Buzz Break: 1987 Topps baseball cards (rack pack)

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The pack: 1987 Topps baseball (rack)
Where to buy: Check junk bins ... hit BlowoutCards.com for newer MLB cards

Keep reading for a breakdown and gallery for what was in this one.

Cards per pack: 49
Base set completion: 48 of 792 (6 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Schmidt, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Tom LaSorda, Alan Trammell, Darryl Strawberry, Pete Rose (Reds team leaders), Bob Welch, Jimmy Key

Rookie Cards (5) – Randy Myers, Pete Incaviglia, Al Newman, Ed Correa, Bryan Clutterbuck

Insert/short-prints cards: 1
Topps All-Star Glossy (1) – Dale Murphy

Autographs/Memorabilia: None.

What's Buzz-worthy: For #TBT this time, I figured I'd present my first of a few of these 36-year-old packs -- not all at once and not every week -- just as a reminder that the card world has changed a lot. Back then Topps basically put out one main set a year and then an update to it and various smaller boxed sets here and there for the year. That meant plenty of these got made between wax packs, rack packs, cello packs, jumbo packs, vending boxes and factory sets ... that means nothing here is rare -- but there is still dollar potential if you can land elite-grade copies. This one comes from a simple lot of rack packs where I paid about $1.40 a pop -- still might be high but the overall volume was good for the price (seven for $9.99) so I bit. This one was stacked with Hall of Famers -- others were not -- and then there was just one insert card (the Murphy) and that's it. The enticement here was the volume of cards for the price and then the insert, which was only found here. Also in play was the appeal that you could see the cards on the front and back of each stack in the cellophane (it's stacked above) so you could easily amass/hoard your player. The Rookie Card crop here is strong -- and there are nearly 100 in there -- but my five here are ultimately all commons today or close to it. I'll offer more thoughts on this classic -- some love it, some hate it but these wood borders stand out as unique among the Topps lineage -- in my later rips.

Product Grade: A- (the wood borders remain unique here and list of RCs/Hall of Famers in this one is stacked) 
Pack Grade: A
Fun Grade: C+ (times have definitely changed)

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