Night Owl Cards

  Going back to Donruss' baseball beginnings, I always ranked them near the bottom as far as card brands. Though I like specific sets (1984) and others give off nostalgia vibes (1981, 1982, 1985), Donruss had the knack for creating some of my least favorites ever (1986, 1991, 1992).   But Donruss did one thing better than any other baseball card company and it did it for 14 years straight. Can you tell what it is from the picture?   Here is another hint:   That thing is not on this card.   This is where it ended, with 1995 Donruss, though it could have easily continued the tradition even if it had to foil it up.   Donruss would not do what it did best for the next couple of years and then disappeared.     The back of the 1995 Donruss card also shows what collectors had to deal with from that point forward, especially in the late '90s -- trying to figure out when the set was issued (oops, I just gave you the answer). In this case, the stats are nic...

  Who am I kidding here? I can't evaluate the card year in 1995! There were 33 major releases in 1995. There were two sets with rounded corners! Two! Apparently card companies didn't hear that the World Series was canceled the year prior. But I did. I bought three packs of Topps in 1995. And then I exited, closed the door and didn't return to the hobby for a decade. My enthusiasm for this year in card collecting is very low. But it's not as low as for 1996 (foreshadowing). I'm incapable of an exhaustive breakdown of most of the sets from '95. I refuse to cover all 33. There were some suggestions to break it down in various ways, maybe cover the basic sets, and then a separate post for the premium sets and super premium ones. Yuck. I don't even like referring to sets as "premium" and "super premium." So this is the problem. I want to evaluate a year by old-collecting means that doesn't fit into those standards. In 1994, I tried to take...