If you were a kid looking for the best baseball cards from 1984 Topps Baseball, then you were also likely excited about what else was happening in the world at that time.
This is a series we’ve created where we look at the best baseball cards from different years in Topps Baseball history! Here are the years we’ve already covered:
- 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1956 Topps Baseball
- 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1960 Topps Baseball
- 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1978 Topps Baseball
In 1984, Danny LaRusso was becoming The Karate Kid, Kevin Bacon was Footloosing, and Tom Hanks was in love with a mermaid! That year in music saw Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” drop! It was such an insane year in music, Van Halen named one of their best albums after it! This is 1984!
In 1983, the Orioles beat the Phillies in the World Series, led by 1983 AL MVL Cal Ripken Jr., while the NL had Dale Murphy as the MVP, and a young Darryl Strawberry as its Rookie of the Year. Entering 1984, things were looking up for in N.Y., as the Mets and the Yankees had young talent rising to the top!
We included the 1984 Topps Traded Series, which does include the coveted Dwight Gooden card.
Since the Traded Set came as a hobby-only box set, we’re listing the cards here, but we’re also listing the rookies from that set as XRC, which means extended rookie cards. Different collectors prefer different cards, and since you couldn’t get these out of packs, many don’t consider them to be true rookie cards.
10 Best Baseball Cards From 1984 Topps Baseball
For our card value rankings, we’re only talking about PSA 10 slabs of these cards, and we used the values from PSA’s online price guide. The card images are provided by BuySportsCards.com.
1. Don Mattingly, N.Y. Yankees RC #8 – $95
A non-Hall-of-Famer leads this list! While Donnie Baseball might not make the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he would certainly make the Hobby Hall of Fame, considering how this card owned the ‘80s. Can you imagine if Mattingly was in the ‘90s instead of the ‘80s? He’d be paired with Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada!… and many World Series wins! Mattingly did finally get to the playoffs in 1995 with those guys, and he batted .417 in the AL Wild Card against Seattle, but they lost the series.
Amazingly, Mattingly’s career with the Yankees happened during the club’s longest championship drought in its storied history. The Yankees won the World Series in 1981 – the year before his arrival – and in 1996 – the year after he was done.
View 1984 Topps Don Mattingly Cards on eBay!
2. Dwight Gooden, N.Y. Mets XRC #42T (HOF) – $55
While his 1985 cards (he had a rookie card and a record breaker in that set!) get more recognition as his true rookie cards, Gooden’s XRC in the Traded Set is still cheap enough worth picking up.
View 1984 Topps Dwight Gooden Cards on eBay!
3. Darryl Strawberry, N.Y. Mets RC #182 – $35
The 1984 set is full of so much promise and so much sadness when you think of lost potential (Gooden and Strawberry) and talented players missing the playoffs and superstardom (Mattingly). Strawberry, like Gooden, battled drug problems and unfulfilled potential. But those three certainly bolstered the hobby in the mid-‘80s.
View 1984 Topps Darryl Strawberry Cards on eBay!
4. Nolan Ryan, Houston Astros #470 (HOF) – $35
Ryan is one of just three players to have his number retired by three MLB teams, along with Frank Robinson, and Jackie Robinson, whose jersey is retired by all MLB teams. The fact Ryan’s cards in the latter years of his career are highly sought after tells us he’s like a 1950s superstar playing during the beginning of the junk wax era. This was the best non-RC in this set.
View 1984 Topps Nolan Ryan Cards on eBay!
5. Astros Batting & Pitching Leaders #66 – $35
Nolan Ryan and Jose Cruz don this card, and while it’s weird to see a team card on these lists – it’s more because it’s tough to find this card in a high grade. Only about 5% of these cards sent in to PSA for grading got 10s.
View 1984 Topps Astros Leaders (Nolan Ryan) Cards on eBay!
6. Pete Rose, Montreal Expos #103T – $30
Rose started the 1983 season with the Phillies, but they let him go at the end – and he signed with the Expos, where he would notch his 4,000th hit! The Expos would later trade him to the Reds, and the world was back on its correct axis.
View 1984 Topps Pete Rose Expos Cards on eBay!
7. Pete Rose, Philadelphia Phillies #300 – $25
Many believe, including myself, that Rose will be inducted into Cooperstown after he dies, which is just petty and childish. Really, both parties seem to be acting pretty petty…. Pretty petty pretty petty pretty petty.
View 1984 Topps Pete Rose Phillies Cards on eBay!
8. Cal Ripken, Jr., Baltimore Orioles #490 (HOF) – $20
Just the second solo card for Ripken, coming off a 1983 AL MVP season. He was one of the most beloved baseball players in the final two decades of the 20th century.
View 1984 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. Cards on eBay!
9. Tony Gwynn, San Diego Padres #251 (HOF) – $20
Gwynn’s Padres would go on to face the Tigers in the 1984 World Series, and he wouldn’t return to the championship series again for another 14 years, when the Padres would lose once again, this time to the Yankees. He had an excellent shot at batting .400 in 1994 before the players went on strike in August, killing his chances. He finished with a .393 batting average, but he was batting .423 in 28 games in the second half of the season.
View 1984 Topps Tony Gwynn Cards on eBay!
10. Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs #596 (HOF) – $20
One of the most beloved Cubs players since Ernie Banks roamed Wrigley Field, Sandberg would end up winning his first of two NL MVP Awards in 1984. This was the year they won the NL East and made it into the playoffs for the first time since 1945, but they would end up losing to Gwynn’s Padres. With his batting stance captured, and the great headshot, this is as close to a perfect baseball card as there is in the hobby. All it’s missing is an RC logo or an All-Star Rookie Cup.
View 1984 Topps Ryne Sandberg Cards on eBay!
Amazing Tony Gwynn Trivia Nuggets!
- San Diego loves Tony Gwynn, and they eventually erected a statue of him outside Petco Park, a stadium in which he never got to play. The statue is outside the fence in left field, in Tony Gwynn Plaza – which is quite a coincidence!
- Petco Park is even located on 19 Tony Gwynn Drive!
- The second game of the season is called, “Tony Gwynn Opening Day” because Tony Gwynn always loved the people that would show up for Game 2. He finished with a .403 batting average in all the Game 2s he played in over his 20-year career.
Here are the other Topps Baseball seasons we’ve already covered:
- 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1956 Topps Baseball
- 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1960 Topps Baseball
- 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1978 Topps Baseball
And don’t forget to check out our article on the Best Rookie Baseball Cards From Every Topps Set Since 1952!
Let us know what you think about the 10 Best 1984 Baseball cards from Topps Baseball!
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