1981: Topps, Donruss or Fleer?

[bk400]

I've rediscovered some love for cards from these three sets. Which 1981 set was the most popular when they were first issued, and which are most popular now among collectors?

[deweyinthehall]

Where I was, central CT, it seemed there was more Fleer to be found than Donruss, and that's when you could find either. Most places I'd buy cards all they had was Topps.

I remember as a 14 year old thinking Fleer was clearly the better product - Donruss seemed flimsy and the backs looked weird. At the time, I don't think I knew anything about all the errors each set had, although I heard about the Fleer Nettles very early on.

I can clearly remember thinking that as long as there was Topps, why would anyone buy anything else? And who needs THREE sets each year anyway? Seems like overkill.

How naive I was.

[jp1216]

Amongst my 2nd grade buddies, 1981 was an weird year to collect/trade compared to the year prior. Topps (to us) was still king but that didn't stop kids from showing up to trade, play and sort with the new 'oddball' companies.

I acquired a few but focused on Topps. I remember cards like Fernando and Cal (in '82) having their own cards vs the Topps Future Stars examples. I didn't think they'd last.

I also remember being the kid that traded away 81s for 'old' 1980 cards. Back then (and still today), I like that set better.

[Exhibitman]

In the San Fernando Valley, Fleer was the hot one because of the error cards. I remember chasing down Craig Nettles and to this day enjoy all of the wrong caption superstars. Topps was...Topps. Boring and kinda uggo. Donruss simply wasn't around at retail. No market penetration. I didn't get any of those packs until I went to NYC for a visit. One pack had several of the same card in it.

[angolajones]

If my memory is correct, I think Donruss had the best gum for that year. It was softer than Topps. But it may have been Fleer.

As to which set, I think Topps had the better product in 81 although Fleer and Donruss caught up quickly in the next few years.

[bk400]

The Topps cards feel a bit nicer in hand to me also, but the Donruss and Fleer sets avoided the Future Stars, multi-player cards that Topps seemed to really like. I was surprised that 1981 Tim Raines Topps rookie commands such a large premium to the 1981 Donruss (single player), which to me is clearly a better looking card.

[PittOhio]

Grew up in NE Ohio and did not have a problem finding any of the companies. Donruss was the strangest, it took quite a while for their “last series” cards to be in any of the boxes. Then all of a sudden a box would only include their last series. The other strange thing was getting maybe 15-20 cards in a pack. I never got less than I was supposed to but would sometimes get way more cards than I was supposed to. The third strange thing was getting multiple cards of the same player in a pack. I recall getting packs with numerous Mike Schmidt’s and Pete Rose’s and it was a pack with way too many cards. I still have way too many 81 Fleer and Donruss sets and cards.

[Bigdaddy]

It certainly was a unique time in the spring of 1981 as boys around the country had their choice of three different companies offering full sets of baseball cards.

From my experience, the Donruss cards were by far and away the worst cards I had ever seen. Blurry pictures, funky design, thin cardstock and the aforementioned packaging problems. Sometimes you'd get 3-4 of the same cards in a single pack, or maybe 10-15 in a box. And what was with multiple cards of the same players??? Just very poor execution, though they made great strides in 1982.

The Topps cards were mostly uninspiring except for the All-Star cards and the multi-player rookie cards, notably Fernando and Rock.

I personally thought Fleer produced a nice product and had the single player RC of Fernando (but no Raines). Some of the photos were really nice and the cards seemed to have a bit more gloss than Topps or Donruss. But Topps was the reigning champ, and you have to convincingly beat the champ to take the belt.

[bk400]

Some iconic (for me) rookie cards from those sets. I like the back of the Mookie -- a lot of detail for an unheralded rookie.

[tulsaboy]

Your question about which one is most popular now is interesting to me. The prices for unopened product might give some insight there. The Topps wax, rack, and cello all is valued significantly more than the Donruss or Fleer wax (the only option from those manufacturers in 1981.) Wax right now is easily $750. Cello about the same. Rack anywhere from $750-1000. You can get a Donruss FASC (from a sealed case) wax box for $275, non-FASC for less. Fleer is similarly priced. So just from that perspective, the winner is clearly Topps.
kevin

[Brent G.]

That is one putrid year for baseball cards. You can cut Fleer and Donruss some slack as new companies, but Topps was gross as well. I don't think Fleer had a good looking set until '85, and its '82 might be the cheapest looking effort in history. Donruss got better quite quickly — their '84-'86 were really nice.

[Eric72]

In my little corner of the world (Southeastern PA) back in '81, Topps was king. They held that title until 1984; at that point, Donruss became the clear favorite. Donruss held the top spot until 1987, at which point Fleer was the set to get.

