card Collector's" with the apostrophe? I don't know what that's all about but I sure ain't collecting duplicate reprint sets just because of that. Even I have my limits.
1988 Donruss Super Diamond Kings (5 x 7)
This is the only Donruss mention you'll see on this post. I refuse to track down any further variations from the 1988 main set. But the one Super Diamond King card that I need -- Bob Welch -- should be in my collection. These were available through mail-in order off Donruss wrappers. In general I have a self-preservation bias against oversize and undersize cards, but I have plenty of each in my collection, so ...
1988 Fleer glossy
I've done a good job of not caring about late '80s Tiffany and glossy parallel sets although it's something that I should like. I think I have exactly one '88 glossy in the collection, but as always with these glossies, I could have some in the dupes box as the glossiness faded over time.
1988 Fleer team stickers
Almost as confusing as the '80s discs in terms of variations, but more fun -- come on, they're stickers!! I don't think it's in me to really track down what I still need from the Dodgers stickers, especially with the back variations.
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You know, do I really care to get each example of Dodgers Stadium on the back with stickers of teams I don't care about? I don't see it.
1988 Grenada Stamps
Ever since I was a young stamp-collector, which occurred alongside baseball-card collecting for a very brief period in the '70s, I was fascinated by the much-more-interesting stamps from countries that I barely knew. Where were the baseball stamps down at the local post office?
This "set" has two Dodgers -- Don Drysdale and Fernando Valenzuela. I haven't collected stamps in more than 50 years, and I don't fully get why these are listed in TCDB.
1988 JALFCO 1954 Wilson Franks reprints
JALFCO stands for the Jack Alfred Lerner Family Company, which produced several reprint sets of 1950s food-issue cards during 1988. Wilson Franks is a fun one with the floating hot dog packaging. There are two Dodgers (like the original set), Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges.
1988 Kenner Starting Lineup
Here we are with the Starting Lineup cards -- I don't think I've addressed these in this series yet as this might be the first baseball version? (I'm not up on my Starting Lineup history). These cards always been elusive for me because I didn't buy the Starting Lineup baseball figures -- I wasn't young enough to care about them when they came out.
Per usual, I just want the cards. There are five Dodgers in the set. I own three, I just bought one (Mike Marshall), and there's another in a shopping card (Franklin Stubbs). THEY WILL BE MINE.
1988 Key Food Discs
There are several different sponsors for the same kind of disc -- and several are very pricey (I don't know what this image is exactly as it's not a disc, maybe when I downloaded these a long time ago, I determined you could punch out the disc on the reverse or something). There are "Our Own Tea" discs, "Tetley" discs and "Weis Winners" discs. Most I won't bother with because of the price. Fernando is the only Dodger.
1988 MSA Super Stars Discs
The MSA versions on the other hand are much more affordable and they look practically the same, so I can see myself getting this one and being done with it.
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers
As in previous years of this series, there are OPC stickers and Topps stickers, essentially the same thing, and a combination of solo player stickers and combination stickers of players on opposing teams. This is not a set-up that appeals to me, in terms of having Mariners, etc., on my Dodgers stickers and the smallness of the stickers when divided up. I accept them when I they come to me/I stumble across them, but it'll never be a concerted chase.
1988 Perez-Steele Great Moments Postcards
The Great Moments Postcards that started in 1985 and continued in 1987 was extended to 1988 with Series 3 and Series 4. Once again, these are 5.75-by-8 and numbered to 5,000. There are three Dodgers in Series 3 -- Willie Keeler, Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider -- and none in Series 4. It's more Dick Perez art, which in this case is fine. But oversize is not something I'm itching to pick up most times.
1988 Red Foley's Best Baseball Book Ever Stickers
Red Foley's Best Baseball Book Ever is Back! As I mentioned in the 1987 Elusive '80s post, there were a bunch of peel-off stickers in the book and they are very tiny, and that's a double whammy for adding to my collection. But the bubble-letter Dodgers sticker is fun.
1988 Score glossy
Score had a glossy set, too?? I don't think I knew that. How many of those are sitting in my giant dupes box right now? Will I be able to tell that they are/once were glossy??
1988 Score Magic-Motion: Greatest Moments in Baseball
These are one of the most pervasive card items of the junk wax era. I've accumulated a bunch of these without even thinking about it. I certainly don't think of adding them to the Dodgers collection, though maybe I should. I have many and probably need many.
1988 Smokey Bear Los Angeles Dodgers Record-Breakers
Smokey Bear is back after a busy 1987 with its stadium giveaway set of record-breakers in the odd shape of 2.5-by-4. Even living far from Dodger Stadium, I have a couple of these from a 32-card set. I'm not crazy about the hospital-blue theme but it'd be fun to have more.
1988 Star Nova
This 180-card set has nine Orel Hershiser cards. All of the cards are printed to 500, which explains why I've never seen one. I'm always up for an Orel Hershiser card I don't have so I'll have to find out if these are obtainable at all.
These weird-looking, weirdly-shaped (2 5/8-by-3) cards were part of a Talkin' Baseball electronic game from Kenner Toys. The cards ended up being sold separately by dealers and I've always considered them somewhat freakish looking. They don't fit easily in your standard pages either, in fact I've forgotten I've owned a couple in the past. There are 21 Dodger cards (oh f that) and I have three, which is probably how it will stay.
1988 Topps Cloth
This is a test issue of 121 cards, which means it's probably not available to me, which is a shame because I love the look. There are five Dodger cards, no one really notable.
1988 Topps Coins
Like I've mentioned before, coins that you can't spend just don't mean a lot to me. There are two Dodgers in this set (Guerrero and Valenzuela). I need both.
1988 Topps Stickers
See what I wrote about the OPC stickers. Stuff that I'll take if it floats my way.
1988 Topps Tiffany
When I first learned about these, which was in the earlier days of the blog -- certainly not in 1988 -- I was very intrigued. I must've liked them enough that I have 10 of the Dodgers, but there are still 19 to get.
1988 TTC Houston Show
A 20-card set issued in conjunction with a card show. They look like they were created by TCMA, but I doubt they were. Duke Snider is the only Dodger to get.
1988 Unlicensed Classic Baseball Superstars
Broder sets going very strong in 1988. I never can be sure exactly what I have and need of these, but this Pedro Guerrero from the "Classic Baseball Superstars" set is one of them. I do have several others from other unlicensed sets issued in 1988.
1988 Willard Mullin Postcards
A 49-card postcard set from the artist, with way more Dodgers than any other team, there would be a bunch of work to do if I pursued postcards seriously at all.
And that brings me to the end of 1988.
I'm eager to get the couple of 1988 cards that I ordered and I hope to maybe seriously tackle some of the other Elusive '80s mentions before I close this series in 1989 -- probably by the end of the year.
I do know now that I will never be done finding 1980s Dodgers needs, and, that's not a bad thing at all.
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