1981 Donruss - the horror

chouser

on/off baseball card guy here for lifethe last friggin two months of messages here about older wax. So, went hunting for the oldest/cheapest baseball boxes I could found on BBCE which I learned here is the place to go. Unfortunately I found 1981 Donruss. No one told me the horror. I'm thinking 'what the ? nobody must have seen this.

1. There are no centered cards.
2. I should have known nothing cheap has good stuff
3. The freaking cards are actually different sizes even in the same pack.
4. The cards do not shuffle in the hands when trying to stroll through the pack due to the ricin like gum dust.
5. Checked ebay after the 10th pack and there really isn't much expected for the next 26 packs.

Will be silent here as much as possible and continue to leanr as I go. But, that thread below about how many posts and PM's scares me. I already feel the need the check here more than I used to. But no chance this becomes addictive. Already had that in my life. There is a real world out there.

Bosox1976

Was just thinking about '81 fleer...

Sorry the DR crapped out.

carkim

If you want to unload your 1981 Donruss - PM me.

I have actually started building that set My 1981 Donruss Set

chouser

pee emd. This set actually would be one to build as a hard core colletor. Finding the mint cards and building a mint set would be horrendouchly difficult. Why not just buy cases of it for 2 bills ?

ldferg

Ive always liked the set. Very tough to find all cards in mint condition. No factory set issued and only sold n wax packs.

This set had 0 quality control. I've opened numerous boxes of these over the years. I've got several pics somewhere on these boards. Most of my boxes have been what I consider 'team' boxes. Half of the box may yield the same sequencing for 2 teams (ie Reds and Mariners) I you end up with 15 George fosters and 15 Alan Bannisters. My last box was loaded with Phillies and Yankees so I had lots of Roses, Schmidts, and Reggie's. due to the horrendous card stock, very few of these were submittable. I've got some from this box at PSA now. I did land a Nolan Ryan 10 a few months back.

Carkim,
I will check out your set and see if I can help. Good luck.

MintMoondog

I bought more DR as a kid in 1981 than Topps...even as a kid I could see how horrible the quality of the cards were...paper thin stock, crazy diamond cuts, fuzzy pics...the horror indeed!
Sorry about your experience, for me, I know what I am getting into (similar to cracking 1975 minis) so I find joy when a rare nicely centered and sharp card actually appears.

zurbs17

I made the same mistake with 1984-85 Topps Hockey.

markmac

I opened a ton of these as a kid too. Paper thin card stock and the top card was always ruined by the gum.

ThoseBackPages

ahhh '81D

that was the first full box of baseball cards i ever bought

Stooge

<< <i>4. The cards do not shuffle in the hands when trying to stroll through the pack due to the ricin like gum dust. >>

LOL

Paul.

chouser

Back to this 1981 Donruss box (am slow in opening stuff). The box continues with the ricin like gum dust throughout. Would have to really compliment the set registry people who have this set. All cards continue to be off center excluding one or two in a pack. Sent a fellow collector some packs out of this box so don't have all packs of the box now.


So i think I got a plan now. If I find a pretty mint #593 Bombo Rivera, who the number 1 set registry guy does not even have a graded card of listed in the set, and I send it in for grading, and it gets a 9 or 10, he would probably buy it for 100 bucks correct ?

He would need such a Bombo card and pay heavily for it. That is where I can retaliate on my torture of opening this box I think.

come on Bombo !

chouser

tommy john card. There is no way my brain can not instantly include the word 'surgery' after saying or thinking tommy john.

chouser

Can anyone post a comparison scan of a 1981 Donruss blue eyed little boy 'Rich' Goose Gossage and a 1994 Goose card in order to explain what a visit to the vatican actually does to men. Goose looks like an innocent child in this 1981 Donruss card. He must have trusted religion for a year, before he became what he was.

elsnorto

Isn't 1981 Donruss the one where it not only was common to get duplicates in the same box... but in the same pack... REGULARLY?

