1986 Donruss
Contents
Description
1986 Donruss set consists of 660 cards. The card fronts feature thinly striped blue and black borders, around a parallelogram-shaped photo; a standard team logo, player name & position, and a Donruss logo. For the fifth year in a row, the first 26 cards of the set are Diamond Kings; the artwork was again produced by the Perez-Steele Galleries. Cards 27-46 make up the Rated Rookies. There are seven checklists which are numbered 1-6 with an unnumbered Diamond King checklist.
Rookie Cards in this set include Jose Canseco, Darren Daulton, Len Dykstra, Cecil Fielder, Andres Galarraga, Fred McGriff and Paul O'Neill.
1986 Donruss also features the only true rookie card of future Oakland A's General Manager Billy "Moneyball" Beane.
Jose Canseco's card was one of the hottest rookie cards of the late-80s, and at one time was selling for as much as $100 right out of the pack. Needless to say, this card has been heavily counterfeited.
Distribution
Wax: 36 packs per box; 15 cards plus one Hank Aaron puzzle panel per pack; 20 boxes per case.
Rack: 45 cards plus three Hank Aaron puzzle panels per pack; 72 packs per case. Advertised as "Value Pack".
Factory Sets: 15 sets per case.
Reviews
Insertion Ratios
| Cards | Total Cards | Numbered To | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 660 | - | ? |
Checklist
Base Set
Parallels
Super Diamond Kings
This 29-card set parallels the Diamond Kings subset and was available exclusively from Perez-Steele Galleries through a wrapper redemption offer. Collector's could obtain the set for $9 and three 1986 Donruss wrappers. Each card measures 4 7/8" by 6 13/16". In addition to the 26 Diamond Kings, the set also includes the Hank Aaron Puzzle card (#602), the Pete Rose "King of Kings" card (#653), and the unnumbered Diamond King checklist. The Super Diamond Kings are tough to find as singles, and have became a favorite of 1980s autograph collectors.
Inserts
Hank Aaron Puzzle
In order to get around the MLB licensing requirement that all baseball cards be tied with "something," Donruss created a 63-piece jigsaw puzzle of Hank Aaron. Each wax pack contained one, three-piece, panel; and factory sets had the full set of 21 panels.
Box Bottoms
This four-card set was printed on the underside of each waxbox. The four cards (sequentially-numbered #PC4-PC6 plus an unnumbered a Hank Aaron puzzle card) are considered a separate set in their own right and are not typically included in a complete set of the regular issue 1986 Donruss cards. The three cards are sequentially-numbered as a continuation of the previous year's Box Bottom set. The value of the panel uncut is slightly greater, perhaps by 25 percent greater, than the value of the individual cards cut up carefully.
- PC4 Kirk Gibson
- PC5 Willie Hernandez
- PC6 Doug DeCinces
- PUZ Hank Aaron (Puzzle Card)
- PC4 Kirk Gibson
- PC5 Willie Hernandez
- PC6 Doug DeCinces
- NNO Hank Aaron PUZ
