1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr.: The Ultimate Collector’s Guide

Few cards show off the Kid's legendary sweet swing better than the 1991 Topps Ken Griffey baseball card.

You can almost hear the crack of Griffey's bat just by looking at the card...

Besides being a great-looking card, it also helped celebrate a huge milestone for Topps.

As noted by the "40 Years Of Baseball" just under the logo on the card fronts, Topps was celebrating their 40th anniversary in the hobby.

Though it (and every other card in the set) may be overshadowed a bit by the Chipper Jones rookie, it's easily one of the keys in the checklist.

And in this guide, we'll look at what makes it unique, how much it's worth, and the best ways to buy and sell one.

Let's jump right in!

1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr. Value

Estimated Ungraded Value: $1 - $2

The value of a 1991 Topps #790 Ken Griffey Jr. card will depend on its condition and whether or not a third-party company like PSA has professionally graded it.

If you go on a site like eBay, you'll notice that prices are all over the place.

Typically, this card will sell between $1 - $2 if it is ungraded or "raw," as the term hobbyists usually like to use for a card that remains as it was when pulled from a pack:

However, if you see the card selling for much higher, it's most likely because the card has been graded.

Prices for graded 1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr. cards can vary wildly depending on the grade they receive for one simple reason: collectors are willing to pay higher prices for higher quality cards.

Most grading companies use a 1 - 10 scale to judge a card's condition, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest--the higher the grade the higher the value.

When assigning a grade, these companies will focus on four key areas:

• Centering: from top to bottom and left to right, centering should be as close to 50/50 as possible
• Corners: corners should be sharp with no signs of wear, bending or rounding
• Surfaces: the front and back surfaces should be free from any creasing, wrinkles, cuts, scratches or blemishes
• Edges: each of the edges should be free of any dings, dents or chipping

To give you an idea of differences in condition, notice the excellent centering, sharp corners, and beautiful surfaces of the PSA 10 Gem Mint card below versus the PSA 3 VG:

While the PSA 10 example boasts fantastic centering, sharp corners, clean edges and little to no surface issues, the PSA 3 shows fuzzy corners, worn edges, surface damage and poor centering.

The higher values for this card don't really start to kick in until it achieves a grade of 9 or 10, as the estimates are as follows:

Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $65

Estimated PSA 9 Mint Value: $30

Estimated PSA 1 - 8 Values: $1 - $7

Other 1991 Topps Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball Cards

Griffey's base #790 card wasn't the only appearance he made in the 1991 Topps flagship set.

As they'd done for many years, Topps included an All-Star subset that spanned from cards #386 - 407 and showcased some of the game's best players of the day.

Of course, Ken Griffey Jr. was one of them at card #392.

And though the action shot isn't quite as good as the one on his base card, the image of Griffey watching what was most likely a towering shot still makes for a great-looking card.

This card is important because it celebrates Griffey's first of 13 career All-Star appearances that occurred during the 1990 season.

The card back mentions the fact that he and his father became the first father-son duo to homer during a game against the Angels on September 14, 1990 and also highlights his fifth-place finish (tied with George Brett) on the 1990 AL hits leaderboard with 179.

Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $35

Considering we were right in the middle of the bubble that was the "junk wax era" in 1991, it was no surprise to see Topps release their 1991 "Micro" set.

Remember, card companies were doing anything they could to stand out from the crowd and offer collectors a unique experience.

The set boasted the exact 792-card checklist except for the cards were much smaller, as the name implies.

Compared to the standard cards that measured 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" inches, the Topps Micro cards were only 1" x 1 3/8" making them almost as small as a stamp.

Below you can see a side-by-side comparison to get a better idea how they looked.

Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $65

Next, we have the 1991 Topps Desert Shield versions of Griffey's base and All-Star card.

Without a doubt, these are two of Griffey's most highly-coveted cards from any year.

Topps released an extremely low print run of these special cards (noted by the foil emblem in the upper right corner on the front of the card) to give to troops who were serving during Operation Desert Storm.

Combined with the low print volume to begin with, not many of these survived military combat conditions to make it home in pristine condition.

Because of how difficult it can be to find examples of these in PSA 10 condition, expect to pay four-figures for each of them.

Estimated All-Star #392 PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $1,500

Estimated Base #790 PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $8,500