1989 Donruss Baseball (36-pack Box)

The 1989 Donruss baseball design consists of a distinctive black border with an alternating coating and a lighter photo than the previous year. On the card fronts the horizontal lines on the left and right borders can be glossy or non-glossy. Since both of these variation types are relatively minor and seem equally common, there is no premium value for either type. 1989 Donruss Baseball has a couple of insert sets. MVP cards return with one top player from each franchise. The cards were primarily issued in 15-card wax packs, rack packs and hobby and retail factory sets. Each wax pack also contained a puzzle panel featuring Warren Spahn. Each wax pack has a card with three pieces on it. Sixty-three pieces make the full painted portrait. The wax packs were issued 36 packs to a box and 20 boxes to a case. Subsets include Diamond Kings (1-27) and Rated Rookies (28-47). There are two variations that occur throughout most of the set. On the card backs "Denotes Led League" can be found with one asterisk to the left or with an asterisk on each side. Rather than short-printing 26 cards in order to make room for printing the Bonus MVP's this year, Donruss apparently chose to double print 106 cards. These double prints are listed below by DP. Rookie Cards in this set include Sandy Alomar Jr., Brady Anderson, Dante Bichette, Craig Biggio, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Gary Sheffield and John Smoltz. This is probably the strongest crop of Rated Rookies ever in a Donruss set. Similar to the 1988 Donruss set, a special card was issued on blister packs and features the card number as a "Bonus Card." A completed set would consist of 660 cards.