Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course, but I always hated the 1984 Donruss set and especially its design, although its horrible pigmentation of many player's skin was another reason. Donruss really turned it around in 1982 after its initial debacle, then told its design team to take a year off in '83-- it would just basically recycle the successful '82 look. I swear the designers took off in 1984 as well, and the panicked CEO asked his wife to come up with something, leading to: "Look honey, I made a swoosh". IMMHO, 1984 gave us the most overrated set of the decade--Donruss, and the most underrated--Fleer.
As for the OP's query, I generally add my own twist, elst I think we just see people grabbing for price guides and naming rookies. I would list 5 cards I would take any day if: 1) I didn't have to pay, and 2) I could never sell. Leaving out Mantle per OP's request, I would take:
1. 1953 Bowman Musial-- my favorite post-war card
2. 1954 Wilson Franks Ted Williams-- love that schwing
3. 1952 Topps Mays-- just oozes cool
4. 1949 Leaf Paige-- infancy of a new card era and a new color of ballplayer
5. 1967 Brooks Robinson-- clean card, nice photo, high-number from my youth
I understand nobody turns down an Aaron, Banks, Kaline, Koufax, and Clemente rookie, but I would really like to have the ones I listed, especially if nice near-mint shape.
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Last edited by nolemmings; 02-27-2015 at 08:29 AM.
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