June 1988 Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly

In June, 1988, I was 12 years old and finishing seventh grade.  This Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly came out, featuring Matt Nokes and a Gregg Jefferies rookie card on the cover.  I remember at lunch at school one day, a friend accused me of stealing his 1988 Donruss Gregg Jefferies card.  This was a big deal.  He found it later.  I think he apologized.  Tensions were running high around Gregg Jefferies cards in 1988, though.

June 1988 Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly, picturing Matt Nokes and a Gregg Jefferies card.

This wasn't my first magazine about baseball cards, since I have a Beckett from September, 1987 (which I posted about before).  But this may have been the first magazine I had for the ads.  I remember the first time Dad told me we could get a magazine and order some cards, and since is the oldest magazine I have with a bunch of ads, I think this must have been it.

Old Sports Cards ad.

I also remember specifically that we ordered from Robert Mabery at Old Sports Cards.  I wish I knew what we ordered!  If I had to guess, I do have a bunch of 80s traded sets, and I could have gotten, say, the 87 Topps Traded or 87 Fleer Update then.  I also have the 88 Donruss factory set and the 88 Sportsflics factory set, and I could have gotten either of them from this ad.  I have the 88 Score factory set, but I remember Dad buying that for me, so that one wasn't mail-order.  The ad also has a bunch of wax packs listed, and perhaps I got a handful of them. 

I remember when we would order by mail, it would take about 3 or 4 weeks to get the cards.  We would send a check, and it would take a few days for them to receive it in the mail.  Then they would deposit it, and they would wait about 10 business days or so for the check to clear.  Then they send the package, and again it takes a few days in the mail.  One had to be patient.

1988 Score in the price guide.

More 1988 Score in the price guide.

Looking at the price guide is pretty amazing.  Here are two pages, which are (almost) entirely devoted to the 1988 Score set.  If I had to guess, I would say more than half the cards from the set are listed individually.  The guide, if you look closely, lists "common players" at 3 cents, and players such as Casey Candaele, Milt Thompson, and Ozzie Virgil at 6 cents, and players such as John Cerutti, Mike Marshall, and Floyd Youmans at 8 cents.  These are some fine distinctions.

Card Show Calendar from the magazine.

At the end, we get the Card Show Calendar.  There were so many shows!  I haven't seen the ones I know we went to, though, which were usually at the Concordville Inn in Pennsylvania.  I'm sure we found out about them from fliers at the local card shops, not from the magazines.