1987 Topps Traded Baseball Forum

As of this post, the 1987 Topps Traded set is ranked around #200 on this site.  Surely, this classic 30 year old set means more to collectors than that.  Your 1987 Topps set is not complete without this 132-card update full of stars, including: Steve Carlton HOF, Andre Dawson HOF, Dennis Eckersley HOF, Reggie Jackson HOF, Greg Maddux HOF XRC, Ellis Burks XRC, David Cone XRC, Matt Williams XRC, Terry Francona, Juan Berenguer, Fred McGriff, Ron Cey, Kevin Mitchell, Cal Ripken Sr., Benito Santiago, Joe Niekro, Terry Steinbach, etc.  This set isn't just about the big names, but also about completing all of the players for your team sets from the popular wood-grain set. 

I actually have a question regarding 1987 Topps in general.  Was it common for these cards to have printing issues?  I only have 2 cards in the set, and one of my cards has a weird circle shape printed to the right of the name.  At first I thought something was on the card, and then realized that it was indeed part of the card itself.  The scan for the card on this site even has a weird blue color under the player's eye.  I used to have a bunch of these cards when I was a little kid, but I don't have them anymore and don't remember how they looked.  

For baseball cards in general for the mid to late 80s what you mention is fairly common. I've been sorting out some late 80s Donruss and have seen the same thing. Little red circles on some and blue dots on others. Also there were many issues with centering. They were producing such massive volumes at the time and really didn't seem to have much in the way of quality control. I would actually say that from my experience 87 Topps was one of the better years as far as number of errors and misprints are concerned.

I like the 87 traded set but not as much as I like the base set of the same year. When it comes to traded sets I prefer either 86 or 89 over the 87 when it comes to players included.

...looks like my lobbying hurt the ratings on this set.  It was within the Top 200 when I started, and now it's ranked 472 on this site.     

Is it that high?    Never was a fan of update or traded sets.

Juan Berenguer's a star?  Go figure. 

He was a big part of 1987 World Series Championship Twins team all season long, and this was his 1st Topps card in a Twins uniform.  He was also a major contributor to the 1984 Tigers team that went all the way that year.  Senor Smoke's contribution were definitely significant during this time period. 

I wouldn't get so caught up on a disagreed name that I chose, but of the quality of this fantastic set overall.

It's a nice set (I didn't rate it; I rate very few sets, only ones I feel strongly about) but pandering for votes will probably cause people to rank it poorly just to be contrary.

And BTW, the late Aurelio Lopez was Senor Smoke, not Berenguer.

It's amazing how short people's memories are.  Here's some Twins videos from their championship years.  Berenguer, as Senor Smoke, was well recognized by the Twins for his contributions to their championship efforts in 1987.  Nicknames have often been recycled many times throughout baseball history, and in 1987, Berenguer was definitely Senor Smoke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd0-1PMFfEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR-d7SJJWkM

Twins fans called him Senor Smoke. They were unimaginative in recycling the nickname. Aurelio Lopez will always be the real Senor Smoke