After '87, more and more sets were produced. Here are the favorites, at time of release, as I remember them:

1988 - Score
1989 - Upper Deck
1990 - Topps
1991 - Topps
1992 - Ultra
1993 - Finest
1994 - Pinnacle
1995 - Millionaires vs. Billionaires...who gives a s*** about baseball cards

[Rich Klein]

I agree with the Donruss gum as my favorite of the three 1981 gums

I thought the Fleer set, errors and all, were the best designed and produced set of the 3 majors with mostly crisp photography and easy to read backs.

But long term, it appears Topps has won the battle for 1981 supremecy

Rich

[tulsaboy]

Did Keith Olberman take some of the photos for the Fleer set? Something in my memory says that he got paid to take photos for one of the sets, Fleer or Donruss. It might be a brain fart, though. (That's increasingly happening!)
If so, it's a neat aside for a really significant moment in baseball card history.
kevin

[Kevin]

Summer of 81, I turned 8 on May 25. The Isles had just won their 2nd Cup. I was at Game 5 vs Minnesota. Life was great. My dad was a sales rep on Long Island. German pharmaceutical company. He called on doctors but also pharmacies. He had a pharmacist in Bellmore he did business with. His name was Si. One day, dad brought home all these boxes of Fleer and Donruss. I opened them up, but decided I was going to save one vendor box each. For the future. Maybe I'd be rich.

I think the future was a rainy day within a year of the day my dad brought those babies home. I should see if I can complete a set when I retire. There were more than enough cards...

[nolemmings]

I was a huge fan of the Fleer set, mostly for its innovations. I always kept my cards sorted by team, so having them numerically sequenced by team was incredibly helpful, and it was a nice added touch to have them basically in order of finish from the 1980 season. Also and importantly, the stock was clean and easy to read-- not that usual boring Topps gray.

Donruss was less available but I despised it anyway. The stock was too thin and the cards were often damaged. It wasn't just dinged corners but many had little edge notches and some packs had cards creased or wrinkled-- the inner cards not just the top or bottom. And forget collation. Oftentimes you got multiples of the same guy in one pack, and a box was brutally full of dupes. Contrast that to Fleer-- once in either 1986 or '87 I started the season by buying a box of Fleer that had 540 different cards with zero dupes. Oh, and the players of color often looked almost ruby red in their face tones--a problem Donruss would have at some level for years. The only redeeming quality of Donruss was the gum.

Topps was meh, same old same old, albeit slightly better than the ugly 1980s that came before and the even uglier 1982's that followed.

[nolemmings]

I was a huge fan of the Fleer set, mostly for its innovations. I always kept my cards sorted by team, so having them numerically sequenced by team was incredibly helpful, and it was a nice added touch to have them basically in order of finish from the 1980 season. Also and importantly, the stock was clean and easy to read on white-- not that usual boring Topps gray.

Donruss was less available but I despised it anyway. The stock was too thin and the cards were often damaged. It wasn't just dinged corners but many had little edge notches and some packs had cards creased or wrinkled-- the inner cards not just the top or bottom. And forget collation. Oftentimes you got multiples of the same guy in one pack, and a box was brutally full of dupes. Contrast that to Fleer-- once in either 1986 or '87 I started the season by buying a box of Fleer that had 540 different cards with zero dupes. Oh, and the players of color often looked almost ruby red in their face tones--a problem Donruss would have at some level for years. The only redeeming quality of Donruss was the gum.

Topps was meh, same old same old, albeit slightly better than the ugly 1980s that came before and the even uglier 1982's that followed.

[lampertb]

I think by '84 that Donruss was king. '87 Topps took back the crown though. My 2 cents.

Originally Posted by Brent G.

That is one putrid year for baseball cards. You can cut Fleer and Donruss some slack as new companies, but Topps was gross as well. I don't think Fleer had a good looking set until '85, and its '82 might be the cheapest looking effort in history. Donruss got better quite quickly — their '84-'86 were really nice.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by lampertb

I think by '84 that Donruss was king. '87 Topps took back the crown though. My 2 cents.

Agreed, Richard -- there might've been more of those produced than pennies currently in circulation, but they sure took the hobby by storm that year. The wood was great and so was the return of the All-Star Rookie gold cup.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

That is one putrid year for baseball cards. You can cut Fleer and Donruss some slack as new companies, but Topps was gross as well. I don't think Fleer had a good looking set until '85, and its '82 might be the cheapest looking effort in history. Donruss got better quite quickly — their '84-'86 were really nice.

