Back in the baseball card hey days of the '80's and '90's, you could run through the line at a Kmart and find this set on the rack. This particular set is from 1989 and features rookies from the prior year, as well as highlighting players whose rookie year was in the 1980's. These little box sets never seem to get much respect from collectors, and I'm not sure why. There are some gems in these sets, and it seems like the designers got a little more creative with the border, so let's take a closer look at the Dream Team from 1989.
As you can tell, this set didn't cost much back then and can usually be had for about the same price nowadays. Boxes were never sealed, so you always had to be careful and make sure the full set was in there. Also it was very easy to damage these as there was not any sort of padding or any other sort of protection for the cards. Being sold in a Kmart didn't help as I'm sure many of these were mishandled back in the day.
There were 33 cards in this set (many of these always seem to have around 30 cards) and was divided into 3 "series" of 11 cards each. The first 11 are rookies from 1988, but none of these players really made a splash. Mark Grace is probably the most prominent name. The other 2 "series" are players from both the American and National league who had a rookie year in the '80's. There are many big names and notable players.
The cards have plenty of action shots and stats on the back. Not just one year of stats, but full career stats. I think the design is well done and easy to read. It also has the Kmart and Topps logo prominently displayed. Is it the Kmart logo that drives collectors away from these?
The fronts feature a colorful banner at the top, a nice glossy finish with mostly action shots and team logos, but there are some photos that come off as...different. I mean, who knows what Boggs is thinking here, and Puckett looks bored. Also, pictured in the header above, Tim Raines is referred to as Rock Raines. I'm not aware of any other card that refers to him as Rock.
Like many cards printed in that era, I'm sure they let the presses roll, but since these were only available at Kmart, it would be interesting to know the print run of this set. The high gloss finish is a nice touch and reminds me of the Tiffany sets that were available at the time. For a very reasonable price this set has a lot of star power from the '80's and even though box sets such as this don't garner much attention from collectors, I will always have a spot for it in my collection.
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