The 1991 Conlon Baseball Card set was released during the peak of the baseball card boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s by Conlon Corporation. At a time when the industry was producing thousands of new baseball card sets each year in an effort to capitalize on the market frenzy, the 1991 Conlon set stood out for a few notable reasons.
By 1991, the industry had grown exponentially since the late 1980s. Whereas just a few major companies like Topps, Fleer, and Donruss dominated the market in the mid-1980s, in the early 1990s there were dozens of smaller companies entering the fray, all hoping to find their niche and make a profit off baseball’s newfound popularity amongst collectors.
Conlon Corporation was one such small player, having only started producing baseball cards in 1990. Their 1990 inaugural set sold reasonably well due largely to the inclusion of short print and autograph parallel insert sets that collectors loved chasing. For their 1991 offering, Conlon aimed to build on that initial success with tweaks to the base design and additional chase variants.
The 1991 Conlon base set included 252 cards and featured major league players and managers from the 1990 season. Like most mainstream sets of the era, the photographic quality was decent but unremarkable compared to the flagship Topps, Fleer, and Donruss issues. What set the Conlon base cards apart was their bold and colorful design motif, with players photographed against bright, primary color backgrounds meant to pop visually on the card front.
The photography itself came primarily from AP and Topps image archives rephotographed by Conlon. Close inspection sometimes revealed slight cropping changes versus how the same images appeared elsewhere. Rosters included most all active major leaguers with a few omissions here and there for players on smaller teams. Rookies that broke out in 1990 like Sandy Alomar Jr. and Chuck Knoblauch were included in the set as well.
In addition to the standard base cards, Conlon included a healthy dose of popular insert sets that added chase and collectability. First, they produced a parallel ‘Rainbow Foil’ version of each base card printed on metallic foil stock for a flashy retro look collectors loved. These Rainbow parallels were inserted randomly in packs at a ratio of around 1 in 10 packs.
Another coveted insert was the ‘Cream of the Crop’ acetate autograph parallel featuring 53 player autographs including superstars like Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken Jr. These autograph cards had the lowest odds of any parallel in the set at around 1 per case. For team collectors, Conlon also included 12-card ‘Team Leaders’ inserted mini-sets highlighting the top player stats from the previous season for each club.
While not quite on par with Topps flagship in terms of widespread popularity, the 1991 Conlon set was a solid mid-tier offering that benefited collectors with its affordable prices and bounty of chase cards. Prices for completed base sets still remain cheap enough to build today with Rainbow and autograph parallels providing decent returns for lucky collectors who still crack vintage wax in search of the long-shot hits.
The 1991 Conlon set in many ways typified what the early 1990s industry boom was all about – more products, insert sets for chasing, bright flashy designs, and an overall focus on giving youthful collectors plenty of cards to collect, trade, and enjoy outside the lofty mainstream issues. Sadly, within just a couple years the bubble would burst as the market became oversaturated. But for a moment in 1991, Conlon was able to deliver an affordable yet enticing set at the peak of the speculative frenzy.
