In 1992, the hobby of trading cards was nothing like it is now. There were no such things as 1/1′s, Superfractors, or game-used memorabilia. At best, if you busted several thousands packs or were just one lucky SOB, you could have pulled one of the very few pack-inserted autographs in The Hobby.
It would take the trading card industry almost a decade to begin overproducing the pack-inserted autograph, ultimately taking all the thrill from the once special feat of finding an autograph in a pack of cards. Today, you will find multiple autographs in your product, guaranteed. Talk about taking away all the fun.
Anyway, by 1992, Brien Taylor had plenty of certified autographs to choose from. It would take several years for collectors to have more than one or two certified autographs to choose from of their favorite player. If you were like the many to fall for the hype of this “Can’t Miss” prospect, you had the pick of the litter, including a beautiful 1992 Topps Gold card.
Despite the massive hype surrounding Brien Taylor, he never threw a single pitch in the Majors. Just like many pitching prospects, Brien was injured and never full recovered. Still, despite how rare these autographs were at the time, none came close to the ridiculous numbers collectors have paid for Stephen Strasburg autographed cards.
As for the certified autographs of Taylor, there are four of them. In my opinion, the best-looking one (and most coveted) came from Topps. It’s too bad that Classic, a forgotten card game company beat them to it by releasing their own Taylor auto a year before. I say too bad because Classic is history and Topps is now is now the only company producing licensed baseball cards.
