Let's talk about 1991 Donruss!
Mediocre. Lackluster. Predictable. That's what some collectors said about Donruss' first two series release. It has been said that the production run was at its highest with the brand in '91, allegedly having printed 3,000,000 of each base card.
To make matters worse, the set was pretty much a barren wasteland. But to me, they were spectacular.
You would find this 10 year old boy in the back of mom and dad's car at a Christmas tree farm Christmas time of 1990, excited beyond belief, for he had with him, a few unopened packs of '91 Donruss, not even knowing what they looked like. 1990 had bright red borders. What would they be like this time? Who would the puzzle be of? Could I pull a hot rookie? Better yet ... a Jose Canseco?
I eagerly ripped into the packs, and enjoyed the stark contrast to the 90s - deep blue borders with period-appropriate Saved by the Bell style accents. Not bad. Not bad at all!
As luck would have it, I'd pull a Jose Canseco card! But this was different from the others. It had a star, and an American league logo. An All-Star card? Okay, cool. But man, what about the main card? I'd have to wait about a half year until Donruss dropped the green bordered series 2 boxes. Bummer, his flagship card sure would have looked cool in blue. Oh well, no biggie!
If there is one thing you probably know about '91 Donruss, it is that there are in fact some gems to be found - the 1991 Donruss Elite series cards. These are the first machine stamped serial numbered cards, and Jose Canseco is in the set. And guess what? I didn't even know about them. Curiously enough, they don't even advertise them on their boxes!
Now let me step back a sec - I *may* have known about them as a kid, but like Jose's Rated Rookie card, it was simply far too great for me to even begin to dream about pulling. Whenever I opened a box (or packs) of 1991 Donruss, there was never an inkling of thought that crossed my mind that I may be holding an Elite. Seriously, it was much too big of a card for me to even imagine.
The Elite series set that Jose is in is serial numbered to 10,000 copies. That print run is gigantic compared to various inserts and parallels nowadays, but all is not as it seems.
In spite of the print run for each Elite card being able to completely fill two monster boxes, they are quite valuable, and nearly impossible to pull.
It is estimated that Elite card fell one every 75 boxes. Let's break it down even further, because this is where it gets fun. This means that one would have to open 2,700 packs to find an Elite card. To drill down further, if you wanted a specific player, it could potentially take you 21,600 packs. If you were to go hunting to pull a specific player in the 1991 Donruss Elite set and opened a pack a day, it might take you nearly 60 years!
And honestly, probably a lot longer than that.
The internet is rife with early 90s anecdotal stories of how dealers and collectors alike would sniff out boxes & cases with a high probability of holding one of these gems. If a warehouse held 50 cases of '91 Donruss, meaning you have a good shot of there being about 13 or so Elites in them. Now, get some dealers in there to poke around, and after rummaging around a bit, you may be left with 49 cases worth of cards with little to no chance at pulling an Elite!
Given the fact that 1991 Donruss Elite cards are seen as the beginning of the insert craze, they hold a very important place in the hobby. But guess what? They may not even be the rarest 91 Donruss cards.
Enter: 1991 Donruss Preview
The Preview set consisted of 12 cards, and were sent out to dealers as samples. No production numbers are known, but they are significantly rarer than their mainline counterparts. Here is a bit of a comparison of a PSA POP report for regular donruss, elite, and donruss previews:
TOTAL # of PSA GRADED 1991 DONRUSS CARDS (Jose Canseco)
Donruss All Star: 118
Donruss Regular: 71
Donruss Elite: 189
Donruss Preview: 10
It is understandable that the base cards and Elites would have similar (or in this case the same) numbers - surely more people would want their Elite cards graded instead of a base card, but look a the Previews. Just 10 graded. They are probably the best kept secrets of 1991 Donruss, and you couldn't even pull them from packs.
The funny thing is, I didn't even know about them until I came back to the hobby - and - it probably took 10 years more to come to the realization that my desire as a child in having a 91 Donruss blue bordered flagship Canseco as a child was fulfilled, thanks to the Donruss Preview (although a completely different picture was used.)
Would I recommend busting a box of '91 Donruss? Sure! You will likely not pull anything big, but given the nostalgia I feel with them, opening some packs could transport me to that magical time as a 10 year old in the back of mom & dad's car at the Christmas tree farm in 1990.