I’d say 1984 Fleer was a nice set and clearly a big step forward. 1983 was just so, so gray. And yeah, the less said about 1982 the better.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by tulsaboy

Did Keith Olberman take some of the photos for the Fleer set? Something in my memory says that he got paid to take photos for one of the sets, Fleer or Donruss. It might be a brain fart, though. (That's increasingly happening!)
If so, it's a neat aside for a really significant moment in baseball card history.
kevin

Olberman was Donruss.

[Troy Kirk]

You could find all three sets in San Diego that year. It seemed like Fleer was mainly at 7-11 stores, they seemed to all have those cards. Topps was at the usual places, Donruss was a little harder to find, but they were around.

It was easy to complete the Fleer set, two boxes would usually do it as there were no duplicates in a box. Topps was pretty easy to complete also, though took a bit more packs. Donruss was almost impossible to complete from packs, crazy collation.

Of the three, I liked Donruss the best for all the colors and fun cards like Yogi Berra and extra cards of some of the stars like Pete Rose. I also liked the challenge of trying to get a complete set, as there was no real challenge with the others.

When all the variations in Fleer and Donruss became known, there was a frenzy to get all of those at the time. A friend told me there were Fleer Nettles cards at a particular 7-11 near him, so I drove over there and bought 3 boxes, got 3 or 4 Nettles I think along with other variations.

It was a fun year for cards, for the first time in my life there were others besides Topps, nice to get some different perspectives on baseball cards other than the usual Topps.

[GasHouseGang]

Back in the day, I pooled my money with another collector and we bought a bunch of error boxes of 1981 Fleer. I don't think I ever saw many of the Fleer cards locally, but we could get Topps cards locally, and the other sets through SCD, but I really liked the Fleer the best. We thought we were going to get rich on the error cards, but that didn't really work out.

[tulsaboy]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Olberman was Donruss.

Thanks! So I was right on the year, wrong on the company. I'm gonna claim 50% correct, and head for the house.
Thanks for the correction.
kevin

[JustinD]

I remember my small town convenience store “the quik stop” had no topps I can remember that year. I could only get fleer and donruss cards in my little farm town, I had to go into the city to toys r us for Topps.

The distributor must have gave them a good deal as I remember them having all the fleer and donruss non sports and fleer candies as well. Topps worked its way back into the store a year or two later.

[Zach Wheat]

Topps was always king for me.

[UKCardGuy]

All me and my friends could talk in Dallas in 1981 was the error cards. I remember buying a lot of 1981 Fleer packs to get the Graig/Craig Nettles error card.

I think that the 81 Fleer is the best looking cards that year. I really liked the look of the Donruss too but their cardstock was just sooooo thin.

[mortimer brewster]

The only good thing about Donruss was the gum. I remember walking into the corner store and buying a full 36 pack box. Collation was terrible. All the cards were Yankees, Royals or Tigers. In all I had 25 John Wathan cards from that one box.

In my opinion, all 3 card designs were Meh.

[Steve D]

I grew up about 20 miles east of San Diego, and remember buying all three companies' cards at the local Price Club (it was later bought out by Costco). I vividly recall going into the Price Club and seeing literally shrinkwrapped pallets of all three waxboxes there.

My favorite was Fleer because of all the variations, the fact that the photos were so clear...Rod Carew!! (and so many were portraits), the great collation, and the numbering of the cards by team. Donruss was my least favorite, due to the lousy collation (multiples of the same card in a pack), and bad quality (thin stock, off-centering, damage). 648 cards in a Donruss box (and 600 cards in the set), and after two boxes, you'd still be missing over half the set.

I put together multiple (8-10) Fleer sets just from wax packs. With both Donruss and Topps, I had to take my wantlist and buy/trade the cards at the local monthly card show. I think I only completed one Donruss set, and two or three Topps sets.

Steve

[Harliduck]

Thirty miles north of Seattle and the two c-stores where I was used to buying my cards only carried Donruss. As an 11 year old, I was ticked. I bought a few boxes and remember all the doubles in the same pack, and I also remember there were multiple cards of the stars, like Pete Rose and Reggie, and for some reason I hated that.

Made my mom look elsewhere for Topps and she found some and bought me enough packs until I completed the set. Topps was still king. I couldn't find Fleer anywhere and had heard about all the errors. I remember buying the complete set at the card shop in 82 and bummed that I didn't get one error.

Those two c-stores sold 81 Donruss for like two more years to get rid of all that wax no kids wanted. I reluctantly bought enough to put a set together. I think the stores were scorned as I could never find Donruss again locally for years, had to get complete sets at the shop in Edmonds each year (great Christmas presents). 82 and after Fleer and Topps were everywhere...