Ken Griffey Jr. Career Upper Deck Set Run
There are thousands of Upper Deck (UD) Ken Griffey Jr. cards and tens of thousands of Griffey cards from different releases from different manufacturers. Upper Deck, Topps, Fleer, and Donruss released dozens of sets in the 90s and 2000s with numerous inserts, subsets, parallels, and short prints.
1980 Topps Rickey Henderson: Behind the Card
Enjoy these Ken Griffey Jr. highlights pic.twitter.com/jsSE3JVU5k
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Upper Deck holds a special place among Griffey collectors because of the splash it made debuting the Griffey Jr. rookie card in 1989, the same year he made his major league debut. Before, card manufacturers waited a year before producing a player's rookie card. Upper Deck changed the game.
In this article, we'll look at Griffey's primary base card from every Upper Deck release from 1989 to 2010. Upper Deck's baseball foray started with Griffey and coincidentally ended with Griffey's retirement.
UD debuted in 1989 with Griffey, lost its license in 2009, and released a final, litigious set in 2010 when Griffey retired. We define a base card as the primary card featuring Griffey on the front and his career stats and biography on the back. We also define a base card as the year's first release, as Upper Deck usually had two releases for its flagship product.
1. 1989 Upper Deck Star Rookie #1
One of baseball's most iconic trading cards, the 1989 Upper Deck Star Rookie has been graded more than 114,000 times.
2. 1990 Upper Deck #156
Griffey's second Upper Deck card is much less popular than his rookie card. The card has been graded just more than 11,300 times. A PSA 8 copy can be bought for about $2.
3. 1991 Upper Deck #555
Upper Deck also released a 100-card Final Edition set in 1991. It was a boxed set that featured 100 players who contributed to their teams' pennant chase.
4. 1992 Upper Deck #424
There were four multiple exposure cards in the 1992 Upper Deck set: Jose Canseco, Eddie Murray, Deion Sanders, and Griffey. It has been graded nearly 1,400 times with 433 PSA 10s. Gem Mint 10s sell for $35 - $40 on average.
5. 1993 Upper Deck #355
6. 1994 Upper Deck #224
Griffey cards in the field are not as common as him with a bat in his hand, usually showcasing his famous swing. 1994 Upper Deck does not disappoint with a great action shot of Griffey in center field.
7. 1995 Upper Deck #100
8. 1996 Upper Deck #200
In a rare departure from cards highlighting Griffey's swing, 1996 Upper Deck appears to show him on the base paths, skipping over a ground ball. He's also wearing the sneakers from his memorable "I Got It" commercial from 1995.
9. 1997 Upper Deck #175
Yes, television screens used to come in rectangular prisms and cubes.
10. 1998 Upper Deck #225
1998 Upper Deck is loaded with Griffey inserts and cards. There are several Griffey subset base cards throughout the set. Card #225 shows his career stats on the back with a picture of his famous swing on the front.
11. 1999 Upper Deck #205
12. 2000 Upper Deck #231
In 2000, Griffey signed a 9-year, $116.5 million contract with the Cincinnati Reds. But in its first 2000 release, Upper Deck had Griffey in his Mariners uniform when the set was released in December 1999. Griffey appeared in a Reds uniform in Upper Deck's series two, released in July 2020.
13. 2001 Upper Deck #249
14. 2002 Upper Deck #436
15. 2003 Upper Deck #489
Griffey wasn't in the first release of 2003 UD in November 2002. His first base card was in the second release in June 2003.
16. 2004 Upper Deck #326
Like the year before, Griffey's base card was included in UD Series 2, released in May 2004. Series 1 was released in November 2003.
17. 2005 Upper Deck #334
A beautiful card reminiscent of 1995 Upper Deck that captures Griffey post-swing with the bat down.
18. 2006 Upper Deck #130
According to Baseballcardpedia.com: 2006 Upper Deck is a massive 1250-card set released in three series and is widely considered to be one of Upper Deck's finest accomplishments. In this card he is pictured with Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, who Griffey surpassed in the career home runs list during the 2005 season.
19. 2007 Upper Deck #294
20. 2008 Upper Deck #239
21. 2009 Upper Deck #93
Griffey was traded from Cincinnati to the Chicago White Sox in 2008. Griffey played 41 games with Chicago during the second half of the 2008 season. He hit .260 with a .347 on-base percentage with three home runs and 18 RBI. Upper Deck Series 1 was released in February 2009, before Griffey's return to Seattle that same year.
22. 2010 Upper Deck #445
Upper Deck lost its license to produce baseball cards with team names and logos in 2009. Even so, the company decided to go through with a licensed product, releasing 2010 Upper Deck Baseball Series 1 in February 2010. UD was promptly sued by Major League Baseball Properties and Topps, which had gained the rights to produce licensed cards. UD settled in March 2010 with other sets in the middle of production that were never released.
2010 was Griffey's final season of an illustrious career and the final season for Upper Deck baseball. Griffey finishes his Upper Deck career run in a Mariners uniform, like the way it started.
