1984 Donruss Baseball
 

I picked up two hand-collated sets from the recent Collector Connection auction. This afternoon, I opened one of them up and put it in a binder. The experience took me back in time. I was 12-year-old me, all over again, for a few hours. :D

The set is a solid NM-MT with a few slightly higher and a few slightly lower. The only card I might upgrade is Strawberry. Everything else suits me perfectly. The cards were pack fresh, nearly 40 years after they were released. Twelve-year-old me would not have taken care of them nearly this well. :o

Glad to once again have a set of these in my collection. I don't plan to break it, grade it, or endlessly tinker with it. I'm going to enjoy it for the time capsule it is. After all, isn't that what collecting is all about? Having something that can take you back to treasured days gone by.

Awesome set, while I know many hate the 80s, I find value in a lot of these sets and the ultimate beauty is they are super cheap compared to most vintage sets.

Great set! I love a good binder set!

‘84 Donruss is a cool set. For those of us who started collecting in the late 80’s, this was “rare high dollar vintage” - a Mattingly RC might as well have been a ‘52 Mantle.

Donruss from 1982-1987 was one great run of designs…best of the 80’s in my opinion. Not sure what happened ‘88-‘91.

The very first factory set I ever bought, was 1984 Donruss.

I got it in the Baseball Hall of Fame gift shop in Cooperstown. I was 13 and we were headed back from a family trip to Niagara Falls, and we stopped at the HOF on the way home.

I think it was like 20 bucks, and I used just about all the money I had left in my pocket from our vacation. Probably only had the money left, because I didn't find any baseball cards in Niagara Falls. Might have had to beg my dad for a couple extra bucks, LOL.

I ripped them out of the cellophane, and probably flipped through them so many times, they hardly would have been considered EX/MT by the time the 1985 cards came out. :D

A few years ago, after selling off some vintage and getting tired of spending more than I should on collecting, I turned back to the 1980s - I already had a full run of Topps master sets, but I started filling in all the Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck and Score, 1981-1992. At some point in the past I had a good number of theses sets. It was a real kick - I love opening those Donruss factory sets where the cards were wrapped in the cellophane bricks - the smell of the cards really brought me back. There's so much variety from that time among the 5 manufacturers. I have all the puzzles, logo stickers, magic motion cards and holograms.

Back in the day I never had the '84 Donruss or Fleer Update, but I have them now and I love paging through them.

I recently ran across a hand-collated '84D set at my dad's house - I am sure that we put it together back in the day. And I did exactly what the OP did - I took it out of the box and put it in a binder. Really enjoyed going through and seeing those names and photos again.

Anyway, I've now taken to getting some of the cards signed, mostly through the mail. Not trying to go hard after them, but getting some signed as I have the time.

1984 is almost 38 years ago, and many of the players are unfortunately not with us anymore. In fact, approximately 10% of the players in the set have passed. Seems hard to believe.

Agreed. It was a wonderful experience. While doing this, I played a game with myself. I looked at just the photo to see if I could remember the name. Easy enough for HOFers and players like Mattingly. I was only about 50% for the commons.

And, according to the copyright line, this set was printed in 1983; that is something I candidly never noticed before.

This is spot-on. I remember seeing the prices for the 84 Donruss set in the first Beckett I bought as a nine year old in 1987. In my mind, it had to be “rare” to have those prices. [emoji16]

I ended up buying this set from a friend maybe 10 years ago. I think it still holds up as one of the best issues from that decade.


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Great set. Great design. Donruss was really considered the standard from 84-87. The 84 set is outstanding. 85 and 86 are polarizing but they were really kind of breakthrough. Some iconic cards in here, the '84 and '85 Mattingly are both cool. The '85 Two for the Title card and the '86 Canseco RC.

Agree. Especially love the '85 set.

84 and 85 are my two favorite sets from the 1981-1988 era. IMO the 84 was the best design but the images were a little soft focus. 85 is sharper. I still have my 85 Mattingly, but in a tomb now

I think the 1984 Donruss Set is the best set of the 1980's ! It was printed in lower quantities and the design is great. I remember the Factory Set of 651 cards + 7 checklists = 658 cards. Then you had to buy wax packs to get the other 2 cards " Living Legends A & B" to = 660. Also a lot of variations. Fun set. Still have a lot of singles in stock but I wish I had some of those wax boxes still in stock, sold out years ago.

I’m 36 away from a signed set.

Given how crummy the 81-83 Donruss sets were (just my opinion) and how nice 84 is (again IMO), it makes me curious as to what precipitated at Donruss headquarters that got them the designs of 84-87. Curious if there was a key hire or something, a new designer. There has to be a story behind it.

I didn't mind the 81-83 Donruss, other then the fact they were all basically the same design, done 3 times with subtle differences. Big lack of imagination, except for the Diamond Kings, which I loved.

I also never liked the partial stats on the back of any of the Donruss issues. Always preferred the full stats on the Fleer and Topps issues.

I will also say, I liked most of the Fleer designs from 83 to 88. I loved their 84 design, almost as much as the Donruss. Fleer also had the best feeling card stock, of the Big 3 brands, all throughout the 80's........at least until Upper Deck and Score came on the scene.

Agree. I like 84 Fleer quite a bit as well.

I like the Topps from this year as well. Great year for cards!

interesting how an alleged 20% less made converts to such a premium for this set

20% less made then what?

Previous Donruss.....Topps?

Let me tell you, if you were around in 1984 and tried to get a case of 1984 Donruss Wax it was difficult. I was a full time dealer in 1984 and I went all over the place and most candy wholesalers had no product or they may give you a few boxes instead of the regular "take all you want ". 1984 was low printed for the demand at the time and boxes today are valuable. Great set.

Still have my original '84 and '85 Donruss, as well as an '83 Fleer set, all in binders. It's fun to go back through them and reminisce.

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=32519

Yup. I remember they were never easy to get (just boxes, nevermind cases). I was more active on the show circuit in the 2nd half of the 80's, after Mattingly got hot, and they never became easier to get either.

Fleer was definitely easier but not super easy either, compared to prior years, and Topps were all over the place. Wouldn't be surprised if Topps decided to print twice as many cards in 1984, as they did in 1983.

I also distinctly remember the 1984 Donruss Mattingly, being a huge counterfeit problem back in the day.

I don't remember how convincing they were...just that they fooled a lot of people.

I do wonder, if after the Mattingly card cooled off and wasn't really worth that much for a long time, if the counterfeits went into hiding for awhile, and then resurfaced when the card got hot again, and maybe attempts were made to get them by the grading companies.

Fleer and Donruss 1984-1986 were very difficult to locate in the Buffalo NY area. No stores or wholesalers had them. 1987 on the market was flooded.

1984 Donruss was impossible to find in my neck of the woods. 1985 wasn’t easy but it was available. 1986 was really easy to find.