1993 SP Derek Jeter #279 RC

Super-premium, super-fragile

Upper Deck's SP set, originally titled Upper Deck XL, was part of the first generation of 'super-premium' baseball card products, and a collecting guide calls it the company's first super-premium baseball set. It was released on August 23, 1993: 290 cards, 12 cards to a pack and 24 packs to a box.

The first 18 cards honored the starting lineups of the 1993 All-Star Game. The set also introduced the Platinum Power insert, which a set guide calls the first die-cut insert in the baseball hobby, at one per nine hobby packs. But the cards that mattered most were at the end: a 20-card Premiere Prospects subset, #271 through #290, printed with foil etching across the entire front of the card, a first.

The prospects were not short-printed. They were simply hard to keep perfect. A silver foil background looked striking in the pack but showed every scratch, and the dark borders exposed every chip. PSA notes that many of these cards show wear from the moment they come out of the pack.

The shortstop with 56 errors

Derek Sanderson Jeter was born June 26, 1974, in Pequannock, New Jersey, and moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, at four. He had a baseball scholarship to the University of Michigan when the Yankees took him sixth overall in the 1992 draft out of Kalamazoo Central High School. Houston, picking first, chose Phil Nevin instead; Hal Newhouser, the Hall of Fame pitcher who scouted for the Astros and had pushed for Jeter, quit in protest.

In 1993, the year SP put him on a foil card, Jeter was 19 and playing for Class A Greensboro in the South Atlantic League. He hit .295 with 152 hits, 11 triples and 18 stolen bases, but he also made 56 errors, a league record. Even so, he was named the league's most outstanding major league prospect, best defensive shortstop, most exciting player and best infield arm. The next year he was named Minor League Player of the Year.

He debuted on May 29, 1995, going hitless in five at-bats, and in 1996 won the American League Rookie of the Year unanimously while the Yankees won their first World Series in 18 years. Over 20 seasons, all with the Yankees, he collected 3,465 hits, won five World Series and was named MVP of the 2000 Series. His 3,000th hit, on July 9, 2011, was a home run off David Price in a 5-for-5 day. He played his last game on September 28, 2014, at Fenway Park, and in 2020 was elected to the Hall of Fame on 396 of 397 ballots.

The cliff between 9 and 10

Because the foil damages so easily, the population report reads like a cliff. PSA has graded about 27,800 copies; 9,802 have earned an 8, 635 a 9, and only 22 a 10. A collecting guide that put the PSA 10 rate at 0.09 percent noted that the gap between 9 and 10 is where the money is. The finest-known list is headed by a PSA 10 from the collection of former major leaguer Dmitri Young.

PSA 10 prices show what perfection costs. One sold for $54,576 in early 2017 and $99,100 in May 2018. On September 15, 2025, a PSA 10 sold at auction for $340,736, one of the stars of a summer sale that totaled more than $6.9 million.

PSA 9 copies, the grade tracked here, are the realistic top for most collectors. In 2026, recorded sales of PSA 9s ran from $7,500 in June to $9,900 at the end of September, with a copy selling for $8,800 on October 1, 2026.

What to look for

Card #279 is the foil-etched Premiere Prospects card issued in 1993 SP packs, the card collectors mean by 'the SP Jeter.' A set guide calls it his most notable rookie card because of the design and the condition sensitivity of the set. It was not short-printed, so copies are plentiful in low grade.

What separates a 9 from an 8 or a 10 is the foil and the dark edges. The silver foil background shows every scratch, and the dark borders make edge wear easy to see; PSA notes that many copies show wear straight out of the pack. That is why more than 9,800 copies sit at PSA 8 and only 635 at PSA 9.

Jeter appears on other 1993 cards, including Topps, Bowman and a minor league Greensboro Hornets card, but the SP is the one whose top grades bring six figures.

The numbers

1993 season, Greensboro (Class A, South Atlantic League)

128 G, 515 AB, 85 R, 152 H, 14 2B, 11 3B, 5 HR, 71 RBI, 18 SB, 58 BB, 95 SO, .295 BA, .376 OBP, .394 SLG; 56 errors, a league record. Age 19.

1992 debut season

GCL Yankees (Rookie): 47 G, .202 BA; Greensboro (A): 11 G, .243 BA

1996 rookie season, Yankees

157 G, 183 H, 10 HR, 78 RBI, .314 BA; unanimous AL Rookie of the Year; World Series champion

Career (1995-2014)

20 seasons, 2,747 G, 3,465 H, 260 HR, 1,311 RBI, 358 SB, .310 BA, .377 OBP, .440 SLG, 71.3 WAR

Honors

14 All-Star selections, 5 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, 5 World Series titles, 2000 World Series MVP

Hall of Fame

Elected 2020 on 396 of 397 ballots

Timeline

1. Jun 26, 1974

   Derek Jeter is born in Pequannock, New Jersey.

2. 1992

   The Yankees draft him sixth overall out of Kalamazoo Central High School.

3. 1993

   At Class A Greensboro he hits .295 but makes a league-record 56 errors.

4. Aug 23, 1993

   Upper Deck releases 1993 SP, with Jeter's foil Premiere Prospects card at #279.

5. May 29, 1995

   Major league debut.

6. 1996

   Unanimous AL Rookie of the Year; the Yankees win the World Series.

7. 2000

   World Series MVP as the Yankees win a third straight title.

8. Jul 9, 2011

   His 3,000th hit is a home run, part of a 5-for-5 day.

9. Sep 28, 2014

   Plays his final game, at Fenway Park.

10. 2017

    A PSA 10 sells for $54,576.

11. May 2018

    A PSA 10 sells for $99,100.

12. 2020

    Elected to the Hall of Fame on 396 of 397 ballots.

13. Sep 15, 2025

    A PSA 10, one of 22, sells at auction for $340,736.

14. Sep 27, 2026

    A PSA 9 sells for $9,900.

The world in 1993

• Jan 20, 1993

  Bill Clinton is sworn in as president.

• Feb 26, 1993

  A truck bomb explodes beneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

• Apr 19, 1993

  The siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends in a fire.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• 1993

  The Great Flood swamps the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys from spring into fall.

• Nov 1993

  NAFTA passes in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

• Dec 2, 1993

  Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 9 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1993 SP Derek Jeter #279 RC is number 71 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (64 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Jeter made 56 errors in 1993, a South Atlantic League record, the same year he was voted the league's best defensive shortstop.
• The Jeter card is not short-printed; its scarcity in top grade comes entirely from how easily the foil is damaged.
• Of about 27,800 copies PSA has graded, only 22 are PSA 10s.
• A PSA 10 sold for $99,100 in 2018; seven years later another brought $340,736.
• Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser quit as an Astros scout after Houston passed on Jeter with the first pick in 1992.
• SP's Platinum Power cards were the first die-cut inserts in the baseball hobby.