Your Favorite Donruss Sets from 1981-1991

[profholt82]

Beginning in 1981, Donruss began printing their regular annual baseball card sets. In 1992 they joined the "premium" fray and started using thicker card stock on their base set. But from 1981 to 1991, the base Donruss set was printed on standard cardboard and issued in wax packs for an affordable price. Between those 11 sets, which are your favorites, and why? Feel free to rank them or whatever you want.

Personally, the 1987 set is my favorite with 1984 a close second. This is due first and foremost to the designs of those sets, but also to the great rookies and many nice regular player cards featured in those sets. While the 85 set is decent, it was a big letdown after that beautiful white bordered 84 set. And 88 was a travesty coming after the sweet 87 set. But, I feel similarly about the 88 sets of Topps and Fleer, as the 87 sets of those cards were great as well. 1987 was just an excellent year for baseball cards. That's when it all began for me though, so maybe that's just nostalgia talking, but I think the designs of the big 3 that year still hold up well today.

Anyway, I'm curious what the favorites (and least favorites) are of anyone here who still has interest in cards from the "junk wax" era.

[JoeDfan]

I have to go with '83 as my favorite, followed maybe by '86 (or whatever one has the white letter Highlights cards). Mostly I just love finding the variations.

[bnorth]

My favorite is the 1990 set by far because of the awesome red borders. Love the T210's for the same reason.

Like Sean posted above I also like looking through junk wax era cards for the error and variation cards.

[Tripredacus]

1989 for printing errors is my favorite so far.

[Exhibitman]

I think they knocked it out of the park in 1985.



1981 was exciting because it was new but the quality control was lousy. 1982 and 1983 were bland. 1984 had some great cards but some quality issues and some duds too. They finally put it all together in 1985.

[profholt82]

Here are examples of each respective year in case anyone wants a quick refresher.

1981


1982


1983


1984


1985


1986


1987


1988


1989


1990


1991

[KingFisk]

My favorite is 1986. Those slick borders and parallelogram pictures...And great rookies like Canseco, McGriff, O'Neill..

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[Jason]

1990 for me as well.

[pherbener]

I always thought 1984 was the best. Clean big images and a bit harder to find then the rest. I do wish there were more rookies in it though.

[Bigdaddy]

1984 - Don Mattingly and Strawberry, need I say more?
1983 - the first year that Donruss finally put it all together
1987 - great players and good photography and design
1986 - good design, but photography could be discolored
1990 - great photography and I liked the design, just not so much the red color
.
.
.

and last but not least -

1981 - oh my, tons of errors, gum sticking to the cards, blurry photography, terrible distribution in the packs, two and three of certain players for no apparent reason, thin card stock, etc. Fleer's first effort in 1981 was much better.

[sbfinley]

84 and 86 are the classics, but 1991 was the first year I really got into collecting and I opened so much Topps and Donruss that year.

[scottbdoug]

Originally Posted by profholt82

Beginning in 1981, Donruss began printing their regular annual baseball card sets. In 1992 they joined the "premium" fray and started using thicker card stock on their base set. But from 1981 to 1991, the base Donruss set was printed on standard cardboard and issued in wax packs for an affordable price. Between those 11 sets, which are your favorites, and why? Feel free to rank them or whatever you want.

Personally, the 1987 set is my favorite with 1984 a close second. This is due first and foremost to the designs of those sets, but also to the great rookies and many nice regular player cards featured in those sets. While the 85 set is decent, it was a big letdown after that beautiful white bordered 84 set. And 88 was a travesty coming after the sweet 87 set. But, I feel similarly about the 88 sets of Topps and Fleer, as the 87 sets of those cards were great as well. 1987 was just an excellent year for baseball cards. That's when it all began for me though, so maybe that's just nostalgia talking, but I think the designs of the big 3 that year still hold up well today.

Anyway, I'm curious what the favorites (and least favorites) are of anyone here who still has interest in cards from the "junk wax" era.

shoulda did it as a poll question, my guess is the 84 or 85 set would win out.

[JustinD]

For me, simply because of the memories, it's 1981 all day.

I remember my excitement at having two more brands hit the market and honestly completely ignoring the 81 Topps release so I could just buy Fleer and Donruss.

A close second is the 82's for having the first in the series San Diego Chicken card that my young self thought was awesome, lol.

[midmo]

Originally Posted by JustinD

For me, simply because of the memories, it's 1981 all day.

I remember my excitement at having two more brands hit the market and honestly completely ignoring the 81 Topps release so I could just buy Fleer and Donruss.

I agree. I was 10 years old and that was my second year of collecting. It was super exciting when the new brands came on the scene.

After that I'd go with 1984 for quality. The Mattingly is still one of my favorite cards from that era.

[bobsbbcards]

It's 1990 for me.

[PowderedH2O]

I lived in the West Palm Beach area in the mid 1980's. I had no problem finding Donruss in the stores. I had boxes of 1984's, 1985's and more. I loved the 1985's. I still do actually. I loved the 1981's when they came out. They were colorful, as opposed to the rather bland 1981 Topps. Of course, the card stock, printing quality, and card distribution was awful. But, I was a teenager, so I didn't care. I guess I would rank 1985 the best, and a tie with 1981 as my favorite, but mostly for nostalgic reasons. I would rate 1988 Donruss as one of the worst sets ever. Ugh!