The 1990 Leaf Baseball card set was the third series of baseball cards released by Leaf Trading Card Company after their debut set in 1988. Some key things to know about the 1990 Leaf set include:
Set Size and Design:
The 1990 Leaf Baseball card set contained 380 total cards. This included photographs of 312 different major and minor league baseball players.
The design of the 1990 Leaf cards featured a mainly white border with the team logo in the top left corner. In the center was a color photo of the player in either a headshot or action shot style. At the bottom was the team name and stats.
The border design was cleaner and less cluttered than prior Leaf sets, focusing mainly on the central player photo. Colors were also more vibrant compared to previous years.
Rookies and Star Players:
Some notable rookies featured in the set included Sandy Alomar Jr., Bobby Bonilla, Gregg Jefferies, Mark Grace, and Rob Dibble. While none went on to superstar careers, they all had solid MLB careers.
Stars of the day like Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., Wade Boggs, and Ozzie Smith highlighted the veteran portion of the checklist. These were some of the game’s biggest names at the time.
Insert Cards and Parallels:
The 1990 Leaf set included several special insert subsets like Golden Scratch-Offs, Logos From the Past, Super Stats, Leaf Leaders, and Diamond Anniversary cards featuring vintage designs.
Parallels included “Gold” and “Chrome” refractors, among others. Refractors were fairly new at the time and helped drive collector interest in parallel and insert cards beyond the base set.
Production and Checklist Organization:
Leaf trading cards were printed by Fleer and produced their baseball sets under license from MLB, similar to other sports card companies at the time.
The base checklist was organized alphabetically by player last name within each team. The teams were then organized alphabetically as well. This gave the set a straightforward, easy-to-follow checklist structure.
The 1990 Leaf set had a longer tail of minor leaguers and career minor leaguers compared to flagship releases from Topps or Donruss. This made it more appealing to collectors seeking depth beyond just stars.
Grading and Secondary Market:
High grade examples of stars and especially rookies from the 1990 Leaf set command strong prices years later given the set’s relatively smaller print run compared to competitors.
On the PSA 10 population report, the most scarce PSA 10 rookies include Sandy Alomar Jr. (3 copies), Bobby Bonilla (2 copies), and Mark Grace (4 copies). Scarce PSA 10 veterans include Dennis Eckersley (1 copy) and Ozzie Smith (5 copies).
On eBay recently, raw near-mint copies of stars sell for $5-20 while PSA 10 examples of stars can reach $100-300. Top rookies in PSA 10 grade sell in the $100-500 range depending on the player, with the rarest approaching $1,000.
The 1990 Leaf Baseball card set was one of the better and more complete releases during the “junk wax” era. While production numbers were high overall, quality examples of stars and rookies from this set hold strong ongoing collector demand and value due to the insert and parallel card mix, player selection, and relatively cleaner design compared to competitors at the time. It remains a favorite of both vintage collectors and investors decades later.
