Favorite 80's baseball card design

Tomi

I mainly grew up collecting cards from the 80's as a kid but pretty much collect vintage and pre-war as an adult. Even though these cards are pretty worthless from the 80's (with the exception of high grade rookies and some others), I still feel that the 1980's had some of the nicest card designs ever. The 84 Donruss was always my favorite growing up but I think that was because of the hype of the set at the time and the rookies involved, but I have to say now that the 87 Topps wood grain borders stand out as my favorite from the decade. The 89 Upper Deck cards also stand out especially with Ken Jr. starting off the set (we all know how big that first year U.D. set was) but I still keep going back to the 87 Topps design (The Bo Jackson rookie by far my favorite).
What would be your #1 favorite card design from the 80's?

Nathaniel1960

1986 Donruss. Max Headroom meets Miami Vice.

redlegs

1983 Topps and 1984 Donruss

ChiefsFan1st

Im a football guy, but I really like '88 Fleer, '89 Fleer, and '87 Topps. Not sure which I like more, but prolly
lean to '88 Fleer. Football wise, its '86 Topps

60sfan

Baseball - '83 Topps
Footbll - '89 Score

jmaciu

Mine is hands down 1982 OPC. I love the the OPC emblem on the front.

DanBessette

Best design of the decade was 84 OPC hockey. But for baseball it was 83 topps.

Stingray

I still like 84 Topps for baseball. 85 Topps for Hockey and 82 or 83 Topps for football.

arex

1983 Topps for me

heritage

1983 Topps and 1984 Donruss

+1

recbball

1989 Pro Set football

TheMick6

1980 topps first packs I opened as a kid

Guru

87 Topps Baseball
91 Fleer

WalterSobchak

The '80s were a pretty weak decade for baseball card set design, IMO. I'm gonna go with 1985 Fleer as the best of a bad group.

Constantine

1983 Topps. And oddly 1987 is great too but I think the massed production gives it a stigma. Yet design wise it is appealing.

TNP777

I'll go with 1981. I like the hats with the team names in the lower left corner. I opened a LOT of 1981 when I was a high school freshman.

HeadsUp38

I generally like all the Topps designs they put out those years. I started collecting in 1985 so that is my sentimental favorite. The other companies were mixed over the years. I am a fan of the 1984 Donruss, 1987 Fleer and 1989 Upper Deck. It's too bad the 80s cards were so overproduced that it hurts their appeal, because a lot of the designs were top-notched IMO.

Craig H.

skrezyna23

Best: 1983 Topps, 1989 Upper Deck
Worst: 1987 Topps

corncobb

<< <i>Best: 1983 Topps, 1989 Upper Deck
Worst: 1987 Topps >>




+1

Southsider

Baseball - I've always liked the 1986 Topps set and the 1984 Fleer set.

Football - 1985. Gotta love the black borders.

Dnice

My Favorite was Topps 1989. Had lots of good memories with that set/cards/players.

One of the worst I think is 1986 Topps (although the Traded set is one of the most popular even still today from the 80's.)

DanBessette

<< <i>Football - 1985. Gotta love the black borders. >>



Yup!

belz

For me baseball without question is 1980 (I'll never forget opening my first pack and seeing how cool the Reggie Jackson card was and couldn't wait to get more). Second Place would be 1983.

I'm a total football guy, so I would have to say 1984 just because I opened so many and loved Eric Dickerson. Agree though that 1985 is a ton of fun with the black borders...love cracking those and getting any number of cards with my favorite being Walter Payton!!!

sdsalezman

Best:
1 - 1983 Topps
2 - 1984 Donruss
3 - 1980 Topps

Worst
3 - 1986 Sportflics
2 - 1989 Donruss
1 - 1988 Donruss

mattyc_collection

<< <i>1986 Donruss. Max Headroom meets Miami Vice. >>



Agree all the way. And for the exact same reason. Runner up for me is 1986 Topps with the Pac-Man letters. Talk about two sets that capture the style of the period.

esquiresports

1983 Topps, 1987 Fleer, 1988 Fleer and 1989 Upper Deck were favorites for baseball.

RyanAdmirer

<< <i>1983 Topps and 1984 Donruss

+1 >>



+2

ClockworkAngel

Donruss owned the Mid-80's!

1. 1986 Donruss-It was so unique at the time and it had a classy look to it. Almost as if it were an insert set
2. 1985 Donruss - Love those black borders and the overall design of the card
3. 1984 Donruss - For obvious reasons as stated here
4. 1983 Topps - Topps best effort of the 1980's
5. 1988 Fleer - This set got lost in the shuffle pretty quickly but it was always one of my favorites. If only Gregg Jeffries didn't tank.....

Worst
1. 1981 Donruss-Design was awful and the card stock was worse
2. 1982 Fleer - Boring and most of the pictures are out of focus. A really weak effort
3. 1988 Topps - Not much happening there
4. 1989 Topps - See above
5. 1983 Fleer - That ugly grey just did not have much eye appeal



Some of my favorite individual cards in that era:
1986 Topps Tony Gwynn - showing us how to throw a curveball
1985 Fleer Eric Davis - I see Red....and more red. It's really red, in a good way
1985 Donruss Eric Davis Love this card too. Great action shot with the crowd in the background
1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Remember when this was a $150 card?
1984 Fleer Darryl Strawberry - Really cool shot of the young Strawberry his rookie year

mattinglymint23

1986 topps baseball for me
Also like the 85

PSASAP

1987 Fleer was a very attractive design, but 1989 Upper Deck took the hobby to a new level, with front and back color photos and high quality card stock.

olb31

baseball

1. 1987 fleer
2. 1983 topps
3. 1984 donruss

football

1. 1984 topps
2. 1986 topps
3. 1987 topps