The Griffey Rated Rookie #33, at half the price of the Upper Deck

Why it matters

The 1989 Donruss Baseball wax box is the Griffey Rated Rookie box, and the rookie class inside it is a deep one. Card #33 is the Ken Griffey Jr. Rated Rookie, the mass-market twin to Upper Deck #1 released the same year at half the pack price. Also inside: Randy Johnson #42 (with the Marlboro sky variation collectors chase), Gary Sheffield #31, Craig Biggio #561, and Curt Schilling #635. Donruss printed the set at full flagship volume, so raw Griffeys trade for a few dollars and the box has been broken for those rookies for 35 years running. Sealed cases were common at hobby shops through the mid-1990s. Certified sealed boxes trade in the $150 to $250 range depending on authentication and shrink quality.

How to identify

1989 Donruss Baseball wax box, 36 wax packs of 15 cards each. Wax wrapper is blue with the Donruss diamond logo. BBCE authentication is the standard for sealed. Confirm the 1989 flagship set (not 1988 or 1990) by the blue-and-white border and the Rated Rookie logo on the subset cards. Checklist runs #1 to 660 plus a 26-card Warren Spahn puzzle insert.