Guilty card pleasures

There are so many guilty pleasures in the card-collecting hobby that I couldn't possibly name or even think of them all.

My favorite set of all-time, 1975 Topps, could be considered a guilty pleasure. Some people think it's the most ghastly set ever (we don't take those people seriously).

Chrome cards could be considered a guilty pleasure. When you tell others that you collect a card that looks exactly like another card -- except that it's shiny -- all they can hear is: "I just flushed a whole bunch of cash down the crapper. We're broke and I'm an idiot."

Collecting a Topps base set could be considered a guilty pleasure. I've received condescending smiles from mojo collectors and dealers when they found out all I'm looking for are base cards. There's nothing quite like getting the vibe that someone thinks he's better than you even though he owns only one pair of underwear.

When you come right down to it, the whole hobby is a guilty pleasure. But that's only because there are so many people out there with no sense of fun, no sense of humor, no sense of spirit and no sense of history. (Get the sense that I don't feel so guilty? You catch on quickly).

But my personal guilty card pleasure is one I only recently discovered. Like two weeks ago.

It's 1989 Donruss.

Now, before you have to put your eyeballs back in your head, let me say this: I AM NOT COLLECTING THE SET!!!!!!

All right?

It was just that when I received that big box of junk recently, there were a bunch of '89 Donruss cards in there and suddenly I looked at them in a "hey, these aren't so bad" kind of way for the very first time.

I used to laugh at '89 Donruss. Hell, I laughed at Donruss from about 1986 to 1992. But I remember specifically looking at few '89 Donruss cards (I never bought a  pack of '89 Donruss either) and thinking that there were unfortunate people that actually bought and collected those cards and liked them. The cards seemed cheap and childish. Inferior.

I'm a different person now. I kind of like cheap and childish and inferior -- when it comes to cards.

The thing that I like about '89 Donruss is that the design and look of the card is so much better than the Donruss sets that immediately precede and follow '89 Donruss. 1988 and 1990 are abominations that look acceptable only when you stack it against 1991 Donruss.

I like the splashes of color against the dark black borders on the left and right. The rainbow effect, going from red to orange to yellow here, is very cool.

Sometimes they don't work so well with the colors in the photo. Green and yellow with bright orange? Bleah.

Who is this guy? I have no idea.

So while I am in a naming sets mood, maybe I'll call this one "the rainbow set," unless other people have a better idea.

It's not a bad little set.

Just don't send me any cards from it.