Sets I considered but won't be buying, mostly from the '80s.

I've said that I'm winding down my card purchases.  I've enjoyed adding to my original collection over the past year, but I've discovered that I don't care much for modern cards, and while I enjoy older cards, I have just about enough at this point.  I've been closing out this phase of my collection by buying some small 80s sets, and in this post I'm featuring some sets I have definitely decided against pursuing.  So, here we go, with sets I won't pursue:

• More odd Donruss sets.  I posted before that I never knew exactly what some of my Donruss cards were, and it turns out they were 1988 and 1989 Baseball's Best.  I followed up on that revelation by purchasing the 1990 Donruss Best of the National League set, which (in my mind) in my collection serves in a way to commemorate those early 1990s Pirates NL East winners.  One of the pictured Tony Pena cards is from the 1987 Donruss Opening Day set; I bought the Pena for my small player collection of him.  I've ruled out buying those three sets, 1987 Opening Day, 1988 Baseball's Best, and 1989 Baseball's Best.  I have a few of the small Donruss sets, like Rookies, Traded, and Highlights, and have decided not to get any more of those as well.



1987 Donruss Opening Day and 1989 Topps K-Mart Dream Team Tony Pena cards.

• More K-Mart sets.  I have the 1982 K-Mart 20th Anniversary set of league MVPs, the 1987 K-Mart 25th Anniversary set of stars of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and also the 1988 K-Mart Memorable Moments set.  It could be kind of natural for me to add the 1989 K-Mart Dream Team and the 1990 K-Mart Superstars.  I decided to just add a few of these to my player collections, such as the Tony Pena Dream Team, and the Rickey Henderson Super Star.



1989 Sportflics and 1990 Topps K-Mart Super Stars Rickey Henderson.

• More Sportflics.  I have the 1988 Sportflics complete set, I have a bunch of 1990 Sportflics, and I have a small number of their cards from '86 and '87.  I was surprised to learn that I didn't originally have any 1989 Sportflics in my collection.  Small oversight, I guess.  So I bought a few for my player collections, and I think that's enough for me; see the Rickey Henderson card above.  I considered getting a complete set of some of those other years, or the smaller sets like the Sportflics Rookies or Sportflics Team Previews, but for something of a novelty, I think I have enough already.  
• Our Own Tea discs.  I posted the three I have from the 1987 set.  I considered getting more, or the whole set, of both the 1987s and the follow-up, the 1988 set.  At the time I had no idea what Our Own Tea was.  Thanks to the internet, I've finally been able to sort out that it was the store brand of tea at A&P supermarkets.  We had an A&P in Newark, DE when I was little.  It changed to one of their other banners, Superfresh, and we also had another of their stores, PathMark, for a long time.  They're all gone now, with A&P just recently having gone out of business.

  Ron Darling on an Our Own Tea disc.

  The back of the Ron Darling Our Own Tea disc.

• Ames and Hills boxed sets.  We had Ames stores in Delaware when I was growing up, until they went out of business in 2002.  We didn't have Hills, and I haven't ever been in a Hills store.  I did see one from the outside, though, since I went to college in Pittsburgh and they had Hills there.  Ames had a 1989 Topps boxed set (20/20 Club) and a 1990 Topps boxed set (All-Stars).  Hills also had a 1989 Topps boxed set (Team MVPs) and a 1990 Topps boxed set (Hit Men).  I decided to settle for adding a couple of these cards to my player collections, so Ames and Hills are represented in my binders.

  1990 Ames All Stars Dave Parker.

  1990 Hills Hit Men Harold Baines.

• 1987 Kraft Home Plate Heroes.  I posted the two of these from my original collection, Tony Pena and Ozzie Guillen.  I since have also acquired the Mike Schmidt, and that is in the player collections section of my binder.  I considered getting the whole set, but instead I'll leave it at these three.

  

  Tony Pena and Ozzie Guillen Kraft Home Plate Heroes.

