Topps v. Donruss

If you grew up as a male in the '70s and '80s (and even the early '90s), you undoubtedly collected baseball cards at some point. As we began to collect baseball cards, our fathers began to tell us their horror stories that they had pent up for the previous 10-20 years. Every middle-aged man tells a similar tale. When our fathers went to college, our grandmothers bestowed upon the boy next door all of our fathers' baseball cards, which undoubtedly included at least one Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays rookie card in mint condition. The windfall for this boy, we were told, was probably worth thousands of dollars now (if not tens of thousands). Presumably, that boy's mother then did the same thing when he went to college, assuming he even needed to go to college, given the reserves he was sitting on.

As a result, we were told to hoard our baseball cards. And hoard we did. I remember specifically telling my mom not to touch any of my baseball (and football, basketball, and hockey) cards when I went to college. They still reside in the same corner of my old closet. Of course, this hoarding helped to dry up the baseball card market.

But I digress. The two biggest baseball card companies were Topps and Donruss. The main way to tell if a player was either going to be awesome or a total bust was if his rookie card bestowed by Topps with the All-Star Rookie stamp or by Donruss with the Rated Rookie stamp. Because of these designations, the likes of Andy Benes, Ben McDonald, and Delino DeShields will live forever in infamy in the minds of now-thirtysomething men because, in our wistful youth, we undoubtedly traded far more valuable cards for their cards based on a single little stamp arrogantly placed on a piece of cardboard. "What's the goddamn point, GMYH?" I'm getting there.

Have you ever wondered whether the Topps All-Star Rookies had better careers than the Donruss Rated Rookies? "Every goddamn day, GMYH." Me too. Thankfully, someone else has performed the analysis. As you can see, Topps came out on – wait for it – top(p). It's an interesting and welcome comparison. Thanks to The Weez for the link.