Snorto~

chouser

The box was the most freaky thing I ever opened. I sent 6 packs to another guy here, but with the 30 packs finally opened, I experienced the worry some of the dust could actually be ricin dust, also the joy of saving 18 cards with gum attached, which will either be sent to PSA 'as is' to see if they will grade them, with gum attached, and shoot for an 'st' designation, or offer them to BGG to include in its' unopened fake wax takeover of the world so it maintains it's 'set' of cards still being different in the same pack throughout the box and ended up with the ultra pro plastic holders which were at the ready when I started opening this box three weeks ago I think (you know, gotta have a ultra pro 'graded series' box next to you whenever opening any box) and now have very nice and centered bench/raines/yaz/torre/murray/rose/ainge/fidrych/morgan/carew cards encased in their ultra pro sleevs which will soon simply be thrown in to 'the box of star cards that are too lame to ever get graded but I must keep them because i don't friggin dare throw out a friggin Johhny Bench card' mentality that i have.

This is my 1981 donruss story. Congrats to the FREAKS (my compliments actually) who have PSA graded sets of these. Sorry, no Bombo in the box.

mcadams

<< <i> also the joy of saving 18 cards with gum attached, which will either be sent to PSA 'as is' to see if they will grade them, with gum attached, and shoot for an 'st' designation >>



If you manage to get a card slabbed that actually has a piece of gum still attached to it, I think that would be hilarious.

jradke4

<< <i>

<< <i> also the joy of saving 18 cards with gum attached, which will either be sent to PSA 'as is' to see if they will grade them, with gum attached, and shoot for an 'st' designation >>



If you manage to get a card slabbed that actually has a piece of gum still attached to it, I think that would be hilarious. >>



just dont send it in with regular cards. that would have to go in one of them patch holders!!

mygotta

I have only 1 unopened 1981 Donruss box in my collection. The box has a broken hinge. BBCE had some at $40 but looks like they sold out. I would imagine these have not been too heavily tampered with. But boxes on eBay range from $50 all the way up to $110 a box. A case sold last month for $1200.

So what I am getting to is that I dont have experience opening a box, but I would be curious to rip one to see what the collation/condition I get from such a box.

SOM

That set looks so very cool, carkim!

Nice work!

Nick

larryallen73

I bought a ton of those cards in '81. The greatest thing, especially in the first printing, was getting 5 George Bretts... in one pack! The distribution was horrible but when you got a super star you were stoked!

LarkinCollector

<< <i>Isn't 1981 Donruss the one where it not only was common to get duplicates in the same box... but in the same pack... REGULARLY?

Snorto~ >>



Yes, .... like 1994 Bowman's Best? 3 packs out of the 48 from the last two boxes had a duplicate card, either back to back or on each side of the Mirror Image insert in the middle. Four boxes (168 cards each) deep and still don't have a complete set of 195.

ClockworkAngel

I love 1981 Donruss for all the quirky stuff like that. It has character, and like others have said finding really nice RC's is impossible. I would think a PSA 10 Tim Raines RC in that set would be worth more than the Topps but it isn't

sayheykid54

I personally love the set and design. I avidly collected the set from wax packs in 1981. I would actually like to assemble a high-grade (9's and 10's) set some day.

carkim

If anyone has some nicely mint cards laying around. PM me.

With all this 1981 Donruss talk, I am wanting to focus on this set.

Dragnet

Did a google search for '81 donruss duplicates and came across this thread. I just opened a box of '81 dourness and it was one of, if not THE strangest break I've ever encountered. In the 36 packs I opened, I would guess that I accumulated a total of less than 70 players. In most cases, I suppose this would not be a good thing, but I was pleased to find a whopping 27!! Tim Raines, many which very well could come back as 10's. Pretty remarkable...

stopthetrain

I'll trade for a 224 Clint Hurdle and 373 Steve Nicosia, if you have them.