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1982-1985 Baseball Ripken Sandberg Gwynn Boggs Mattingly Puckett Clemens (Fleer v. Topps v. Donruss)
Mintacular
Posts: 1,138 ✭✭✭
Not interested in analysis of graded comparisons, but more interested in a breakdown of popularity and print run for these stars in that early / mid 80s rookie card crop of Ripken Sandberg Gwynn Boggs Mattingly Puckett Clemens in terms of the big 3 companies Fleer Topps and Donruss in around NM condition. Thanks for your input, -Pat
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'82 Topps Traded is the way to go for Cal Ripken. Although not technically his Rookie, it appears to be printed less than the other 3. The Donruss and especially Fleer RCs are fugly and the regular Topps is a 3 player card of which the other 2 are nobodies.
I know this is exactly the response you did not want based on your OP, but for my collection, for the others I go for OPC and Leaf instead. (no 1982 Ripken in OPC or Leaf, and 1983 Boggs only has a Sticker from OPC not a regular card)
For the 1983 Boggs, Gwynn and Sandberg rookies Topps is the way to go for popularity. Mattingly's 1984 Donruss rookie is still an iconic card from an iconic set. In 1985 I prefer Fleer for the aesthetics though the black borders of the Donruss set are attractive too.
As far as print run I think it's safe to say that Topps always had the largest. I imagine Donruss and Fleer had similar print runs (though '84 Donruss supposedly had a smaller one leading to its initial hype).
1982-1983 Topps Is the way to go for Gwynn, Boggs, Sandbetd
1984 is Donruss for Mattingly
1985 is kind of equal for Fleer and Donruss, though I prefer Donruss
I don’t honk that the popularity is determined by print run as much as Presentation and eye appeal. I am pretty sure that there were more Topps cards produced the. Fleed or Donruss in 1983, but Fleer and Donruss were pretty ugly cards until 1984 when the designs improved for both.
TheClockworkAngelCollection
If I were to choose for both rarity and best looking cards I'd go with '85 Leaf for the 1980s. 1986 Topps Tiffany traded is a close second in terms of rookies and look though.
Join the Rookie stars on top PSA registry today:
1980-1989 Cello Packs - Rookies
Ahhhhh rats. I did a major deep dive on this topic a few years ago and actually came across some internal docs from Donruss and sales figures. I know I saved them but I have no idea where. I'm pretty sure I posted what I found here on CU so if one of you young whipper snappers with your fancy knowledge of the electronics wants to find it, I salute you.
I think it debunked the whole "1984 Donruss is in short supply" theory. I think 1984 Donruss was just the first popular design between the two newcomers and so it was perceived tough to find because it actually sold.
I'll second (or third? fourth?) the whole OPC/Leaf thing. Those are my jams.
Arthur
Yeah I never saw 1984 Donruss as especially difficult to find. I think Fleer and Donruss had fairly similar production runs during the mid-80's. Topps was always the highest until 1988 when Donruss went off the rails with those Dale Murphy boxes everywhere I looked.
I love OPC and Leaf. Unfortunately, the demand never really got any steam...
TheClockworkAngelCollection
In my area (Pontiac, MI), at least, 1984 Donruss was very tough to find. Card stores had it but regular retail locations did not, unlike 1982 & 1983. 1985 & 1986 were the same. In 1987, we started getting Donruss in retail again.
Check out my Sandberg 1983 rookie cards in PSA 10. The Fleer card is kind of plain looking when compared to the other 2. The populations in PSA 10 grade are 515 for the Topps, 501 for the Fleer, and 238 for the Donruss. I think the Donruss card looks nice but the Topps card is definitely the most popular one. Based on population, you would think the Donruss card would be the most expensive but it's not. It sells for about half of the Topps card.
Wow Tabe, I grew up over in Waterford!! And yes, 1984 Donruss was a tough find.
Grew up in West Bloomfield, and agreed with you guys.
I remember going through a long stretch of never seeing Donruss anywhere from 1984-86 except card stores. That changed in 1987 when the Toys R Us across from the Pontiac Mall (Summit Place if you must...grrrrr) got some. And then the Meijer's on M-59 in Waterford got Donruss rack-packs. I actually convinced my mom to help me go through those packs to look for star players. They had just stocked 'em so there were TONS of rack-packs on the hangers and we sat on the floor and went through them all. She was cool like that. Of course, I was looking for stars like Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens instead of rookies like Maddux and McGwire.
Donruss must have had some kind of distribution deal with Toys 'R Us in 1987. I've picked up some racks lately that had TRU pricing and branding printed directly on the Donruss rack packs from the factory.
Arthur
I cannot remember if the reason was because of availability, or just which I preferred at the time, but I remember opening a lot more of the 1987 Donruss Blister Racks instead of the traditional Rack Packs at the time. Besides cards stores, also picked them up at K-Mart, Toys-R-Us and Kaybee.
Kmart in Morton, Illinois had tons of those 1987 Donruss Blister packs. I think they were $2 each. And tons of stars on top. I really don't ever remember seeing the traditional 1987 Donruss racs.
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I love these junk era discussions.
BBCE has them for the same price!
http://www.bbcexchange.com/1987_Donruss_Baseball_Unopened_Blister_Rack_Pack-ITEM2422.aspx
Alex Relyea
Wow, price hasn't changed.
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If you were in the Peoria area my dad had a monopoly on the 87 Donruss was and rack. I remember his initial order was 400 cases of wax and 100 cases of racks. He had just opened his shop in 1986 there in town and I remember lots of people coming in to get them.
Which shop?
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Hadley's Coins
I think I've talked to you before on these boards concerning your dad's shop. Loved his shop. His former assistant still has a shop in Peoria.
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Yes, I was thinking we had too. She sure does and while it's bigger, she has the same clutter as my dad had. She has been a big help to our family over the years. Dad passed away in August and I'm just getting in to go thru all the stuff he had left when he closed the shop. While he had sold off most of the good stuff, there's still a lot of lower end cards/set, etc along with hundreds upon hundreds of autographed photos. She has a ton of stuff he was having her sell out for him and I had her take a van full of stuff for the Spoon River Drive this fall.