Top Five Wade Boggs Cards With the Rays

Wade Boggs, a name that's synonymous with Boston sports lore, hit .328 and has more than 3,000 career hits, played with the Red Sox from 1982 to 1992. And while he made stop with the Yankees, Boggs finished his hall of fame career in the warmer weather with the-then Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Boggs got the Devil Rays on the board when he hit the first home run in Devil Rays history after opening the 1998 season with the new expansion team. An odd choice for a destination for a player who spent his entire career in the north east, but the rumor has it that there was a back-door financial incentive to enter the hall of fame wearing a Devils Rays cap on his plaque.

Here are five great cards of Wade Boggs with the Devil Rays.

#5 - 1999 Topps Chrome Refractor

I'm not sure you can have a list of a player's baseball cards and not include their Topps Chrome refractor. Boggs' Topps Chrome as a Ray has him set and ready for a play at the hot corner. With the iconic mustache and wide sunglasses it's a classic Boggs image.

According to 130 Point, a raw one like this sold for just over $20 on July 18th.

#4 - 1999 Bowman's Best Refractor #/400

A numbered Wade Boggs is next on the list. This time under the Bowman name. His Bowman's Best refractor is numbered to 400. The fact that it is a set with some of the first numbered cards makes this one desirable to the Wade Boggs collectors. This time the image is from him on the offense, ripping a ball and ready to take his stride to first base.

A search of this on 130 Point shows a PSA 9 going for nearly $200 on July 6th.

#3 - 1999 Finest Gold Refractor Die Cut #/100

The third card on the list is a crazy die cut. With the saw like jagged edges, high grades are incredibly difficult to get. The gold version pictured above is numbered to just 100, has an incredibly small pop count at just five PSA 9s, with only one graded a gem mint 10.

130 Point shows two recent sales of raw versions on July 27th and July 28th, going for $47 and $53 respectively.

#2 - 1998 Fleer Tradition '63 Classic #/63

A Fleer card makes the list next. The 1998 Fleer Tradition is generally a cheap card for Wade Boggs. But there were a few limited ones, numbered to just 63. The image is of Boggs, batting helmet in tow, signing autographs for fans as cameras linger. The numbering to 63 coincides with the classic 1963 design.

There are really no recent comps of this card. But a sale with COMC on eBay is listed for an astonishing $2,560.

#1 - 1999 Upper Deck MVP Super Script #/25

The top and final card of this list is Boggs' 1999 Upper Deck MVP Super Script, numbered to just 25. In an era when numbered cards were just beginning to hit the collecting world, this color matched numbered to 25 (with the first print of the run) is a top card for any Boggs collector. Similar to the base version, this card featured a rainbow foil-esque facsimile of his signature at the botton. The numbering is rotated 90 degrees and sits on the right side of the back of the card.

Another card where comps were hard to come by. For reference, a 1999 Ricky Henderson sold for $1,525 on May 27th of this year. The above card is currently being sold by COMC on eBay, listed for $3,000.