The 1987 Topps baseball card set was one of the most highly anticipated issues of the late 1980s. Following decades of dominance, Topps faced new competition from rival producer Fleer. The 1987 set would be a pivotal release in what became known as the “Baseball Card War.”
Topps went all out to make the 1987 set stand out, giving cards thicker cardboard stock and embellishing them with colorful photo borders and player stats. The designs had a whimsical, almost comic book-like feel. Behind the scenes, Topps perfected new printing techniques to keep costs down and quality high on the mass quantities needed to meet demand.
Like all modern Topps issues, the 1987s were initially produced as uncut sheets still attached to one another after printing. These uncut or “hobby” sheets became highly collectible in their own right among advanced collectors. While retailers would cut the sheets into packs and boxes for the mass market, uncut sheets retained the comic-like aesthetic of the entire set intact on a single large “poster.”
Topps printed the 1987s on sheets of 52 cards each, with 6 rows of 8 or 7 rows of 7 cards depending on the sheet. The front of each card was roughly 2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches high within the paper border. So an entire sheet measured around 21×28 inches, giving collectors an amazing full-view presentation of the entire set.
Within the hobby, various sheet variants emerged. The most common contained the standard 52-card assortment drawn randomly from the entire 660-card set. However, Topps also experimented with sheet layouts organized by player position or team. In very limited quantities, specialty promotional or “proof” sheets even contained artist or manager headshots not found in packs.
Print runs on hobby sheets were much lower compared to the hundreds of millions of packs produced. Only several thousand intact sheets likely survived the decades intact. As sets from the 1970s and early 80s grew in value, so too did the hobby sheets that preserved those issues in their original form. 1987 sheets took on increasing significance as the high water mark of the card industry’s boom years.
Condition became paramount for collectors. Even minor damage like creases or edge wear greatly diminished a sheet’s worth. Truly pristine examples fetched enormous sums. In the current market, even very well-centered, bright 1987 sheets often sell for thousands of dollars or more depending on their specific player or statistical content. Extremely rare sheet variants can far surpass $10,000 when offered to avid set builders.
The 1987 Topps set is regarded as one of the most aesthetically appealing issues ever produced. Its uncut hobby sheets amplified that visual appeal to an almost monumental scale. For serious vintage collectors, acquiring a high-grade example provides not only the thrill of obtaining a showcase piece, but a direct window into the era that defined the sports card phenomenon. Few other collectibles so tangibly fuse nostalgia, rarity, condition sensitivity and sheer enormity into a single coveted artifact. For these reasons, 1987 Topps uncut sheets remain iconic trophies among set builders decades after the cards first hit the marketplace.
