Rip cards, also sometimes called scratch cards, are cards that are inserted randomly into packs or boxes of baseball cards. They allow the person opening the pack to potentially reveal a special hit card or prize behind the rip card. The rip card has a thin coating or material over it that needs to be scratched off or ripped away to see what is hidden underneath. They create excitement and mystery for those collecting baseball cards as there is a chance a valuable card could be found.
Rip cards first started appearing in the late 1980s and became very popular during the height of the baseball card boom in the early 1990s. Companies like Fleer, Topps, and Donruss would include them randomly in packs and boxes of cards as a way to entice buyers. There was always the chance that behind a rip card could be found a highly sought after rookie card of a star player, a autographed card, or sometimes even a valuable memorabilia card containing a piece of a game worn jersey or bat. Not every rip card contained a hit though. Many times it would just reveal another base card. But the possibility of finding something great kept collectors on their toes every time they opened a pack.
For young collectors at the time, the experience of carefully scratching or tearing away a rip card to see what was underneath was hugely exciting. There was a real thrill and sense of anticipation in those few seconds before seeing if they had pulled out a valuable card or not. Sports card manufacturers knew that the rip card gimmick played on people’s inherent excitement around gambling and would drive more product sales. Upper Deck was particularly known for including elaborate rip cards made of thicker paper stock in the early 1990s that were more satisfying to remove.
Some memorable cards that were found behind rip cards include rookie cards of Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Jim Abbott, and Edgar Martinez. Autographed versions of star player cards like Ken Griffey Jr. were also occasionally discovered. In 1991, Donruss put Ken Griffey Jr.’s rookie card behind rip cards in some factory sets, greatly adding to the allure and mystique around the Find. Memorabilia cards containing swatches of fabric from jerseys or pieces of bats from historic games were another type of hit card found behind rip cards on occasion. Their rarity made them extremely valuable to collectors.
As the trading card market grew exponentially in the early 90s, the inclusion of rip cards and chance hits served to generate even more frenzied buying of unopened product. Some complained that the randomness took away from properly checking cards and building complete sets. They argued it detracted from the core collecting aspect. There were also occasional reports over the years of unscrupulous resellers attempting to tamper with rip cards to “reveal” valuable insert cards that were not really there. Such schemes quickly lost credibility.
Still, rip cards remained an integral part of the pack and box opening experience that kept collectors hoping for that big discovery right up until the sports card market crash of the mid-1990s. Even as interest waned later in the decade, manufacturers sporadically brought them back for short runs believing they could rekindle some of the old excitement. In today’s market, while baseball cards have rebounded considerably, rip cards are not nearly as prevalent. This is partially due to the rise of memorabilia cards containing game used pieces but also the increased focus on special parallel and short print variants that are identifiable without a rip card.
Some modern parallels to rip cards have emerged in recent years however. “Hit” packs containing guaranteed autograph or memorabilia cards sold at higher price points have become popular. Panini’s Contenders football also uses “Shield” cards that block premium hits. And Bowman Chrome baseball sometimes places prospect autographs behind opaque plastic wrappers. So while pure chance rip cards may not be back in style, the “mystery” aspect lives on in today’s sports collecting scene. For those who vividly remember the baseball card boom era of the late 80s and early 90s, rip cards will always retain nostalgic appeal as symbolic of an innocent time when the thrill of the chase truly captured people’s imaginations.
Rip cards were a fun and exciting innovation in the 1980s and 90s that grew out of the massive surge of interest in trading cards, especially those related to baseball. While derided by some as distracting from set building, for many young collectors at the time they fueled intense anticipation and engagement with the packs and sets. That sense of potential serendipitous discovery behind a rip card capture imaginations in a way that still evokes fond memories for those who experienced it during the heyday of collecting sports cards.
