15 Most Valuable 1995 Upper Deck Baseball Cards
With the baseball world still reeling from the strike that cut the 1994 MLB season short, many hobbyists didn’t put much stock into the 1995 Upper Deck baseball card set.
The strike left a lousy impression on baseball fans, and much of that sour mood carried over into the hobby as well.
Many collectors reduced their hobby activity.
Many stepped away entirely…
Even the highlight reels of superstars like Ken Griffey Jr. and promising signs from youngsters like Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter weren’t enough to maintain hype in the hobby.
Time hasn’t been on this set’s side either, as none of the rookies in the checklist turned out to be hobby blockbusters.
Today, the 1995 Upper Deck set is about as overlooked as it gets for sets of that period.
Still, for the diehard collector, there are plenty of big-name stars and nostalgia within the 495-card checkliSt. And in this guide, we’ll take a look at the 15 most valuable.
Let’s jump right in!
1995 Upper Deck Baseball Set Snapshot
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Ross Uitts – Owner
- #1
1995 Upper Deck #200 Michael Jordan Electric Diamond Gold
Value $2,000Total PSA Population 51Population 0Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 9.0%)
- #2
1995 Upper Deck #200 Michael Jordan Electric Diamond
Value $1,500Total PSA Population 228Population 0Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 9.0%) - #3
1995 Upper Deck #200 Michael Jordan
PSA 10 Value $300Total PSA Population 1,686PSA 10 Population 58PSA 10 Grade Rate 3.4% (Set Avg: 9.0%)Shortly after defeating Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns for his third consecutive NBA title, Michael Jordan announced his first retirement from the league on October 6, 1993.
Fans were shocked.
Many were devastated.
And just a few short months later, Jordan again shocked the sports world when he signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox to play professional baseball.
Since childhood, the basketball superstar had always wanted to play baseball, and suddenly, he had a chance to fulfill that dream.
Jordan played 127 games for the Birmingham Barons, Chicago’s Double-A affiliate, drawing more attention to the club than ever before.
And although he wasn’t great, he wasn’t all that bad either, hitting .202 with three home runs, 51 RBIs, 46 runs scored and 30 stolen bases.
Still, basketball was his true calling.
And on March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the Chicago Bulls with a brief and to-the-point message: “I’m back.” I remember that time from October 1993 to March 1995 like it was yesterday.
It was such a whirlwind news cycle in the sports world.
Though his baseball days were over, Upper Deck included Jordan in their 1995 flagship set, showcasing the superstar with another Chicago sports icon, Harry Caray.
- #4
1995 Upper Deck #100 Ken Griffey Jr.
PSA 10 Value $250Total PSA Population 183PSA 10 Population 34PSA 10 Grade Rate 18.6% (Set Avg: 9.0%)The 1995 Mariners were the superheroes who saved baseball in Seattle, and Ken Griffey Jr. was their Captain America.
Despite missing half of the season with a broken left wrist, the 25-year-old “Kid” was the man who made it all happen.
On August 24th, the charismatic center fielder jump-started a closing stretch to remember with a rousing walk-off bomb off Yankees closer John Wetteland.
He kept slugging from there, and the Mariners kept winning.
Seattle took 36 of its final 56 games, rising from the dregs of the AL West to secure the franchise’s first division title, playoff berth, and eventual trip to the ALCS.
Griffey hit .258 with a .860 OPS, 17 homers, and 42 RBIs in 72 regular-season games.
He hit .364 with six homers and nine RBIs in 11 postseason contests.
Unfortunately, the season didn’t end with a World Series ring.
That 1995 Mariners squad was incredibly fun to watch and it was such a shame that they couldn’t stick together a few more years.
Oh, what might have been.
- #5
1995 Upper Deck #225 Derek Jeter
PSA 10 Value $100Total PSA Population 881PSA 10 Population 80PSA 10 Grade Rate 9.1% (Set Avg: 9.0%)Two of the most iconic players in New York Yankees history received crushing demotions on the same day of the 1995 MLB season.
Brought up from Triple-A Columbus as an injury replacement for middle infielders Pat Kelly and Tony Fernandez, former first-round pick (and future team captain) Derek Jeter made his way to The Show on May 29th.
The 21-year-old shortstop went 0-for-5 in his big-league debut, following up with his first two career hits one day later.
It was a proud moment for the kid who’d soon become the heartbeat of a Yankee dynasty.
Yet, that’s just what it was: momentary.
