Scratchin' That Itch - Five Packs of '89 Donruss

Though most of my hobby purchases in recent years have been hand-picked single cards, I still can't completely resist the allure of the unopened pack.  So, when I heard recently about the 50-for-$20 repacks offered online by Wal-Mart, I grabbed two of them.  100 packs for $40 seemed like a good way to restock my pack stash without breaking the bank.

I won't likely post the contents of that many packs here on the blog, but for starters I grabbed five 1989 Donruss packs to rip.  I'll admit that I grabbed these first to "get them out out of the way", but they actually ended up being more entertaining than I'd figured they would be.

I'm not going to show every common here, just some miscellaneous highlights from across the five packs, like this Ryno.

Crime Dog rockin' the powder blue Toronto uniform.

Skinny Barry!  I've really turned over a new leaf collecting-wise when it comes to Bonds.  Years ago I read Game of Shadows cover to cover and got on my soap box about what a jerk this guy was, and how he ruined the game.  While I still think Hank Aaron is the true home run king, Barry doesn't really bother me anymore, and I even kind of enjoy pulling his cards a bit.

Ozzie Smith was always one of my favorite players to pull back in the day.  As a kid I was enamored by his acrobatic defensive skills.

Here's a card that would have been pretty hot back in '89.  I've already got the McGwire from this set, and this completes my Bash Brothers duo.  Side note, if you have a Netflix subscription there is now a 30-minute rap musical by Andy Samberg about Canseco/McGwire.  It looks so random and hilarious; can't wait to check it out.  Anyone seen it already?

Expos HOF content.

Another one of those stars who was a king of the '80s.  Great cropping of the photograph here.

By contrast, a fairly terrible photograph on Wade Boggs' card.  Still, I'll never turn down a new Wade Boggs, provided he's wearing the proper laundry, as he is here.

This Robin Yount is the best of the two Diamond Kings subset cards I pulled.  Yount has now appeared on the blog for consecutive days.

It's amazing just how many HOFers five packs of cards yielded.

I didn't pull a Griffey Jr Rated Rookie, but I did get a Sheffield!

It looks a bit strange that the Cubs patch on Goose's jersey here is an exact match for the logo in the upper right.  Not that surprising I suppose, but just looks odd.

Oh yeah, I didn't just pull the Canseco base card, but also landed his MVP Bonus Card insert.

Here's my other Diamond King, Big Cat!

Eddie Murray sporting a very orange Orioles jersey, complete with matching wristbands.

'90s hero Joe Carter, from his Cleveland Indians days.

Another pretty solid rookie in Sandy Alomar Jr., who played just a single game in 1988 and won National League Rookie of the Year in 1990.  Sandy had half a dozen All-Star appearances over a 20-year career.  Maybe not good enough for Cooperstown, but certainly good enough to get me to hang onto his rookie card.

We'll close it out for tonight with one of my favorite current color commentators, Dennis Eckersley.  Man those were some powerhouse teams the A's had around the turn of the decade.

Ended up with 18 keeper cards across those five packs, not too shabby at all!  If this is a sign for how my 100 packs are going to go overall, I'll have no problem getting my $40 of value out of this purchase.  I'll have some more packs from this purchase in future posts, thanks for stopping by!