Kaneen's Complete Signed 1985-1991 Super Diamond Kings 5x7 Sets

[Kaneen]

One of the most iconic baseball card subsets of the 1980s was the Donruss Diamond Kings. From 1982 to 1991, the Diamond Kings subset was part of the regularly numbered Donruss set. Each year, one "star" player from every MLB team was selected to appear as a "Diamond King." The cards featured portraits of each player by famed sports artist, Dick Perez.

From 1985 to 1991 Donruss offered a complete shrink-wrapped factory set of that year's DKs in a larger 5x7 version. The "Super Diamond Kings" were available through a mail-in promotion where you sent in some Donruss wrappers and a small fee for shipping. I mailed in for a set in 1985, and immediately fell in love with the larger cards as a great medium for autographs. At the time, I didn't think much about "completing" the sets...I just thought they were cool to get signed. So, for the 7 years they were offered, I picked up the sets and started getting them signed as I had the opportunity during my in-person graphing encounters. It wasn't until a few years down the road that I realized I had lots of them signed, and thought it would be cool to attempt to get them all done. I completed most of these cards in person, and a few through the mail. When I got near the end, I obtained some of the remaining bigger names through private signings, consignments, and the generosity of some fellow grapher friends.

During the years the Super DKs were offered (1985-91) there were 7 sets, with a total run of 185 cards. Most years had 26 cards - one "star" player from each team. However, 3 sets had 27 cards - The 1985 set included an unnumbered card featuring the artist, Dick Perez; The 1986 set featured an unnumbered "King of Kings" card honoring the hit king, Pete Rose; and in 1990, a "King of Kings" card honored strikeout king, Nolan Ryan.

The project took me 31 years to complete. What follows are scans of all 185 signed cards, grouped in order by set year. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did working on them!

Kevin