The 1990 Topps baseball card set saw the debut of several future hall of famers and also contained some of the most expensive and sought after cards from the entire junk wax era of the late 80s and early 90s. While sets from this time period are not usually very valuable due to the immense printing quantities, there are a handful of highly coveted rookie and serial numbered parallel cards that have stood the test of time and gained significant value.
Perhaps the most iconic and valuable card from the 1990 Topps set is the serial numbered parallel Frank Thomas rookie card. Thomas would go on to have a hall of fame career hitting 521 home runs and racking up a career .301 batting average. His exceptionally clean and powerful lefty swing made him one of the most feared sluggers of the 1990s. The 1990 Topps Frank Thomas rookie is typically found as a traditional base card, but Topps also produced an ultra-short print parallel version with a blue border and serial numbering from 1/100 to 5/100. These rare parallel Thomas rookies regularly sell for over $10,000 in gem mint condition due to their scarcity and the fact they capture “The Big Hurt” at the very beginning of his storied career.
Another extremely valuable rookie card from 1990 Topps is pitcher Charles Nagy of the Cleveland Indians. Nagy went on to have a solid 15 year MLB career compiling a 126-115 record but is best known for throwing the franchise’s only no-hitter in 1999. Like Thomas, Nagy has a standard base rookie along with a short printed blue parallel serial numbered from 1/100 to 5/100. High grade examples of Nagy’s scarce parallel rookie in a PSA/BGS 10 can sell for well over $10,000. The demand and rarity of these two cards featuring all-time great rookies in Thomas and Nagy make them perpetual favorites amongst vintage baseball card collectors.
In addition to premier rookie cards, autographed and memorabilia parallel inserts were early experiments by Topps in the late 1980s and 1990 produced some incredibly rare signed and game worn memorabilia parallels. In 1990, Topps unveiled “Star Rookies” inserts featuring autographed cards of hyped rookie prospects like Ken Griffey Jr., Andy Benes and Michael Tucker. While Griffey Jr. and Benes parallels can still fetch $1000-2000 in mint condition today due to strong later careers, by far the most coveted is the ultra-rare Michael Tucker autographed parallel. Tucker had a relatively non-descript 4 year MLB career but his signed parallel from the 1990 Star Rookies insert number exists in quantities of perhaps only 5-10 total copies. As such, ungraded examples in good condition have sold for north of $25,000 simply due to the extreme scarcity and cool factor associated with such a limited print run parallel card.
Perhaps the single rarest and most expensive card from the entire 1990 Topps set is the checklist variation card featuring Nolan Ryan. The standard Nolan Ryan checklist card shows a photo of Ryan in a Rangers uniform from the 1990 season along with basic career stats up to that point. As is sometimes the case with checklist variations over the years, a small batch of cards were mistakenly printed showing Ryan in an Astros uniform instead of with Texas as he had been traded away from Houston after the 1989 season. These astounding rare Astros uniform variation checklists have been price guide valued at $50,000 and up in high grade as perhaps less than a dozen are accounted for by collectors and researchers. Simply put, it is about as rare and valuable as it gets for a standard base card variation from the junk wax era.
While the vast majority of cards from 1990 Topps are near worthless due to high production numbers, there remain some true gems that have stood the test of time due to capturing all-time great players like Frank Thomas at the start of their careers or being astonishingly rare parallel andchecklist variations. For the savvy vintage baseball card investor, highly graded examples of the Thomas and Nagy blue parallels, the ultra-rare Michael Tucker autographed parallel, and the mythic Nolan Ryan Astros uniform variation continue to gain in value and prestige amongst the collecting community many decades later.
