Is this the worst pack of baseball cards I've ever opened? Yes, it is.

I recently got a pack of 1988 Donruss in a Fairfield repackage that I bought at a CVS in town. Over the years, I've probably opened more of this product than another other Donruss issue. It was my first Donruss set and I went a little nuts about these blue-bordered cards at the time when I was nine years old. It wouldn't be until the next year with the first Upper Deck set that I was introduced to the idea of paying $1 for a single pack of cards. Before that, a couple quarters could be me 15 cards plus a puzzle piece at my local Phar-Mor pharmacy.  

The great thing about Donruss sets of this era was that in each pack there was a pretty good chance you would pull at least a Diamond King or a Rated Rookie. As the wrapper even highlighted, the 1988 set featured 26 MVP Bonus Cards, giving you an even better shot at pulling something worthwhile. 

This particular pack turned out to be the worst pack of Donruss cards I've ever opened. Here's the first nine. 



And my next six, plus my puzzle piece. The puzzle piece could have redeemed the pack if it had included the subject's face but instead I got Stan Musial's legs.

You aren't seeing things, I did pull two Ozzie Virgils in the same pack. 


This is the kind of pack that still affects you decades after it was produced. It is a collecting booby trap. It makes me question what the hell am I doing with my money and my time in 2022. 

The only way junk wax is ever going to be valuable is if collectors start recycling it to lower the number available or we get a time machine and start sending back mothers to throw their kids collections away, just as they did in the 1950s. That's where this pack belongs, the dump. 

Comments

night owl said…
Could be worse, it could've been '90 or '91 Donruss.
I agree, that's bad. Lack of All-Stars, HOFers, or fan favorites, really. Tough to do in a 1988 pack!
13 year old version of me would have been excited about pulling that Sam Horn rookie card
Fuji said…
Agree with Pennsylvania Tiger. Most collectors would have been happy with that pull back in 1988.
Matt said…
You pulled two Red Sox cards - that would have been a win for me!
Jason T. Carter said…
For 1988, not terrible though. Guillen, Stillwell, and Knepper were All-Stars that year. Virgil was the year before. Sam Horn was a huge pull even if his career wasn't what anyone expected. And for a Reds fan, pulling two Reds would have made me happy.

No, in 2022 that's a terrible pack. But in '88, it would have been considered decent (at least by me).
Brett Alan said…
Well, um, it's a fun pack for someone named "Ozzie", I guess.

For me as a Met fan, at least there's one Met and one ex-Met. OTOH, there's notorious racist Eric Show.
Jafronius said…
Eric Show was the pitcher to beaned Andre Dawson in the face, leading to the wildest bench clearing brawl I've seen. Didn't know Show was a racist.