Jeter played just 13 games for the Bronx Bombers, hitting .234 (11-for-47) with 11 strikeouts.
Once Fernandez and Kelly returned, he was unceremoniously sent down to Columbus for the remainder of the Minor League season.
Jeter wasn’t the only one on his way back to Triple-A.
He was joined by scuffling starter/long reliever Mariano Rivera on the bus back West, the man who’d become the greatest closer in MLB history.
Rivera returned shortly after that and made the Yankees’ postseason roster.
On the other hand, Jeter returned for two games at the end of the year but wasn’t tabbed for the team’s ALDS clash with Seattle.
- #6
1995 Upper Deck #30 Rickey Henderson
PSA 10 Value $90Total PSA Population 29PSA 10 Population 8PSA 10 Grade Rate 27.6% (Set Avg: 9.0%)After two years of substandard play, Rickey Henderson returned to playing his unique brand of baseball in 1995.
In the final season of a brief two-year return to Oakland, the 36-year-old left fielder hit .300 on the dot, the sixth .300 season of his 17-year career.
Henderson also got on base over 40% of the time for the seventh straight year (.407) and topped 30 steals (32) for a record 16th time.
The Oakland A’s didn’t do much with Henderson’s brilliant work in the lead-off spot, finishing fourth in the AL West at 67-77.
Attendance at the Oakland Coliseum (a field later named in Henderson’s honor) dwindled to its lowest point since 1980.
1,174,310 fans crossed through the turnstiles in ‘95, nearly two-thirds fewer than the team’s 1989 championship year.
The glory days of Oakland baseball were gone, and Henderson would soon be gone (again) with them.
Rickey’s card features one of the coolest action shots in the set.
- #7
1995 Upper Deck #135 Tony Gwynn
PSA 10 Value $90Total PSA Population 41PSA 10 Population 16PSA 10 Grade Rate 39.0% (Set Avg: 9.0%)San Diego Padres right fielder and hit machine Tony Gwynn won his fifth batting title during the strike-shortened 1994 season.
Yet, he was cheated out of a legitimate run at baseball immortality.
Gwynn finished six points shy of the first .400 season in the Majors since Ted Williams in 1941.
It wasn’t far-fetched to think he was a 50/50 bet to make it happen.
Instead, the campaign was stopped dead, and Gwynn was forced to reload along with everyone else.
When the games resumed in late April of 1995, the 35-year-old future Hall of Famer returned to his life’s calling: slapping the ball into every open spot of grass he could find.
Gwynn led the Majors in total hits for the second consecutive season (197), capturing his sixth NL batting championship by 22 points over Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza.
His .368 clip for the third-place Padres was the third-best finish of his 14-year career thus far, and his .404 on-base percentage marked the second of four straight years over 40%.
- #8
1995 Upper Deck #210 Don Mattingly
PSA 10 Value $75Total PSA Population 35PSA 10 Population 11PSA 10 Grade Rate 31.4% (Set Avg: 9.0%)Don Mattingly used everything he had left to will the New York Yankees over the finish line in 1995.
“I remember him coming to me with about two weeks left and telling me, ‘I’m just going let it rip the rest of the way.
If I blow out my back, I blow out my back,’” said Showalter.
The Yankees first baseman steered the team through the darkest days in franchise history.
But he had yet to make a postseason appearance after first-place New York was screwed out of a division title by the 1994 strike.
Now, it was Donnie Baseball’s time.
After an inconsistent first four months, the Yankees surged through September as winners of 25 of their last 31 games to capture the first-ever AL Wild Card spot.
After hitting .288 with a .754 OPS in 128 regular-season games, the former AL MVP and six-time All-Star readied for October baseball for the first time in 14 years.
It didn’t end the way it does in storybooks.
Mattingly torched the Mariners in the ALDS, going 10-for-24 (.417) with six RBIs and three runs scored.
However, the M’s were too much, storming back from a 2-0 deficit to take the series in five.
- #9
1995 Upper Deck #448 Nolan Ryan
PSA 10 Value $75Total PSA Population 77PSA 10 Population 14PSA 10 Grade Rate 18.2% (Set Avg: 9.0%)The “Final Tribute” subset spanned across cards #446 to #450 and paid homage to five of baseball’s all-time greats: Robin Yount, Ryne Sandberg, Nolan Ryan, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt.
Yount, Ryan, and Brett retired after the 1993 season.
Sandberg hung it up after a slow start in 1994.
