For a three year run from 1985-1987, Donruss produced a special Highlights box set to serve as a celebration of a variety of accomplishments from the season which had just concluded. I have created the Definitive Guide to Donruss Highlights box sets for your entertainment and education!
1985 Donruss Highlights
This is the original set which was is high demand.
The 1985 Donruss Highlights set was released in November, and it proved to be very popular. In fact, the product sold out before all the orders could be fulfilled. The 56 card set contained cards of players who won a variety of awards during the season. The most frequent winners were the NL and AL Player and Pitcher of the month. Other cards highlighted a variety of career achievements and the final two cards showed the Donruss predictions for the Rookie of the Year from both leagues. In addition to the cards, the set also included a Lou Gehrig mini puzzle.
The design of the set mirrored the flagship design except the border stripes were yellow/gold instead of red, and the team logo was replaced by a “Highlights” logo in the bottom right corner of the card.
Check out Singles and Complete Sets on eBay if you want to pick up your own!
The checklist can be found on the Trading Card Database.
1986 Donruss Highlights
Highlights gave us one of the first Bo Jackson cards.
Donruss brought back the highlights set again in 1986, and once again it contained 56 cards and had a design which was similar to the flagship release. The borders of the Highlights set were gold instead of blue. One variation exists which seems to be rare. On some cards, the Highlights logo uses white letters instead of gold. Also, like the previous release, the box set came with a mini-puzzle. This time Hank Aaron was the player on the puzzle.
The 1986 set contains quite a few young stars of the day. Will Clark, Wally Joyner, Bo Jackson, and Jose Canseco all have cards in this set.
The remainder of the checklist can be found here on the Trading Card Database.
1987 Donruss Highlights
The blue border of the set really pops compared to the black base set border.
The final version of the Highlights set as a stand alone box set was 1987. Donruss had a formula for these sets and they stuck to it in 1987. Once again, the set contained 56 cards and a mini-puzzle. Like the previous two years, the basic flagship design was used with a color change on the border and a glossy finish to set it apart. For this set, a light blue border replaced the black border of the flagship release. Also, the team logo was replaced with the Highlights logo which was consistent with the first two editions of the set.
The checklist was a mix of veteran stars and some of the younger talent in the league. In my opinion, it doesn’t quite match the 1986 set.
Wrapping It Up
The “Highlights” name and logo would be used on a variety of insert and subset cards in future years, but it would not get stand alone box set treatment outside the 1985-1987 window. These Highlights sets competed with the Update and Traded sets from competitors, and while it didn’t have quite the specific rookie focus of the Topps and Fleer sets, there were still some young prospects included.
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