Willie McGee was a popular Major League Baseball player who mostly played for the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants. He also played short stints with two other teams: the Oakland Athletics and the Boston Red Sox. While Willie McGee baseball cards don’t hold much monetary value, that doesn’t stop people from collecting his cards. 

After all, while McGee was only a league average hitter, his plus baserunning and solid defense made him an All-Star level player for a good chunk of his career. Baseball fans from the 80’s certainly remember what an electric player he was at the top of his game. While his time with the Sox was short and not particularly memorable, playing in only 67 games during the 1995 season, there are a couple of cards of the former 1985 National League MVP in a Boston uniform. 

Fortunately, if you want to collect Willie McGee baseball cards depicting him on the Boston Red Sox, you need only find two; the total rises to three if you include a limited edition parallel. Which card has the better value? Let’s take a look!

The 1995 Upper Deck “Traded” Willie McGee Baseball Card

Willie McGee’s first Red Sox card is featured in 1995 Upper Deck, card number 484. It features McGee running the bases – something he always did quite well. Then again, McGee only stole five bases (and was caught twice) with the Red Sox. 

This card is actually more scarce than you might expect, due to the fact that it was only available as a “Traded” redemption available from cards pulled from 1995 Upper Deck Series Two packs. Because of its limited distribution, you will have to keep an eye out for a copy, since they don’t very often come up for sale – partly because McGee was, and still is, a popular player in the baseball card hobby. The good news is if you are trying to collect a true “base set” of Willie McGee’s career, this card isn’t considered to count.

The 1996 Donruss Willie McGee Baseball Card

Fortunately, if you really can’t find a copy of the 1995 Upper Deck “Traded” card, you can find a much more easily acquired 1996 Donruss card. Despite this being a regular base card, it’s still not easily found for sale – although it’s certainly easier to find than the 1995 Upper Deck redemption.

Personally, I like this card more than the Upper Deck for a few reasons. The front depicts Willie swinging away, and the back features him showing bunt. It also features his complete career stat line through 1995. Also, there is a parallel of this card, a Press Proof with a print run of only 2000. Good luck finding that one.

If you were ever interested in completing a Willie McGee master set on the PSA Set Registry, you’d fortunately only need the base 1996 Donruss Willie McGee! So, clearly, this is the better of the two Willie McGee baseball cards, especially since there’s the Press Proof version which only ever had 2,000 copies printed.

Of course, these cards are a must have for any serious Willie McGee baseball card collector or hardcore Red Sox collector. Unlike so many cards from the mid 1990’s, these are actually fairly difficult to find. These Willie McGee Red Sox baseball cards for a nice little hunt for interested collectors.