Batman 1989 trading cards: first series (O-Pee-Chee)

Today we take a look back at one more piece of Batman 89 memorabilia: the ever-important Batman 1989 trading card set. Being a Canadian, I didn't have easy access to the Topps versions of these cards -- instead we had the O-Pee-Chee versions (which were more or less the same):

image source: mine

I have vivid memories of being obsessed with the Batman 1989 trading card set as an elementary school kid. This was the second trading card set that I'd ever obsessed over, following Topps/O-Pee-Chee's Wacky Packages. 1989's Batmania was a real thing, and it sent a lot of us kids into a frenzy trying to get our hands on anything Batman-related. To this effect, it was a lot easier to convince your parents to buy you a pack or two of Batman 1989 trading cards versus that Starlog magazine with Batman on the cover that was super-expensive by comparison.

Typically found in convenience stores at the check-out counter; these cards made for a quick impulse purchase when you had some spare change leftover from the comic books you were buying. They were actually pretty eye-catching -- yellow packs in a red box that doubled as a display stand really drew attention to the product.

(Note from Mark: I loved these too, and got the Topps version. I hated the gum. Not only did it taste like cardboard, it would get a dust film on the card it was touching. But man I loved these images. I feel like I was getting packs before the movie, so I knew a lot of the plot and images from them. I didn't mind.)

O-Pee-Chee Batman 1989 series 1 display case
image source: ebay.ca

wax packs came in two different designs
image source: ebay.ca

A pack of Batman 1989 series 1 cards cost 35 cents and contained several trading cards, a 'puzzle card' and a stick of gum. Topps had their own Batman 1989 series 1 cards, and the major difference between the two was that the Topps version had 'sticker cards' and the O-Pee-Chee version had 'puzzle cards'. We'll talk about those in a minute.

These cards were pretty low-quality, to be honest. How do you think they were able to afford to sell them for 35 cents a pack? Cheap card stock with a matte finish on the card front and a pulpy texture on the card back. Sometimes the cards would come stuck together or the stick of rock hard gum would stain the cards.  

(Note from Mark: I liked the heavy card stock. I was collecting basketball and baseball cards, and I liked how much tougher these were.)

The entire O-Pee-Chee Batman 1989 series 1 trading card set consisted of 154 cards -- the last 22 cards (#133 - 154) being puzzle cards. The first 132 cards (minus the first card shown in our opener) were movie stills from the film:

front of card #28
image source: mine

The back of the cards had yellow backgrounds and usually contained a description of the scene taking place. I'm a little surprised that these weren't bilingual since O-Pee-Chee printed from Canada and all the packaging for these card was in English and French. Probably for the best, however, since the font would have to be a lot smaller to hold both the English and French versions of the same text on the back of the card.

back of card #28
image source: mine

While getting a trading card set consisting of nothing but movie stills might be considered kind of dull today, this was very exciting back in 1989 when the internet didn't exist and you pretty much had to rely on your memory, movie clips from Entertainment Tonight or Batman 1989 memorabilia magazines to look at scenes from the film.

Any cards with pictures of the Batwing were prized among my friends and I: 

image source: mine

As were the action scenes:

image sources: mine

Or the particularly gruesome scenes:

image sources: mine

Hey look, it's Billy Dee Williams:

image source: mine

I don't think I owned this specific trading card as a kid, but if I did I would've had to have kept it hidden from my parents: 

Joker's bloody mouth
image source: mine 

(Mark: I did own this card and hid it. But I think it was because it was gross and I didn't want Joker to lose.)

Similar to the Topps set, the O-Pee-Chee set included 22 puzzle cards which were necessary to complete both 10-card puzzles (2 puzzle cards revealed the completed puzzle for anyone who wasn't sure what they were striving to complete). As previously mentioned, Topps puzzle cards were actually stickers with a puzzle piece on the back of the card, whereas O-Pee-Chee were not stickers. [I'm not sure if this was by design or a cost-saving measure on O-Pee-Chee's behalf, but after discovering this I felt a little cheated.]

Here's a few card fronts of the O-Pee-Chee puzzle cards to give you an idea of what they looked like:

Joker and his thugs puzzle card
image source: mine

oooh... a Batwing puzzle card. This would've been high-value among my friends and I.
image source: mine

For comparison, here's an O-Pee-Chee puzzle card and it's counterpart Topps puzzle card (which was actually a sticker):

O-Pee-Chee puzzle card
image source: mine

Topps puzzle card
image source: ebay.ca

Astute observers will notice that the Topps sticker card has a different numbering system and has a 'PEEL' indicator in the top right corner. [The Topps card appears to be a brighter shade of red, but that's just my camera. Sorry about that.]

As kids, collecting the entire 154-card set seemed pretty unfeasible (especially since these things were flying off the shelves -- seriously, I rarely ever saw these since they sold out so quickly), but completing a 10-card puzzle? That was doable. So, for this reason, the puzzle cards were the 'chase cards' of the set, especially since they were limited to 1 per pack.

Because I know you're dying of curiosity, here's what the completed puzzles looked like:

completed 10-card 'yellow border' puzzle
image source: mine

completed 10-card 'red border' puzzle
image source: mine

Topps also released a deluxe factory-sealed Batman 1989 series 1 set that also included 11 bonus storyboard cards. As far as I can tell, these boxes weren't numbered so I really don't know how many were produced. Since these factory sealed sets were exclusive to Topps and never made it to Canada, I don't really know much about them or if the 11 bonus cards formed an additional 10-card puzzle. Here's a few pics of the sealed box if you're curious:

image source: ebay.ca

image source: ebay.ca

image source: ebay.ca

The factory set also included an insert advertising a second series of Batman 1989 trading card set that were also available as a factory-sealed set: 

image source: mine

Much like Topps, O-Pee-Chee released a second series of Batman 89 trading cards that added another 154 cards to the set and picked up the numbering where series one left off (consisting of cards #155 - 308). I had way more luck collecting the second series since a lot of my friends got 'burned out' after the first series and moved on to collecting something else.

If you want to know more about Topps, you can read our informal history of Topps non-sports trading cards from the mid seventies to the early nineties article I write years and years ago. 

Hope you enjoyed the article. If you have any comments/anecdotes you want to share, feel free to chime in below.

-Justin