1988 Fleer Reggie Jackson Will Fulfill Your Quest

If you were to embark on a quest to find the most monumental, most “important” baseball card that no one ever talks about from the Junk Wax era, you just might return to your cardboard castle with a crisp and sparkling copy of the 1988 Fleer Reggie Jackson career-capper in your quill.

If you don’t believe me, well, that just sort of proves the point that this is a forgotten classic …

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What’s so special about this cupcake-bordered Reggie?

Well, for starters, it’s a Reggie Jackson card, so that gets us at least half the way to awesomeness, just like hearing the Cheers theme gets you 99% of the way to weekend bliss. (What do you mean it’s not on anymore? Blasphemy!)

And for seconders, this Reggie is a career-capper, like I said above, meaning the back of the card shows his entire body of Major League work, statistically speaking, and modulo some October heroics here and there.

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This was Reggie’s only career-capper, too.

I mean, unless you count his 1988 Sportflics card, with is really more of a coaster than a baseball card, and which doesn’t count.

Or unless you count the 1988 Score card — the one at #504 — which totally counts, but which is also part of a five-card Reggie tribute that really deserves its own little tribute. Hmm…

For us here, though, the 1988 Fleer Reggie is the only normal, standalone career-capper that you couple pull from actual wax packs (Score, not so much).

And not only that, but Reggie had the decency to sign a free agent deal with the Oakland A’s in December of 1986, ensuring that he would end his storied career right where it began.

That’s the Reggie we see on his 1988 Fleer card — the prodigal son who left town after the 1975 season, and after helping the A’s to World Series championships each season from 1972 through 1974, stomping through his old territory for one last romp.

That last romp yielded another 15 home runs to bring his total to 563, good for sixth on the all-time list when he retired, and still good for 14th today.

And, oh yeah — that last romp also yielded the Junk Wax classic that is the 1988 Fleer Reggie Jackson.

These days, you can still find that card in nice raw condition for a buck or less most of the time.

If you want a high-end graded copy, you’re still looking at reasonable prices — around $5 for a PSA 9 copy, or up to about $25 for a perfect 10.

And, unlike most epic quest, you won’t even have to slay any dragons to fulfill this leg of your hobby destiny. Although, since this is Reggie Jackson we’re talking about here, you might want to fuel up with a couple hot dogs before you head out.