Hey, look at Mr. Big Shot publishing his second set-completion post in a week, so much for struggling in this department this year.
OK, so it's 1988 Donruss. I am not proud!
Thanks to other folks' generosity --. er, eagerness to get rid of their share of the most overproduced set of all-time -- I finished this set in record time. It's been slightly more than a month since I announced that I wanted to complete this. I'm sure that's the fastest I've ever wrapped up a set.
I received most of the last few cards that I needed from Bo of Baseball Cards Come To Life! He shipped me nine of them.
He also informed me that some of the cards No. 600-and-above were short-printed, which I had never heard of before. Granted, my time devoted toward Everything You Wanted To Know About 1988 Donruss has been limited.
The Julio Franco card actually showed up twice -- on the same day -- as I received another one all by itself.
Chris of Nachos Grande was so surprised to see something on my want list that he actually had that he paid postage for this thing. But I definitely appreciate it!
So that meant I was down to one last card needed, and I received that from TCDB's Mark Z., who you no doubt have seen in the comments with his thumbs-up sign of approval.
There you go, Bob Ojeda is the final card for me to finish 1988 Donruss.
Mark also threw in a card off my 1969 Topps want list, which is quite refreshing now amid all the junk wax in this post.
But back to completion!
Of course, I had to double-check as I always do when I think a set is finished. There are always gremlins, and Pete Stanicek did give me a scare. But it's official official.
Despite what Trading Card Database says.
I don't know why it thinks there are three missing cards. I've gone through my binder and the TCDB '88 Donruss checklists, all of the dumb variations, several times. Everything seems to be there, but I'll do it again because that 657/660 won't let me sleep until I figure it out. I'm sure it's related to checklist confusion thanks to the back variation hunters.
By the way, I consider all those "variations" as the same card and that's how they're arranged in my binder, willy nilly, with "INC." and "INC" living together in chaos!
This is where they're stashed, in the most appropriate utililitarian binder I own.
I can see why people don't like this set or at least are dismissive of it. Aside from the fact that it is just everywhere and has been for 35 years, Donruss didn't do itself any favors by scrimping on the card stock in the late 1980s, I've always shrugged off Donruss of this era because it seems like it just didn't care.
But I will take this border design and look over other Donruss sets of the time, particularly 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1991, especially the last two. Yeah, those '88 border blocks are oppressive and overwhelm the photo but it didn't stop me.
In fact, I'm going to find five cards from the set now that are pretty good, and I won't be showing the Glavine rookie or Mark Grace or Jefferies or all those other guys you see all the time from this set.
Yes, I'm gonna show more 1988 Donruss.
Yes, I know Topps released both Heritage and Series 2 this week.
I AM NOT PROUD!
Mookie appears to have transported the baseball into right field with his mind.
There would be more fans of 1988 Donruss if there were more dugout poses like this.
Interesting photo angles was not a trademark of this set, so it really stands out when it happened.
Oil Can was still a sensation and part of it was his Luis Tiant imitation on the mound.
That's quite a feat for Dawson to look so ominous on such a sunny summer day at Wrigley. Even the bear on the sleeve is glaring at you.
OK, that's it. I'm done and I'm done. You probably won't be seeing anymore 1988 Donruss posts from me again. The binder will go on a shelf (I may eventually find a better binder for it), and I'll take it out from time to time and know that this completed set means I have now completed all four major sets from 1988. It's the only year for which I've completed that many major sets.
1988 was a great year for me, for a lot of reasons, so it's a good year to accomplish that feat.
All right now I'm done. It's the last time I will bother you about this.
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A new post is up on the 1993 Upper Deck blog.
Comments
I like the plain blue binder.
This was the first (and possibly only) set that when I resumed collecting in the early 00s, stuck out to me as childish, like toys rather than real cards. Still like 'em, though.
To add spice to its 88 set, donruss decided to add short printed mvp cards. This led to short printing some cards such as ron Gant, Roberto Kelly, etc.
Problem was it grossly overprinted sets. Even a few years later, you could buy cello boxes for 5 bucks at a show.
As for the 69 Pattin, topps had a breakthrough with mlbpa in late 68 to finally bridge the issue of payments. Hence, for the later series of 69 topps, they had cards taken in spring training of the four expansion teams in their uniforms. If topps hadn't reached an agreement, players were being told to avoid topps photographers.
I don't hate on the 88 donruss as much as I did the 91 fleer with yellow boarders. Those were the worst along with 91 fleer football.