Find the Reggie: the autograph chase

Why this card matters

Upper Deck called its 1990 promotion “Find the Reggie.” A High Series pack might hold Jackson’s real autograph on the illustrated #9 Baseball Heroes checklist, numbered by hand out of an announced 2,500 copies.

Signed cards existed before 1990, but the Reggie brought a superstar’s autograph into the packs collectors bought to build a set. Most packs wouldn’t hold one. The next still might. That urge to try one more pack helped make the chase a central part of collecting.

I was about fifteen when I bought two Upper Deck packs for about $1.00 each at a card show in a Brooklyn church one Sunday morning in 1990. Opening them had the same buzz as looking for the golden ticket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I found the Reggie in one of those two packs, and I still have that card.

The idea behind the chase

The golden-ticket comparison fits the story Pete Williams tells in Card Sharks. After watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with his son, Upper Deck marketing executive Don Bodow imagined a rare signed Reggie Jackson card hidden in a pack.

The card inside the pack

The prize used the illustrated #9 Baseball Heroes checklist, credited to artist Vernon Wells. The ordinary checklist was unsigned and had a round hologram. The numbered autograph version had Jackson’s real signature and a handwritten number on the front, plus a diamond hologram on the back. The Los Angeles Times reported that he spent an entire weekend signing them.

A pack pull in August 1990

At a card show in Elk Grove Village, near Chicago, Brian Pesko paid $6.25 for six High Number packs. His first pack held a Baseball Heroes card with a printed signature, and he joked with a dealer about finding the real thing. The next pack held Reggie’s autograph: #2 of 2,500. “I didn’t even know what to look for,” he told a reporter. His best offer at the time was $700.

The chase spreads

The Los Angeles Times reported in October 1990 that Upper Deck sales were up while the Reggie promotion ran. Upper Deck kept the autograph hunt going with Nolan Ryan and Hank Aaron in 1991. Score packs offered a chance at Mickey Mantle’s autograph, while Donruss tucked individually numbered Elite inserts into its 1991 packs. Soon, collectors had rare prizes to look for in packs from several companies.

A 1996 San Francisco Examiner column said nearly every major card maker was promoting the chance to find an autograph in a pack, and traced that trend back to the Reggie. Some collectors had once treated ink on a valuable card as damage. Now the signature itself was the prize.

More than a signature

Some numbered copies have extra writing beside Jackson’s autograph. On #714, “Babe Ruth” appears next to his signature—the number matches Ruth’s 714 career home runs. Other copies carry “Mr. October.”

Still looking for the Reggie

Collectors still open old High Series packs hoping to find the Reggie. Autographs and numbered cards are familiar parts of the hobby now; in 1990, finding his signature in a pack felt extraordinary. I remember exactly where I was when it happened. If you have a numbered copy, whether you pulled it or bought it later, I’d love to hear how it came to you.