Ranking Topps Baseball Card Designs (1980-1989)

by Paul Semendinger

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As we wait for the season to begin, I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the old Topps baseball card sets and rank the designs.

Here are the 1980s designs year-by-year:

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

Now comes the difficult part, ranking the designs. Some thoughts...

The 1980s is what I picture when I hear the word "junk wax." These cards were printed in abundance. As the decasde went on, the designs and the quality of the cards seemed to diminish.

I also grew-up in this time, graduating from high school, going to college, falling in love... all that good stuff. Baseball cards stopped being part of my life, except for two years, 1987 and 1988 when my college roommate and I would buy packs at the Woolworth's in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to relive the youth we thought we were far away from...

1980 - I like this set. This was the first set that my parents purchased for me as a complete set. I was thilled to have the complete set, but in retrospect, it took a lot of the fun out of collecting.

1981 - A poor design.

1982 - Another poor design.

1983 - One of my favorite sets in any decade

1984 - A cheap and less impressive imitation of the 1983 set.

1985 - Nothing special

1986 - I like what they were trying to do here. It didn't work especially well though.

1987 - I think this was an attempt to look more "old-fashioned." It sort of worked.

1988 - It seems like the designers were simply out of ideas.

1989 - Not bad, not great, but not bad.

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MY RANKINGS:

1. 1983

2. 1980

3. 1989

4. 1987

5. 1988

6. 1986

7. 1985

8. 1984

9. 1982

10. 1981

How do you rank these designs?