Burlington, VT

This card was sent by "T.B." of Burlington, Vermont.  Thanks for the card, I am very pleased to add it to my collection.

I spend more time on twitter than I care to admit, and recently I noticed some discussion about 1989 Upper Deck.  Twitter being the abhorrent collection of ugliness that it is, the discussion had (naturally) already turned into a name calling argument as to whether it is okay to use a slur for being handicapped starting with "R."

So I moved about my business and ignored it.  But 1989 in cards is a tough year to rank.  As a young kid in 1989, I was not immune to the Upper Deck hysteria, and my brother and I went through about four boxes of the stuff between the boxes we bought (or were treated to by my generous father) and all the random packs we opened.  But we also got wildly excited about Sportflics in 1986, and Score in 1988.  So I think it's fair to say we just loved new product.

I'd guess that 1989 was probably the high point in our wax pack buying consumption, as we went through no shortage of Topps, Donruss, Fleer, and the "new" Bowman as well.  Score, Sportflics and Topps Big weren't entirely overlooked either.  I'd be lying if I said Upper Deck wasn't my favorite at the time.  But in 1986 I'd have told you Sportflics was my favorite set of the year.  Now thirty years removed, here's my rankings of the 1989 sets:

1. Topps
2. Fleer
3. Score
4. Upper Deck
5. Donruss
6. Bowman

I may break this down more in a later post, but for now, feel free to become angry and upset at that list as it is.  I will say, it's Topps by a wide margin, and on a given day I may rank Fleer/UD/Score in a different order, they're all pretty close in my mind.

Updated Total for 1989 Fleer: 335