Baseball Card Price Guide History - 1984 Fleer Don Mattingly

If there could be one player that was responsible for the rookie card craze, I would think it was Don Mattingly in 1984. Wade Boggs kind of warmed up the market the year before and Cal Ripken was not Cal Ripken yet. Too many years had passed for Brett, Yount, Murray and Henderson's rookie cards to light up the market. But the year was 1984 and the print, media and technology world was changing and Don Mattingly's rookie cards were the hottest thing around. It helped that he was a Yankee and SCD and Baseball Cards Magazine were on the news stands. ESPN was really beginning to take off and Donnie Baseball was just pounding the ball for a .343 batting average. While I think his Donruss card is the most expensive, I think his 1984 Fleer card was the best looking rookie card. Maybe it was the black shirt uniform. The slight crouch as he is standing just off first (this is a card that makes you imagine more that you see) as he is awaiting the next pitch. It is possible that this could be a posed shot but I think it was taken from a game. I also like the way 1984 Fleer used the logo's on the cards and the design really worked.

8/1985 Baseball Cards Mag             $1.20-2.00
12/86 Baseball Cards Mag               $3.00-5.00
11/1988 Baseball Cards Mag           $30.00
10/1996 SportsCards                       $34.00
10/1998 SportsCards                       $30.00
2/2005 Beckett Baseball                   $8-20.00
10/2009 Beckett SCM                     $8-20.00
Last week on Ebay                           $7.50(26 sales with high sale of 20.00)

The 1984 Fleer  Mattingly card appears to be just a little bit more valuable than the 1983 Topps Wade Boggs (see earlier posts)