As usual, my baseball card collection was mostly neglected during the past spring semester (work always keeps me busy, especially this year since I had to plan a course trip to Europe in addition to my usual duties)! Because of work (and then the group break), I haven't had a chance to do any reorganizing of my collection since January...but luckily for me, that streak ends today!
It's time to take a look at 1985 - a year that I suppose some people consider vintage seeing as how it was over 30 years ago (boy that makes me feel old as a 1982 baby). I, for one, do not consider '85 vintage...for me, vintage is pre-1980...and because of that, cards from 1985 are going to have to earn my respect or else they are destined to end up in my various trade stacks.
Let's see how the year in cards stacks up for 1985.
First up, the main set from 1985: Topps.
The 1985 Topps set isn't my favorite design, but it's also not the worst design. I actually like the design of the front of the cards quite a bit - but the dark green card stock with red lettering was a poor choice for the card backs. No matter, this is the one set from 1985 that I already have completed - so it gets an easy "keep it" rating.
1985 Topps Traded:
The Topps Traded sets never appealed all that much to me, if I'm being honest. I guess the idea was novel at the time but it simply didn't ever inspire me. Luckily (?), I only own a single '95 Traded card (the Browning you see above) so this is an easy choice: skip it.
O-Pee-Chee:
When I was a kid, the O-Pee-Chee cards were sort of like finding a four leaf clover. You heard about them, you knew they existed, but man, finding one in the wild was pretty rare (and kind of cool). Unfortunately, my infatuation with O-Pee-Chee ended long before I gave up eating Lucky Charms for breakfast...so again, this is a "skip it."
Moving on to other brands, let's take a peek at 1985 Fleer first.
The '85 Fleer set isn't terrible,, but that's probably the best praise I can give the set. Based on my relatively small sample size, I would say that the majority of images in the set are boring posed shots...that's fine for one or two photos, but who wants binder page after binder page filled with boring photos like that? Certainly not me - and so, sorry Fleer but I'm skipping you too.
Finally, the only other set from 1985 that I have more than a handful of cards from: Donruss.
This one is easy to decide - black borders are almost always a deal breaker for me...put black borders are terribly cheap card stock and it is a no brainer. No thanks Donruss.
And so that does it for 1985. In the end, I'm only keeping the '85 Topps flagship set - but when you look at the rest of the baseball card offerings from 1985, I think that's the decision that most people would make.
Let's hope my next update to my Great Reorganization project occurs before December...otherwise I'll never get my collection under control!
It's time to take a look at 1985 - a year that I suppose some people consider vintage seeing as how it was over 30 years ago (boy that makes me feel old as a 1982 baby). I, for one, do not consider '85 vintage...for me, vintage is pre-1980...and because of that, cards from 1985 are going to have to earn my respect or else they are destined to end up in my various trade stacks.
Let's see how the year in cards stacks up for 1985.
First up, the main set from 1985: Topps.
The 1985 Topps set isn't my favorite design, but it's also not the worst design. I actually like the design of the front of the cards quite a bit - but the dark green card stock with red lettering was a poor choice for the card backs. No matter, this is the one set from 1985 that I already have completed - so it gets an easy "keep it" rating.
1985 Topps Traded:
The Topps Traded sets never appealed all that much to me, if I'm being honest. I guess the idea was novel at the time but it simply didn't ever inspire me. Luckily (?), I only own a single '95 Traded card (the Browning you see above) so this is an easy choice: skip it.
O-Pee-Chee:
When I was a kid, the O-Pee-Chee cards were sort of like finding a four leaf clover. You heard about them, you knew they existed, but man, finding one in the wild was pretty rare (and kind of cool). Unfortunately, my infatuation with O-Pee-Chee ended long before I gave up eating Lucky Charms for breakfast...so again, this is a "skip it."
Moving on to other brands, let's take a peek at 1985 Fleer first.
The '85 Fleer set isn't terrible,, but that's probably the best praise I can give the set. Based on my relatively small sample size, I would say that the majority of images in the set are boring posed shots...that's fine for one or two photos, but who wants binder page after binder page filled with boring photos like that? Certainly not me - and so, sorry Fleer but I'm skipping you too.
Finally, the only other set from 1985 that I have more than a handful of cards from: Donruss.
This one is easy to decide - black borders are almost always a deal breaker for me...put black borders are terribly cheap card stock and it is a no brainer. No thanks Donruss.
And so that does it for 1985. In the end, I'm only keeping the '85 Topps flagship set - but when you look at the rest of the baseball card offerings from 1985, I think that's the decision that most people would make.
Let's hope my next update to my Great Reorganization project occurs before December...otherwise I'll never get my collection under control!
The '85 Topps design is one of my favorites. Good choice on keeping it.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to call 1985 vintage, because I wouldn't consider it part of the junk wax era. Besides, if it's not junk wax and it isn't vintage, then we need a new classification to bridge the two.
I'm with you. Pre 80's is vintage in my book.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree about Vintage stopping at Pre-1980 with the 70s being sort of a gray area for being vintage since most of my childhood was in the 70s. For me Vintage officially stops at 1979. The years 1980 to about 1985, the not quite vintage and just before the Junk Wax Years, are sort of a "Neo Vintage" era. Then roughly 1985 to about 1998 or 9 I consider the "Junk Wax Years". 1999 or 2000 to present is modern. EEK if you go strictly by vintage being anything over 20 (or 25) years then we are currently at 1997 being considered "vintage". Some people consider anything made before they were born as being vintage. I suppose there is some truth in that. We won't mention the fact that the term "Vintage" technically refers to the year something was made not the antiquity of it.
ReplyDeleteNeo Vintage. Hmmm... I could get behind that.
ReplyDelete