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Manufacturer-issued card straight from the pack — no reprints, no reproductions. Orders ship within one business day, tracked, in a penny sleeve and rigid protection. 30-day returns accepted.

Why This Card Matters

**A 32-year-old rookie, eight years after his debut.** José Alvarez was born in **Tampa, Florida** and drafted by Atlanta in the **8th round in 1978** out of the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He debuted on **October 1, 1981** against San Francisco — one game, two scoreless innings, two strikeouts — pitched seven more games in 1982, and then **did not appear in the major leagues again from 1983 through 1987**. Five full seasons in the minors. He came back in **1988 at age 32 and had the year of his career**: **60 appearances, 5–6 with a 2.99 ERA, 3 saves, 102⅓ innings and 81 strikeouts** — all out of the bullpen, and worth 2.6 wins above replacement. **That is the season printed on the back of this card.** He pitched 30 more games in 1989 with a 2.86 ERA and made his final major league appearance that June. Career: **98 games, all in relief, 8–9, 2.99 ERA, 5 saves, 134 strikeouts** — every one of them for the Braves.

Market-Informed Pricing

Priced against recent verified sold comps, not asking prices. Best Offer is enabled on every listing — reasonable offers are welcome.

Professional Imaging

High-resolution scans and photos so you can inspect corners, edges, surface, and centering yourself. What you see is what you get.

Secure Shipping

Penny sleeve, top loader or card saver, team bag, and rigid protection in every shipment. Packed right, shipped fast, from a smoke-free environment.

Which Jose Alvarez — and What 'Rookie Card' Means Here

**This is not the modern Jose Alvarez.** There are two major league pitchers by this name and they are easy to confuse in a search. This one is **José Lino Álvarez, born April 12, 1956 in Tampa, Florida**, a right-handed reliever who pitched for **Atlanta only**, in 1981, 1982, 1988 and 1989. The other is a left-hander born in **Venezuela in 1989** who debuted in 2013 with Detroit and pitched for the Angels, Phillies and Giants; his card checklist starts in 2015 with no overlap. **On "rookie card":** this card is catalogued as his RC by both the Trading Card Database and Beckett, and it is his **first Topps flagship card**. It is **not his first card ever** — a 1979 TCMA Savannah Braves minor league card predates it, and his extended rookie card is 1988 Fleer Update #U-70. The listing says first Topps flagship and recognised RC, which is the accurate claim. There is **no printed RC shield** on the card — the MLB rookie logo did not exist until 2006. **Not a short print, and no parallels exist:** 1989 Topps is a single 792-card series with no SPs, and no variation is catalogued for #253. Centering, measured against the yellow/black photo-frame rectangle, verified uniformly inset first (left-plus-right 210 px against top-plus-bottom 212 px): **50/50 left-to-right — excellent — and 36/64 top-to-bottom**, the image sitting high with a larger bottom border. That vertical figure is the card's limiting factor and it is quoted plainly. Corners are sharp with the light cardboard fuzz normal for 1989 stock; edges clean; no creases or wrinkles. **The light print speckling in the photo is period-normal for the issue.** The back carries the printing code **B✱** rather than a modern CODE#.