If you grew up in the late eighties, you probably remember the smell. That specific, slightly chemical scent of a freshly opened pack of 1989 Pro Set football cards. It was different from Topps. It felt new.
Pro Set was supposed to be the "premium" choice, the Official Card of the NFL. Fast forward thirty-five years, and you’ll find these cards sitting in dusty "dollar boxes" at card shows or filling up entire garage shelves in suburban basements. People call it the "Junk Wax" era for a reason. But honestly? There is something incredibly special about this set that collectors are finally starting to appreciate again. It isn’t about the monetary value, usually. It’s about the chaos.
The Beautiful Mess of the 1989 Pro Set Football Cards
Pro Set didn’t just print cards; they printed mistakes. Lots of them.
The 1989 debut was their first big swing, and they swung so hard they basically tripped over their own feet. Because they wanted to be "current," they constantly updated cards mid-production. This created a nightmare for organized collectors but a goldmine for variety hunters. You’ve got different photo crops, corrected typos, and stat changes that happened while the presses were literally running.
Take the William "The Refrigerator" Perry card, for example. There’s a version where he’s listed as a "DT" and another as a "FB." Then there’s the legendary Eric Dickerson error where they messed up his career rushing yards. While most modern companies would just let a typo slide, Pro Set was obsessed with fixing things on the fly.
This resulted in a set that is never truly "finished." You think you have the whole set? You probably don’t. You're likely missing the thin-stripe variation or the version where a player's name is slightly off-center. It’s maddening. It’s also kinda fun.
The Rookies Everyone Chased (And Still Does)
The 1989 NFL draft was one of the greatest of all time. Period. We’re talking about a class that included Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders, and Derrick Thomas.
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Pro Set caught them all.
The Barry Sanders rookie card (#494) is the crown jewel of the set. Even though Pro Set printed millions of these things—seriously, probably enough to pave a highway from Detroit to Wichita—a high-grade PSA 10 Barry Sanders still carries weight. It’s a beautiful card. The photography was miles ahead of what Topps was doing at the time. They used full-bleed photos, meaning the image went right to the edge of the card without a border. It looked like a tiny magazine.
Then you have Deion "Prime Time" Sanders (#486). Seeing him in that Falcons jersey for the first time was a cultural moment. Pro Set captured that energy perfectly.
However, you have to be careful. Because these cards have no borders, the edges chip if you even look at them wrong. Finding a 1989 Pro Set rookie with perfect "10" corners is actually much harder than the massive print runs would lead you to believe. Most of these cards were handled by kids, tossed into shoe boxes, or rubber-banded together. That’s why a graded version can actually be worth the effort.
What Most People Get Wrong About Value
"It’s junk wax, it’s worthless."
I hear that all the time. And yeah, if you have a stack of common offensive linemen from the 1989 set, you’re basically looking at very colorful kindling. But the market is changing.
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Collectibility is shifting away from "how rare is this?" toward "how much does this make me feel?" Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. The guys who were ten years old in 1989 now have disposable income. They don't want a $50,000 Patrick Mahomes 1/1 card that looks like a neon sign. They want the card they remember pulling from a pack at the 7-Eleven while drinking a Slurpee.
Basically, the value isn't in the cardboard. It's in the memory.
But if you want to talk cold, hard cash, there are some outliers. The Pete Rozelle commemorative card, which was a "short print," can actually fetch a decent price. And then there are the errors. The Fred Marion "belt" error—where a certain part of his uniform looked... suggestive—is a weirdly sought-after piece of hobby history. Pro Set caught the mistake and fixed it quickly, making the "unfiltered" version a legitimate collectible.
The "Official" Disaster
Pro Set was the brainchild of Ludwell Denny. He wanted to revolutionize the industry. He got the NFL license and went to town, producing cards for everything from the Pro Bowl to the Super Bowl. They even did cards for the Santa Claus "He's a Legend" promo.
But they overextended. They printed too much. They tried to be everything to everyone and ended up filing for bankruptcy by the mid-90s.
Looking back, the 1989 Pro Set football cards were the peak of that ambition. They felt like the future. The cards were thin, the gloss was shiny, and the stat backs were detailed. Compared to the grainy, gray-stock cards of the early 80s, these felt like high technology.
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How to Handle Your 1989 Collection Today
If you’ve got a stack of these in your attic, don’t just throw them out. But don’t plan your retirement around them either.
First, look for the big names. Aikman, Sanders, Sanders, Thomas, and Thurman Thomas. If they look absolutely perfect—and I mean "microscope perfect"—consider getting them graded. A PSA 10 will always find a buyer among Hall of Fame collectors.
Second, look for the weird stuff. Check the backs. Check the spellings. There are enthusiasts like those at PSA’s CardFacts or various collector forums who specialize specifically in Pro Set variations. Some of these variations are rarer than "1 of 1" cards from 2024 because nobody was looking for them at the time.
The 1989 set is a snapshot of a league in transition. You see the last gasps of the old-school legends and the explosive arrival of the modern superstars. It’s the bridge between two eras of football.
Actionable Next Steps for Collectors
Instead of letting those cards sit in a box, take these specific steps to see what you actually have.
- Identify the "Big Four" Rookies: Pull out Barry Sanders (#494), Deion Sanders (#486), Troy Aikman (#6), and Derrick Thomas (#498). These are your primary value drivers.
- Inspect the Edges: Because 1989 Pro Set cards are borderless, look for "whitening" on the sides. If the edges are perfectly green or team-colored with no white showing, the card is a candidate for grading.
- Look for the Rozelle: Find the Pete Rozelle card. It wasn't in every pack and remains one of the more "legitimately" scarce cards in the base set.
- Check for Errors: Specifically look for the Fred Marion (#216). If the belt area looks "unusual," you have the uncorrected version. Also, check the William Perry (#332) for the position listing.
- Don't Over-Invest in Grading: Unless the card is flawless, the grading fee will likely cost more than the card's market value. Only send in the absolute best of the best.
- Buy the Factory Set: If you’re a fan of the era but don't want to hunt, you can still find sealed 1989 Pro Set Factory Sets for relatively cheap. It’s the easiest way to own a piece of history without the hassle.
The hobby isn't always about the "investment." Sometimes, it’s just about owning a piece of the year that changed football forever. 1989 was that year, and Pro Set was the company that let everyone own a slice of it for thirty-five cents a pack.