Looking back at it, although I started collecting baseball cards with 1987 Topps I think it was 1991 Topps that I opened the most when I started getting a weekly allowance when I was 12 years old. Those $2.00 each week could get me a pack of cards and a comic back in the day and that was the true beginning of my expanding card collection.
In 1991, Topps created the unique gold-stamped set that was made available to servicemen and women involved in Operation Desert Shield. Some of the sets were actually made available to soldiers in Kuwait while others were available in the military-only stores on bases in the United States. It is estimated that about 6,800 complete sets were made and many many singles have made it to the secondary market.
In my writing of top 10 lists for The Cardboard Connection, I frequently include Desert Shield cards as they are some of the most valuable cards from the junk wax era. I had to add some Desert Shield cards to my personal collection and taking look around eBay I picked up one featuring one of my favorite Minnesota Twins from their run to the 1987 World Series title, Juan Berenguer.
Juan Berenguer a.k.a. Senor Smoke was a middle reliever who had a long career bouncing around to seven teams over 15 years in the league. He served as the Twins middle reliever setting up closer Jeff Reardon in their amazing worst-to-first 1987 World Series run. I picked up this one for $4.00 on eBay.
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