Schmidt had been out of baseball since 1989.
It seemed odd to bring retired players like that back into a set checklist at the time.
But nowadays, retired players are pretty much guaranteed to be part of any set checkliSt. Still, no collector ripping packs of ’95 Upper Deck argued with the chance to snag another Nolan Ryan card, one of the hobby’s most popular players to this day.
As with any great Ryan card, the legendary fireballer is seen in his Texas Rangers uniform delivering a pitch toward home plate.
Collectors loved that image.
But it must have been one of the last things an opposing hitter wanted to see.
- #10
1995 Upper Deck #20 Bo Jackson
PSA 10 Value $60Total PSA Population 33PSA 10 Population 8PSA 10 Grade Rate 24.2% (Set Avg: 9.0%)Bo Jackson was one of the sports world’s biggest icons during the late 80s and early 90s.
As a two-sport superstar for the Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Raiders, Jackson remains the only athlete ever to achieve All-Star status in both sports.
But a tragic hip injury during an NFL playoff game in January 1991 changed everything.
It ended his NFL career entirely.
And it all but derailed his MLB career.
Sure, Jackson went on to play for the Chicago White Sox and California Angels, but he was never quite the same as his days with the Kansas City Royals.
In 1994, he looked like he might be finally turning a corner.
Jackson was in the middle of a pretty decent year when the strike cut the season short, hitting .279 with 13 home runs and 43 RBIs.
However, the strike gave him plenty of extra time with his family.
And plenty of time to think through what he valued moSt. Ultimately, Jackson chose family and walked away from professional sports for good before the 1995 MLB season.
- #11
1995 Upper Deck #365 Cal Ripken Jr.
PSA 10 Value $50Total PSA Population 42PSA 10 Population 32PSA 10 Grade Rate 76.2% (Set Avg: 9.0%)The day that Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak was the day baseball officially recovered from the cancelation of the 1994 World Series.
According to the Baltimore Orioles legend, his captivating run at game #2,131 was never his primary objective.
“I never set out to do it,” Ripken said.
“Most people think that I was obsessed with being in the lineup every day, but I would have traded all that for more hits than Pete Rose or more home runs than Hank Aaron.” The 34-year-old shortstop added that he would have preferred to miss a game and have the Orioles contend in ’95.
Instead, he crossed the threshold on September 6th with the O’s virtually out of the AL playoff race.
It was a beautiful night, regardless, a celebration of everything good about baseball punctuated by a tear-filled mid-game ceremony.
Ripken got his flowers from his family, friends, and a delirious home crowd at Camden Yards.
He may not have cared about receiving them, but he deserved them nonetheless.
- #12
1995 Upper Deck #430 Kirby Puckett
PSA 10 Value $50Total PSA Population 32PSA 10 Population 12PSA 10 Grade Rate 37.5% (Set Avg: 9.0%)In 1995, a freak accident would prove the eventual end of Kirby Puckett’s storied career with the Minnesota Twins.
The year started like most of Puckett’s 12 seasons in the Bigs.
He hit for power, average, and played top-shelf defense in right field, nagging pains and all.
The 35-year-old made his tenth straight All-Star team and received down-ballot MVP consideration yet again.
By season’s end, Puckett was above .300 (.314) for the eighth time with 23 home runs, 39 doubles, 56 walks, 83 runs scored, and 99 RBIs in 602 plate appearances (538 at-bats).
He also reached three milestones during the year, notching his 200th career home run, 1,000th RBI, and 1,000th run scored.
There seemed to be no stopping Minnesota’s favorite baseball son.
In Game #162, though, it ended in a flash.
Puckett took a Dennis Martinez pitch directly in the face, breaking his jaw.
The soon-to-be Hall-of-Famer rehabbed the injury in hopes of playing in 1996, but the sudden onset of blurred vision in his right eye ended his career one week before the campaign.
- #13
1995 Upper Deck #110 Ken Griffey Jr.
PSA 10 Value $45Total PSA Population 62PSA 10 Population 20PSA 10 Grade Rate 32.3% (Set Avg: 9.0%)With relocation talks looming over everyone’s heads, the ’95 Mariners protested by example and forced the team’s ownership to stand pat in the Pacific NorthweSt. The ALDS didn’t hurt, either.
Seattle clawed back from a 2-0 deficit on the back of five Griffey home runs, shocking the Yankees with Edgar Martinez’s walk-off double in the deciding Game 5.
Who was the guy who crossed home plate and sent the M’s to their first ALCS?
