About 30 days ago, I needed 350 cards to finish my 1988 Donruss set, that's about how many cards I've needed to finish the set for decades because I didn't care until recently.
Since receiving a large box of '88 Donruss last month and getting down to less than 100 cards needed to finish the set, I did the dumb thing of announcing I actually wanted 1988 Donruss cards, that the chase had begun. But it's not really a chase if you just wait at the mailbox for mass-produced cards to fly in. I'm not the one doing the chasing. Others are doing the chasing -- chasing me down to get rid of their extra cards from the Tron Set.
Shortly after that post, I received my first envelope. It was from Chris of The Collector.
He wanted to get these out before anyone else did. I understand. "The cards aren't going to show up by themselves," some have said. But 1988 Donruss is different. It definitely shows up by itself.
The next envelope arrived from Matt of Diamond Jesters. He figured that there'd be a mad scramble to send me these cards -- yeah, kind of. But people have been relatively restrained. Matt also said he wanted notification when/if I ever decide to complete the 1989 Donruss set.
Um.
But I don't have a want list for that yet. Maybe I do on TCDB, but good luck figuring that out with the Variation Obsession over there.
The next envelope ... BIG envelope ... arrived from Chris, who is on Twitter. He's been generous with cards before. And this was a whole bunch of '88 Donruss.
You can see some duplication of efforts among the three '88 Donruss packages, but that's cool, because upgrading can happen. And I was already prepared for duplicates. I'm sure my closet wasn't, but it's dark in there anyway, nobody can see what's going on.
Chris also nicely asked if I wanted any of the MVP cards, even though they're not part of the set. I did, because my brain likes to pretend the MVP logo is a McDonald's logo and these are food issue cards.
Forgot one card. Can you believe it took me this long to get this?
All of those cards did not quite complete the set for me. My binder says there are still 10 cards that I need. (TCDB says I need 19 cards, but I'm sure variations have messed up my filing there).
But before I get to that, three cards to take the edge off all that ubiquitous Donruss.
I received these in a separate envelope from Diamond Jesters, from a Time Travel Trade. These are much cooler than '88 Donruss, sorry junk wax fans.
But I DO want to complete that '88 set. And here is what's left:
156 - Julio Franco
158 - Terry Steinbach
159 - Mike Fitzgerald
280 - Kevin Seitzer
549 - Dennis Martinez
630 - Jeff Musselman
632 - Bob Ojeda
651 - Roger McDowell
653 - David Cone
656 - George Bell
OK, now my theory on each one as to why in the world people are hanging onto these cards, none of which are more than 5 cents apiece.
156 - A legend because of his longevity. Franco's career didn't really impress collectors until they were pulling his cards two decades later.
158 - Steinbach is posing IN CATCHER'S GEAR IN A DUGOUT. Very impressive for '88 Donruss.
159 - No idea. Batting cage in the background, I guess.
280 - Seitzer was a god in the collecting world at the time, I missed this period so it seems silly to me.
549 - Martinez has always been popular, especially once he became an Expo.
630 - Don't know. People like to say "Musselman"?
632 - Pitcher bunting.
651 - Second spitter.
653 - The only tolerable broadcaster in the ESPN Sunday night booth.
656 - Slugger from that time.
That's it. That's all I need to finish off what's been the easiest set completion quest ever.
I shall stand next to my mailbox and wait.
Comments
At least this set seems to be printed well. 1989D is all over the place and some of the images are just way to dark.
I still remember going to one of those huge grocery store and everything else (yard stuff, etc.) And they still had boxes and boxes of cello packs sitting taking up shelf space in 1990. The weird part for the set was it seemed like the mvp cards were a late add. Some of the short printed cards included rookies of ron Gant and Roberto Kelly. I had never heard of geronimo berroa until I had to pay 50 cents for his rookie card at a card shop.
Paul t
Some of the cards in the 600s were shortprinted, particularly the Mets. As for the others, some are just random, but the way they were collated in packs - in numerical order - might explain why 156-159 were missing for you.
thanks, mark
I agree with Nick in that some of the OP-era sets are appealing to me too, but this isn't one of them. I think it's mostly the flimsy card stock.
I personally don’t think it’s one of the worst sets of all time, it has a couple of things going for it. First, I love thick borders on cards. Granted the border design is too funky, but I have seen much worse. Second, I think the name plate works really well and I like the consistency of using red and the font. But other than that, it turns into one of those dull sets of non-stop monotony. Much like the previous 86 Fleer.
Anyway, thanks again, Mr. Owl, and would love to hear your thoughts on The Donruss Best sets of 88-90.