Most important 80s base set?

Based on importance, design, player selection, impact and "hotness"

Hard one for me. I mean, first thought is Donruss/Fleer because that ended the monopoly.

But what about ud?

First ever traditional high end product showed hobby was ready for a premium issue which has completely changed and shaped out hobby.

And this set also has something the above two don't, one of the most iconic cards in griffey.

Ugh, this is difficult. But have to say upper deck.

'89 Bowman, IMO.
Look what that's become.

I'm going to have to say UD as well. Really changed the way cards were done.

carlitoson said:

'89 Bowman, IMO.
Look what that's become.

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I'm with Upper Deck as well. It was a game changer right out of the gate. Bowman took a few years to get off the ground (with Chrome) and I don't remember those first over sized '89 cards being too well received as they were a pain to store and rather ugly

BBCgalaxee said:

Based on importance, design, player selection, impact and "hotness"

Hard one for me. I mean, first thought is Donruss/Fleer because that ended the monopoly.

But what about ud?

First ever traditional high end product showed hobby was ready for a premium issue which has completely changed and shaped out hobby.

And this set also has something the above two don't, one of the most iconic cards in griffey.

Ugh, this is difficult. But have to say upper deck.

Click to expand...

While I'll agree that 89 UD was "Ground Breaking" in concept, I have to lean towards 1985 Topps. In terms of base sets it had (True non XRC) RC's of Clemens, Gooden, Eric Davis, Puckett and McGwire Team USA, all of which were or became HUGE chase cards at one time or another.

The 84 Topps update Gooden RC
and the 84 Topps Mattingly base RC , set off the card craze in NYC when I was still there. So I would call that year a close second, only because the Gooden wasn't in the base set.

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89 UD was / is great, but I have to lean toward 85 Topps, and more so the TIFFANY set.
Better stock paper and priinting with a limited print run, trend-setting.

I'll agree that the '85 Topps was a great set with many rookie stars. But the '87 Fleer and '89 UD changed the game. The '87 Fleer gave you a Cadillac feel when you had cards in hand. They used better paper stock, photo's and the back designs wasn't just plain stats. '88 Fleer seemed to hold up to the '87 Fleer as in quality but they turned up the presses to try and sell as much as they could (Thanks Gregg Jefferies).

The 89' UD was wrapped in tamper resistant foil. You opened the pack, you smelled the freshness of white bleach board paper stock with a clean, crisp photo's on the front/back with an UD hologram logo. No one could fake the UD Hologram logo!. Another plus was the cutting of the cards. It seemed as if all the cards were perfectly cut, centered and no fuzzy corners. The only draw back to the '89 UD was when UD saw that everyone wanted the Griffey Jr RC, they *ahem* secretly printed more and allowed certain dealers to sell them in the market. Too bad the '90, '91 & '92's didnt stack up as well as the '89, they cranked up the presses and way way mass produced them. Then they jacked up the prices and dealers/collectors resisted the higher price increases as $2.00 per pack in 1990 wasnt gonna get it when all the other where still at $0.75.

The '88 Score started the picture on the back trend that is still used today. Sportflics used the 3 pic lenticular motion aspect.

the late 80's was a testing ground for baseball card collectors.

Im going with '89 UD as well.

Fordman

Sportflics and 1988 Score.

Industry game changers before McWilliams ripped off his first partner.

84 Fleer Update.

1984 Donruss

/thread

How has no one mentioned 1984 Donruss? I always loved the photography.

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ThoseBackPages said:

1984 Donruss

/thread

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Overrated.

It's a one card mass produced set.

Aside from the Mattingly RC, what other key card is in the set? The reason I picked 85 Topps was the Star power that set carried from 1985 release with Gooden & Clemens, to the late 90's because of the McGwire Team USA card.

calripkenjr said:

How has no one mentioned 1984 Donruss? I always loved the photography.

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Click to expand...

At First I was going to go with 84 Donruss but other than Mattingly and Joe Carter in a Cubs Jersey not much as far as singles. I have to say 89 Upper Deck.

1989 UD

/thread

jbhofmann said:

84 Fleer Update.

Click to expand...

This.

without 84D, Fleer produces the **** out of 84FU

without 84D, there is no 89UD

we are where we are today with four million dollar packs because of 84D

it doesnt matter whats in it, its what it is.

Can I do three? In order:

1. 87 Topps
2. 84 Donruss
3. 89 Upper Deck

1984 Donruss and 1989 UD should be tied. Both are influential in their own right, although I think UD is more historically important. Donruss was just short printed and a bit higher quality relative to Topps and Fleer. They happened to have the most popular RC of the hottest player at the time. Kinda similar to 1992 Bowman. I don't think Bowman was that historically important (chrome passed it as the "go-to" prospect cards)