• Jiffy Pop discs.  I don't have any of these.  We used Jiffy Pop when I was little, heating it over our gas stove.  I thought that was a real blast.  Jiffy Pop issued disc sets in 1987, 1988, and 1989, it turns out.  I don't have any memory of these from when I was originally collecting, although it's certainly possible that I knew about them.  I bought the Fantastic Sam's disc set recently, and I think that, and the few Our Own Tea discs I already had, will satisfy my need to have any of the 1980s MSA discs.

  

  Mike Schmidt on a Fantastic Sam's disc.

• Topps Major League Debut sets.  I don't recall knowing about these at the time.  There was a set of 1989 debuts in the 1990 design, and a set of 1990 debuts in the 1991 design, as far as I can tell.  I think I like the idea of the sets much more than the actual sets, after looking around at them online.

  1984 Ralston Purina Rickey Henderson.

  1987 Ralston Purina Gary Carter.

  1987 Ralston Purina Nolan Ryan.

• 1984 Topps Ralston Purina.  I bought the 1986 Burger King set, the 1987 M&M's set, the 1988 Chef Boyardee set, the 1984 Milton Bradley set, and the 1987 Fantastic Sam's disc set, so why not get one more?  I do have a couple from the 1987 Ralston Purina set already, and I don't know, I guess I don't like the logo in the corner.  I did pick up the 1984 Rickey Henderson, though, for my player collection.



1986 Fleer minis of Juan Samuel and Mike Schmidt.

• 1986 Fleer, 1978 Topps, and other base sets.  I had mentioned in earlier posts that I might buy a complete set of 1986 Fleer or of 1978 Topps.  I've scaled back, and decided I have enough things like these already.  I did buy a complete 1979 Topps set, fulfilling a childhood dream, and I feel like the 1986 Fleer mini set satisfies my need for 1986 Fleer.  Out of the blue one day decided to pick up a 1981 Topps set, which was available cheap on eBay, and I also got a 1991 Score factory set, which complements my already-owned 1988, 1989, and 1990 Score sets.  I do like the 1978 design, and they are some of the earliest cards I ever saw, but I recently bought the 1978 Topps Zest 5-card set, and the 1978 Topps Burger King Yankees set.  At some point enough is enough, and I don't think I need more base sets.

  

  Some of the key 1979 Topps cards from my complete set.

• 1982 Topps Coca-Cola Reds and 1982 Topps Brighams Coca-Cola Red Sox. I have had for many years the 1981 Topps Coca-Cola Phillies in my collection, as part of my commemoration of the 1980 World Champion Phillies of my youth. I don't necessarily remember ever knowing about any other Coke teams back in the 80s, but in the past year I picked up the Dave Parker of the 1981 Coca-Cola Pirates for my player collection. I considered buying some or all of the 1982 Topps Coca-Cola cards, but I just don't feel any connection to those Reds at all, and while I like a few of the Red Sox players (Eckersley, Rice, and Evans, for example), it's just not enough reason for me to add this set to my collection. I actually did bid on the Red Sox on eBay recently, but I felt relieved when I was outbid, so that tells me that I shouldn't pursue this. Having never heard of Brighams otherwise is another reason to leave this set behind. 

  

  1981 Topps Coca-Cola Phillies Bob Boone, Larry Bowa, and Steve Carlton.

There are of course many more sets from the 80s, but these are the ones I considered buying and rejected.  For all the others, I either own them already, or never seriously considered getting them.  Thanks for reading!

Update: I can think of more, I suppose.  1988 Fleer Mini: I bought the 1986 and 1987 Feer mini sets, but I hardly had any regular 1986 or 1987 Fleer.  I already have a lot of 1988 Fleer, including an unopened wax box.   Fleer tin sets: I guess these were Fleer's version of Topps Tiffany, and they were expensive back in the day.  Not so much anymore, but just not that compelling, although I did consider it.  Star player-centered sets: I never had any cards made by Star originally; I thought about getting some, but settled for a single card (of Dale Murphy and the Phillie Phanatic) so that they're represented in my binder, and it also puts the Phanatic in my binder, for an added plus.