In some ways, 1990 Bowman baseball cards righted a lot of wrongs.
For one thing, they “fixed” the oversized, misfit nature of the inaugural Bowman reboot in 1989 that kept that set from going anywhere.
For another, 1990 Bowman gave us a Topps card that summer without garish borders and with big, clear photos.
And for another another … 1990 Bowman was loaded with rookies, which set up the brand to become the place to go for prospect pasteboards within just a couple years.
Of course, all that goodness was sort of blunted by the volcanic volume of cardboard that erupted from the Topps factory that summer …
Even now, you could be walking down the street on a beautiful clear blue autumn afternoon and suddenly be covered by a dollop of 1990 Bowman packs that have just been hanging therein the atmosphere for a few decades.
But all is not lost if you’re looking for 1990 Bowmans that are worth something. See, because they’re still new(ish) and because there are so many of them out there, a fair amount have been sent in for grading.
And the ones that come back with a perfect score are in that sweet spot of being just scarce enough to be interesting but common enough to be attainable.
With all that in mind, then, here are the nine most valuable 1990 Bowman baseball cards, based on recent eBay sales for specimens in PSA 10 condition.
1990 Bowman Frank Thomas Rookie Card (#320)
If you weren’t following baseball in the early 1990s, then you missed out on the amazing phenomenon of a young Frank Thomas.
The man slammed into the sport like a linebacker and turned in consistent, gaudy power-plus-average performances we hadn’t seen since the days of Ted Williams.
Every dang season for the better part of a decade, The Big Hurt was good for, like, .320, 30 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 runs scored — which may not sound that amazing now, but it left us breathless 25 years ago.
Not surprisingly, Big Frank climbed to the top of the hobby mountain on his way to Cooperstown, and that sheen never really wore off.
Today, Thomas’ Bowman rookie is a $50 card in PSA 10 condition.
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1990 Bowman Sammy Sosa Rookie Card (#312)
Once upon a time, Sammy Sosa was a slender young man with a blend of power and speed that made him a 30-30 threat for the Texas Rangers.
And then for the Chicago White Sox.
And then for the Chicago Cubs, for whom he actually turned the trick, in both 1993 and 1995.
And then, well, home runs. And more home runs. And more home runs.
So many home runs, in fact, that Sosa ended up with 609 of them on the strenght of three seasons of 60+. No one else has ever done that.
But, then there were PED accusations and silliness and a general fall from grace.
Sammy may not make the Hall of Fame cut any time soon, but he still holds enough sway with collectors for his ’90 Bowman RC to climb into the $35 range (in PSA 10).
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1990 Bowman Larry Walker Rookie Card (#117)
Larry Walker is another mid-1990s super duper star who didn’t fare as well with Hall of Famer voters as we all might have expected during his prime … but he eventually made the cut!
Unlike Sammy, the culprit for Booger wasn’t PEDs — it’s mountains.
As in the Colorado Rockies, whose batters tend to do things in the thin air that mere mortals living closer to the surface could barely fathom.
Still, a .313 lifetime average, 2160 hits, 383 home runs, a .965 OPS, 72+ WAR, and enough Gold Gloves to keep three-and-a-half pairs of Larry Walker hands warm have to mean something.
Right?
Time told the tale on the HOF front, and with his election in 2020, it all amounts to a $75 Bowman RC for the big galoot.
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1990 Bowman Rickey Henderson (#457)
On the other hand, there was never much doubt that Henderson was a first-ballot Hall of Fame lock. The only question was … would he ever retire?
When this 1990 Bowman card first slid out of packs, though, Rickey was a long way from retirement and about to embark on maybe his greatest season — certainly the only one that resulted in an MVP award for the speedster.
Early the next year — 1991 — Henderson broke Lou Brock’s all-time stolen base record.
At that point, the hobby officially spiraled into an incurable case of Hot Dog Fever, and Henderson’s cards have never really lost their appeal since.
Today, his 1990 Bowman sells for around $20 in PSA 10.
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1990 Bowman Ken Griffey Jr. (#481)
By 1990, we were all pretty sure Junior was going to be a superstar — he had the pedigree, the sweet swing, the love of the game.
All we had to do was wait, and all he had to do was fill out a bit and then deliver.
Griffey came through on almost all the expectations even his most ardent, um, expectors heaped on him. And, if not for some shaky years in Cincinnati, Mike Trout might be chasing The Kid’s records right now instead of Babe Ruth‘s and Willie Mays’ and Barry Bonds’.
As it stands, Griffey is a top-tier Hall of Famer with as strong a collector base as you’ll find, and his 1990 Bowman hammers down around $20 in PSA 10 condition.