In 1990, Pepsi partnered with baseball superstar Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics to produce a special limited edition series of baseball cards. At the time, Canseco was one of baseball’s biggest stars and helped lead the Athletics to the 1989 World Series title. He was coming off an iconic season in 1988 where he won the American League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards by hitting 42 home runs and becoming the first player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single season.
Canseco’s power and flair helped make him one of the most marketable players in baseball. He was not afraid to express himself on and off the field which helped grow his popularity. Pepsi saw an opportunity to capitalize on Canseco’s stardom and image by creating a collectible set of promotional cards featuring the slugger. The cards came in Pepsi cans and bottles from May through July of 1990 in limited quantities. Fans across America eagerly opened their Pepsi products hoping to find one of the shiny Canseco cards.
The design of the cards stood out from traditional baseball cards of the era. They featured a glossy foil finish and highlights of Canseco’s stats and accomplishments in bright colors on a black background. Each card measured approximately 3″ x 4 3/4″ in size. There were a total of 10 different cards in the set with variations in the photos and stats listed on the front. The back of each card listed more career highlights and statistics along with Pepsi branding and legal text.
One of the standout cards featured Canseco mid-swing with the lively text “Made history in ’88” referring to his 40/40 season. Another showed Canseco rounding the bases with a home run trot. Other cards highlighted his Rookie of the Year award, his impressive career stats at the time including 129 home runs in only 496 games, and his starring role on the 1989 World Series champion A’s. The biggest draw for collectors was finding the ultra-rare “GUMMER” variation card which had a small piece of Pepsi gum stuck to the back.
Despite only being available for a few months in 1990, the Pepsi Jose Canseco cards became hugely popular and are now highly sought after by collectors decades later. At the time, Canseco’s stardom was at its peak making the cards extremely desirable. Their flashy design, limited distribution through Pepsi products, and use of holographic foil also made them stand out from typical trading cards. Within a few years of their release, the Canseco Pepsi cards had increased greatly in value on the secondary market.
Several factors contributed to the cards retaining and even growing their value over the past 30+ years. Canseco went on to have a stellar career hitting 462 home runs between 1986-2001 while becoming one of the first players implicated in baseball’s steroids scandal in the late 80s/early 90s. As one of the alleged early users and suppliers of performance-enhancing drugs in MLB, he remained a very polarizing figure. Canseco authored several tell-all books after retirement that made salacious claims about PED use across the league which kept interest in him high. His history and profile continued bringing attention to these unique promotional cards issued during the peak of his playing days.
The limited production run and narrow three month window when the cards were available also drastically impacts their rarity and demand today. Only a small fraction of Pepsi drinks from 1990 likely contained a Canseco card making the complete set incredibly tough to obtain. Even loose singlesfetch high prices when they surface. Another factor driving their value is the nostalgia many collectors have for finding and trading sports cards from their childhood. Having only been distributed 30 years ago, the 1990 Pepsi Canseco set falls right into the peak collecting years for many current adult collectors.
As a result, graded gem mint condition examples of the 1990 Pepsi Jose Canseco cards in recent years have sold for thousands of dollars each. The elusive “GUMMER” variation is considered the crown jewel of the set and has sold for over $10,000. Even well-worn, played copies still sell for hundreds due to their memorable piece of 1990s baseball history nestled inside a Pepsi bottle or can. Over three decades later, Canseco’s brief but highly successful run with the Oakland A’s and these innovative Pepsi promo cards continue captivating collectors worldwide. They represent the height of his fame and talent while showcasing 1990s baseball memorabilia and collectibles at their finest.
