July 1991 Baseball Cards Magazine

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; I travel a lot for work.  I decided to take along one of my old Baseball Cards Magazines with me as reading material this time.  It's the July 1991 issue, featuring Darryl Strawberry on the cover.

Darryl Strawberry on the cover of the July 1991 Baseball Cards Magazine.

That 1984 Fleer Darryl Strawberry on the front cover was listed in the price guide in the magazine at $30.  You can get it on COMC now for $1.99.  Accounting for inflation, $30 in 1991 would be $54 now.  So one could say the card is worth less than 4% of what it was at the time.

Looking at these old magazines brings up a lot of thoughts and feelings.  In July 1991, I was between 10th and 11th grades.  Collecting cards was originally a very positive thing for me growing up, but my family moved when I was in 8th grade, and we left behind my card-collecting friends.  I remember buying some odd issues like a Topps UK set, Topps coins, old Donruss All-Stars and other things after we were in the new house, and thinking they were cool, and then just putting them away because there was no one to talk to about them or share them with.  I made some new friends, but they were into comics, not cards, and around the time this magazine came out, I started switching to collecting comics.  I kept buying some cards through the end of my first year of college, in the summer of 1994, but 1991 was the last year I bought any factory sets, for example.  I can say exactly when I started with comics because it was just before Infinity Gauntlet #1 came out, in the summer of 1991.

I won't post a picture of the ads from this magazine, but I have done so for a bunch of the other old magazines I've shared (links at the bottom of the post).  I struggle with the question of what I'm doing in restarting collecting, and I think I just want to get a few more things that I didn't manage to get back in the 80s and 90s.  The old ads help me figure out what those things are that I still want to pick up.  The old ads helped with the idea to pick up the 1987 M&M's set, the Fantastic Sams discs, and some others that I've recently featured or acquired.  And I think I'm about done.  My primary current goal is to finish the 1972 set I'm working on, and which is about 45% complete at present.  Even though I've enjoyed my buying spree in the past year, there's not much else in sight for me as far as further acquisitions goes, I think.

Ken Griffey, Jr., Royals Rookies, and Roger Clemens.

I'll just show a few more things from the magazine: the cards.  These Baseball Cards magazines typically did feature five or six "cards," which I put in quotes here because they're uncut.  My attempts to cut them out were never very good, and I eventually stopped trying.  Also leaving them uncut meshes with the idea of keeping your collectibles pristine.  Here we have Ken Griffey Jr., Roger Clemens, and Royals Rookie Stars (Sean Berry and Brian McRae).  I have no memory of Berry, and only a vague memory of McRae.  Remembering McRae is easier because he's the son of Royals alum Hal McRae, who was on the 1980 Royals that lost the World Series to my Phils (when I was 4 years old).

Ellis Burks, Robin Yount, and Frank Thomas.

The other group is Ellis Burks, Robin Yount, and Frank Thomas.  Robin Yount was a superstar I knew nothing about, because he was a star in the Midwest and in the other league, a literal and figurative long way away.  Ellis Burks was one of many, many, many of the 1987 rookie cards, and he ended up having a very solid career.  Frank Thomas was rising to prominence when I was starting to check out of baseball, being a 1990 rookie, and went on to make the 500 home run club and the Hall of Fame.

Thanks for reading!  We've previously featured some other old magazines:

1. My First Beckett: September 1987, (Andre Dawson Front Cover)
2. November 1990 Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly (Michael Jordan Front Cover)
3. June 1988 Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly (Matt Nokes Front Cover)
4. July 1991 Baseball Card Price Guide Montly (Barry Bonds Front Cover)  
5. October 1988 Baseball Cards Magazine (Mike Greenwell Front Cover)