Upper Deck confirmed on Wednesday that there are 20 versions of card No. 855 in its 2009 baseball set as a form of a tribute to the player that started it all for the company’s first card set in 1989 — Ken Griffey Jr.
Each version of card No. 855 depicts an image of Griffey during a corresponding year of his MLB career — as do the stats and text on the back.
“It’s important for us to continue to look at ways to make the regular base card interesting to collectors,” said Gabriel Garcia, Upper Deck’s associate baseball brand manager, in a news release. “By creating different versions of Griffey’s card to commemorate his illustrious career, we hope to have people go back through their collections to see which versions they have and to hopefully put together the entire 20-card set.”
None of the short-printed cards are more limited than another, according to the company.