In 1990, General Mills released its annual set of baseball cards packaged inside boxes of various Post cereal brands. The 1990 Post cereal baseball card series was one of the most intriguing and valuable sets from that era. The cards featured notable players from that year and included statistical information and biographical details on the back of each card.
General Mills had included baseball cards in cereals since the 1880s as a marketing strategy to appeal to young fans and drive cereal sales. By the late 1980s and early 90s, the hobby of collecting baseball cards was booming in popularity. The 1990 Post cards capitalized on this growing collector interest. The set followed the popular modern design model of a colorful player photo on the front with stats on the reverse.
Some of the star players featured in the 1990 Post series included Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Roger Clemens, Dave Stewart, Kirby Puckett, and Nolan Ryan. These were some of the biggest names in baseball at the time and their inclusion made the set highly desirable for collectors. Each box of certain Post cereals contained a randomly inserted wax pack with five cardboard trading cards. Common foil-wrapped packs contained the base set while rarer foil packs could contain unique inserts.
In addition to the base cards of current major leaguers, the 1990 Post set also included retrospective “Turn Back The Clock” cards highlighting statistical milestones from previous seasons. Notable examples were Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run for the 1988 World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers and Orel Hershiser’s record 59 consecutive scoreless innings during the same season. These flashback cards added historical context and visual interest to the otherwise standard rookie and star player lineup.
Some of the biggest draws for collectors were the scarce serialized parallels and promotional subsets inserted randomly in cereal boxes. The hardest-to-find were the gold foil parallel cards numbered to only 250 copies. Even rarer were “Super Stats” cards that illustrated unique statistical feats on a colorful etched foil background. Only 50 of each Super Stats card was produced, making them highly valued by collectors today.
The 1990 Post cards also contained several promotional subsets only available through mail-in offers printed on the cereal boxes. One such subset highlighted the Topps Traded set and cards from that year could be redeemed by sending in box tops. Another subset highlighted the careers of retired Hall of Famers with a retro design inspired by older tobacco card sets. These exclusive promotional subsets added significant collector interest and value to an already sought-after annual baseball card release.
While wax packs of the base set cards could be found fairly easily by buying multiple boxes of Post cereals, the scarcer parallel and special inserts drove devoted collectors to ration out cereal spending or look to the emerging trading card marketplace. The limited print runs of inserts like the gold foil and Super Stats parallels immediately gave the 1990 Post issues investment potential for savvy collectors. Even today, high grade examples of these sought-after short printed variations command premium prices at auction.
Another factor that added to the collectible mystique of the 1990 Post cards was the concurrent boom of the early sports memorabilia and card auction houses. Pioneer companies like Steiner Sports and Heritage Auctions helped establish recognized graded pop reports, prices guides and a marketplace for collectors to swap and sell their childhood collections for profit. This emerging industry gave collectors solid valuations on their 1990 Post cards that further drove interest and demand.
In the decades since, appreciation for the 1990 Post cereal cards has grown exponentially among collectors and investors. The set successfully blended the high-production mass-market appeal of a General Mills promotion with scarce pop culture memorabilia through innovative sticker subsets, parallels and inserts. For both casual childhood collectors at the time and today’s savvy investors, the 1990 Post issue remains one of the most recognized, desirable and valuable annual baseball card releases of the late 20th century trading card boom period. Whether hunting for stars of the era or chasing highly rewarded rarities, the 1990 Post baseball cards continue capturing the imagination of sports collectors worldwide.
