1984 Baseball Cards - Don Mattingly and Production
olb31
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Just reviewed the 1984 POP report for Don Mattingly, the main card from this set.
1984 Donruss PSA 10 = 283, Total graded = 7304
1984 Fleer PSA 10 = 386, Total Graded = 3981
1984 Topps PSA 10 = 825, Total graded = 11681
I have no knowledge of scarcity, but it appears that the 1984 Fleer product is much harder to come by, by a lot. Donruss appears to be double and Topps triple produced. In fact there are 700 less Fleer PSA 9's than the Donruss. This doesn't look close to me. Fleer looks way under valued or Topps and Donruss way over priced.
Really tough to find unopened Fleer from 1984.
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I appreciate you looking up and then sharing the statistics with us. Mattingly is my personal favorite too, so this thread immediately got my attention. As we have seen, scarcity is not the sole driving force of the prices. We try and analyze these numbers, but ultimately, collectors simply want what they want. Mattingly is not even in the HOF, yet his cards behave as if he is in. Bo Jackson is popular once again, though he does not even qualify for the HOF as he did not get his 10 year minimum.
I want to note here that the 1984 Topps Tiffany, Nestle, and OPC could also be looked at. The Topps Tiffany seems to be his best card with the Donruss a very close second. Both those cards in gem mint condition would swing upwards with greatest velocity once Mattingly gets voted in the HOF.
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Maybe just a regional thing in my case (N.C. & S.C.) but remembering back to 84, my first full year collecting, 84 Fleer was on 84 Donruss scarce level. Topps was everywhere of course.
least to most scarce for me back in the day:
83: Fleer, Donruss, Topps
84: Topps, Donruss, Fleer
85: Topps, Donruss, Fleer
86:Topps, Fleer, Donruss
84 was Topps, Fleer then Donruss in Chicago area. Everywhere had Topps and Fleer only saw Donruss once at K-Mart. My 12 year old self kicked myself for not buying more the one time I saw them!
I'd wager Fleer production was less than Donruss in '84. While Donruss scaled back production drastically from '83, they did still produce factory sets in addition to the wax and racks. Donruss became the hot thing once Mattingly fever took off, as it was harder to find Donruss at retail compared to Topps and Fleer.
Topps was easily the most abundant in my area, Fleer a distant second. Only saw one Donruss box at retail back then. However, my friends purchased factory sets at shows, cheaper than wax then so there wasn't a need for them to look for wax at retail.
True on the Factory sets. If memory serves the Living Legends A and B cards were not in factory sets. If those ever became worth anything might be able to find ratio of packs to factory sets.
No doubt that the Tiffany card is his best and most valuable. It should be way above the 1984 Donruss and I think it will be in the next couple of years. The Nestle card is hand cut I believe. While sort of rare, the hand cut part puts this card into another category for me. Nice Card, good value, but will never be looked upon like the other cards.
Now, the OPC. Much like Bonds, this is card is badly cut at the factory. While not Rare, it is the rarest of all but the Nestle and Tiffany. The last opc sold for around $850, which compared to the Donruss, is about 40%. Look for this card to explode. 9's are below $100 or right at it. Look for the 9's, especially the centered ones, to be at $250 or so in the next year. Once someone sales the next PSA 10, all of them will go up.
First off, you are probably pretty close, but you really can't simply use one card to base the theory on.
The 1984 Donruss Mattingly is perhaps the most iconic (at least one of the most) cards in the 40 years, so it's going to be submitted more than his others.
If you go by total submissions, it appears that Donruss had a higher production than Topps;
Donruss 77,274
Topps, 53,502
Fleer 21,066
In any case you are certainly right about 1984 Fleer.