Why, it was Griffey, of course.
“When I saw the ball land near the line, I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could,” Griffey said.
“When I got to third, [Sammy Perlozzo] said, ‘Keep going!’ So I did.” This card is part of the “Midpoint Analysis” subset that spanned through cards #101 – 110 and featured other baseball legends like Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, and Frank Thomas.
The reverse of Griffey’s card speaks to his incredible hitting ability and penchant for the long ball.
- #14
1995 Upper Deck #226 Hideo Nomo Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 10 Value $45Total PSA Population 95PSA 10 Population 31PSA 10 Grade Rate 32.6% (Set Avg: 9.0%)Fourteen years after Fernandomania swept across Los Angeles, Hideo Nomo came to Dodger Stadium and gave fans a similar thrill.
Just the second Japanese-born player in the Majors at the time, Nomo brought an impressive resume with him to the States.
The 27-year-old righty won the Pacific League Rookie of the Year award in 1990 and earned five consecutive NPB All-Star selections from 1990 to 1994.
He was one of Japan’s most recognizable and loved players, but he wasn’t quite satisfied.
Invoking a retirement clause to leave the Kintetsu Buffaloes in free agency, Nomo signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in February 1995.
Once the bright lights centered on Nomo, things got crazy.
He instantly became the ace of the Dodgers’ pitching staff, using his tornado-style delivery to confuse and dominate the NL.
As he ripped through the league and earned an All-Star Game start, Nomo boosted attendance numbers as casual fans flocked to watch him work.
Nomo got plenty of exposure playing for a division-winning Dodgers team that earned its first playoff berth since 1989.
The extra spotlight boost edged him past Atlanta’s Chipper Jones for the NL Rookie-of-the-Year award.
“I proved to people that America has opportunity,” Nomo said.
- #15
1995 Upper Deck #293 Chipper Jones
PSA 10 Value $45Total PSA Population 58PSA 10 Population 22PSA 10 Grade Rate 37.9% (Set Avg: 9.0%)Even as a rookie, Chipper Jones was ready for anything.
The young Atlanta Braves third baseman/left fielder suffered a season-ending ACL tear before the 1994 campaign, cutting his debut off at the knees.
After a strike-lengthened offseason, he finally logged his first MLB start on April 26th, 1995.
Jones struggled in the first two weeks before busting out in mid-May with five home runs in eight games.
He held serve for the remainder of the year to finish as the runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year, slashing .265/.353/.450 with 23 home runs, 22 doubles, three triples, 73 walks, 87 runs scored, and 86 RBIs.
The Braves torched the NL East field with Jones anchored in the starting lineup, winning the division by 21 games.
They followed it up with an 11-3 postseason run capped by the franchise’s first World Series title of the Atlanta era.
Jones tallied several clutch hits in his first October, posting a base knock in each of his first eight games en route to a .308 postseason average.
“I’ve been through a lot of pressure games in my life,” Jones said.
“Some guys live for crunch time.
I’m one of them.”
Ross’s Take
The most significant ding against this set is its lack of any Hall of Fame rookie cards.
And the 1994 MLB players’ strike didn’t do this set or the hobby any favors at the time either.
Still, the 495-card checklist offers precisely what you’d expect from an Upper Deck set of that period: good design, beautiful imagery, and some good subsets.
For avid collectors, there’s a treasure trove of big-name Hall of Famers like Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan, Rickey Henderson, and many more waiting to be unearthed.
But, again, the lack of huge rookie cards makes the checklist appear somewhat underwhelming.
Other information about this set includes: Checklist: 495 cards Distribution: Series 1 (#1 – 225), Series 2 (#226 – 450), Traded (#451 – 495) Subsets: Top Prospects (#1 – 15); (#251 – 265) Midpoint Analysis (#101 – 110) Star Rookies (#211 – 240) Diamond Debuts (#241 – 250) Final Tribute (#446 – 450) Inserts Autograph Redemptions Baseball Heroes: Babe Ruth Checklists Predictors: Award Winners Predictors: League Leaders Special Edition Special Edition Gold Steal Of A Deal Trade Card Redemptions Don’t be surprised if you don’t remember much about this set, even if you consider yourself a hardcore hobbyiSt. It was a tough time in baseball’s history and the hobby suffered quite a bit, with many collectors stepping aside temporarily or even permanently.
However, if you’re willing to give the checklist a shot, there are several beautiful cards of big-name superstars to be found in this set.
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