1989 Upper Deck #1: Ken Griffey Jr.'s Flagship Rookie

The 1989 Upper Deck #1 is the card the hobby uses as shorthand for Ken Griffey Jr. It’s the first card in the first set Upper Deck ever made, it carries a Star Rookie label, and it pictures a teenager the Seattle Mariners had taken #1 overall in the 1987 draft before he’d played a big-league game. Of his six 1989 rookie cards, this is the one with the name recognition — and the one most worth understanding before you buy.

Why this set changed the hobby

Upper Deck arrived in 1989 as the first “super-premium” baseball card brand. The cards were printed on white stock with full colour on both sides, and every card carried a hologram on the back to fight counterfeiting — a first for the industry. Next to the thinner paper issues from Topps, Donruss and Fleer that year, it looked and felt like a different product.

The set runs to 800 cards in two series: a low series of #1–700 and a high series of #701–800. Griffey leads it off at #1.

Source: 1989 Upper Deck at Baseball Card Pedia and the Old Sports Cards 1989 Upper Deck #1 guide, which agree on the 800-card, two-series structure and the anti-counterfeit hologram.

Where #1 fits among his 1989 rookies

Griffey has six cards collectors treat as his core 1989 rookies:

• 1989 Upper Deck #1 — the flagship rookie covered here. The famous one.
• 1989 Bowman #220 — the oversized Bowman issue, plus a father-son card with Ken Griffey Sr.
• 1989 Donruss #33 — his Rated Rookie.
• 1989 Fleer #548 — the Fleer base rookie; see the Fleer and Score Traded rookies.
• 1989 Topps Traded #41T — the factory-set Topps card.
• 1989 Score Rookie/Traded #100T — the boxed Score traded-set card.

For a side-by-side of all six with live listings for each, see the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards guide.

Card numbers: Old Sports Cards, CGC and Baseball Almanac agree on every number above.

What to check on a copy

The Upper Deck #1 is not a scarce card. What’s scarce is a sharp one, and the gap between a typical copy and a top-grade copy is where all the money in this card’s market sits. Before you buy:

1. Centering first. Centering varies a lot from copy to copy on this card, and it is the single most frequent reason an otherwise clean #1 grades lower than it looks. Measure the borders left-to-right and top-to-bottom with the card centering calculator before you trust a photo.
2. Corners and edges. White stock shows every touch. Look for soft corners and edge whitening on the back as well as the front.
3. The hologram. Every genuine card has a hologram on the back. Copies with a missing or doubled hologram exist as factory flaws and are treated as flawed cards, not premium variations — so look at the back photo, not just the front.
4. Print defects. Print lines and small surface marks are common enough on this card that you should look at a full-size image before buying any copy described as “mint.”

Raw or graded

• For a display card, a raw copy is a perfectly good way to own the most famous card of his career. Sleeve it and put it in a top loader the day it arrives.
• For a keeper, buy it already graded by PSA, SGC or Beckett and match the certification number to the listing photos. Grade drives this card’s market more than anything else, and a slab removes the guesswork.
• Thinking of grading your own? Run it through the grading ROI calculator first, and read the PSA 10 vs raw guide for how centering and surface decide the outcome.

We don’t quote prices anywhere on this site, and nothing here tells you what your own copy is worth. To see what the market is paying for a specific grade, use the Ken Griffey Jr. card value checker — it hands you straight to eBay’s own sold listings for the exact card and grade you pick. The card values guide explains the method.

Where to go next

Live listings for the Upper Deck #1 — PSA 10s, PSA 9s and raw copies — open from the eBay rails below. From there:

• See where it ranks in the most valuable Ken Griffey Jr. cards.
• Work out what your budget buys with the best Griffey cards to buy.
• Browse every era from the Ken Griffey Jr. trading cards hub, or start at the Ken Griffey Jr. player page.