I was a huge fan of the Fleer set, mostly for its innovations. I always kept my cards sorted by team, so having them numerically sequenced by team was incredibly helpful, and it was a nice added touch to have them basically in order of finish from the 1980 season. Also and importantly, the stock was clean and easy to read on white-- not that usual boring Topps gray.
Donruss was less available but I despised it anyway. The stock was too thin and the cards were often damaged. It wasn't just dinged corners but many had little edge notches and some packs had cards creased or wrinkled-- the inner cards not just the top or bottom. And forget collation. Oftentimes you got multiples of the same guy in one pack, and a box was brutally full of dupes. Contrast that to Fleer-- once in either 1986 or '87 I started the season by buying a box of Fleer that had 540 different cards with zero dupes. Oh, and the players of color often looked almost ruby red in their face tones--a problem Donruss would have at some level for years. The only redeeming quality of Donruss was the gum.
Topps was meh, same old same old, albeit slightly better than the ugly 1980s that came before and the even uglier 1982's that followed.
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Last edited by nolemmings; 09-25-2025 at 03:06 PM.
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