Line 'em up

 

In my current state of gathering 1988 Donruss (down to one card as of today!), I was reminded of a border feature from the mid-'80s to early '90s on those Donruss sets.

The border patterns lined up if you positioned the cards just so. So I did it, just to finally see what junk wax fans were talking about and ... yeah, to get an easy blog post.

The first four Donruss sets all featured white borders, but in 1985 it started go with colored borders and it also started doodling inside the borders. I was not a fan of Donruss doodling, as I've said many times most of those '80s Donruss sets just don't look that professional to me, compared with their counterparts at the time.

But I'm not above collecting them or lining them up.

The 1985 set featured black borders and red racing stripes that you could line up with any other card.

Then in 1986, Donruss decided to just put lines all over the entire card. It's pretty easy to line these up with approximately 100 lines per card. Once you overcome the seizures the design causes anyway.

 

1987 Donruss is the very definition of doodling Donruss. Those drawn baseballs are a big hit with some collectors but it's the reason I will never try to complete this set. It looks so dopey and ruined a perfectly good black border set (well that and the rounded photo borders). But the set's ability to line up with its card neighbors is among the very best.

 

The set I am immersed in right now. I do like the icy blue borders and the Tron-like graphic theme. Black-and-blue is among my very favorite color combos. It just looks cool compared to other Donruss sets at the time, so I don't understand when people get down on this one -- outside of it growing from every tree, that is. The borders line up very nicely.

 

The king of the Donruss line-up sets is 1989 Donruss (Happy 70th birthday, George Brett!). You can build a color spectrum rainbow with your cards. But unlike the other sets, you have to search out the right cards to build that rainbow.

 

OK, I have no idea whether the paint splatters line up with other cards. They're generally placed in the same spot on each card but the individual splatters don't sync up. Maybe they do. But I don't want to be one of those people searching every 1990 Donruss card to find out. I try to avoid this set as much as I can.

Another non-favorite. The red name lines and blue position lines on 1991 Donruss line up on every card. It's possible the abundant number of lines on the rest of the card do line up with other cards. It'll stay a mystery to me. Again, I keep '91 Donruss in a box for a reason.

 

If you want to see a '91 Donruss set line up without all the clutter then "The Rookies" set is the place to go. Simple clean design. Like a breath of fresh air.

Donruss went back to white borders after 1991 and then eventually no borders (and then eventually out of business). 

I suppose the lining up encouraged playing with your cards, which I wholeheartedly support. But if I'm collecting a Donruss set, it probably has to do with the players pictured, not the design.

(P.S.: The top screen shot is the 1987 All-Star Game in Oakland).