The 1987 Donruss baseball card set is widely considered one of the most iconic issues in the modern era of the sports card industry. Featuring artwork by renowned illustrator Dick Perez and marking Donruss’ return to the baseball card market after a brief hiatus, the ’87 Donruss set helped kick off a baseball card boom that lasted throughout much of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

With 762 total cards and featuring every major league player, the 1987 Donruss set had widespread appeal among collectors both young and old. What made these cards especially enticing was the photorealistic style used by Perez, who sought to depict each player as accurately as possible through careful pen-and-ink renderings. This realistic approach helped the players truly jump off the card in a way that hadn’t really been seen before.

At the time of its release in 1987, Donruss distribution methods were still somewhat limited. Unlike giants like Topps who had national deals, Donruss cards could mainly be found in local hobby shops, drug stores, and card shows. This gave the brand a bit of an underground, exclusive appeal. Savvy collectors quickly realized these cards would become highly sought after in the future.

A major development for the collectibles industry occurred in the late 1980s with the rise of third-party authentication and grading services like PSA. Founded in 1991, PSA would help transform the hobby by instituting standardized grading scales and slabbing cards to deter tampering. Many view 1988-1992 as the peak years for the PSA-labeled boom.

While PSA became the dominant force, other companies like SGC also emerged to meet rising authentication demand. This new focus on grading fostered intense competition to land high-grade vintage and pre-war tobacco cards, as a PSA-labeled gem mint was sure to shatter auction records. Naturally, modern star rookies also took off as speculative frenzies formed around graded examples.

The 1987 Donruss set was perfectly positioned to cash in on this authentication boom. With its realistic artwork and widespread distribution from the prior year, these cards were a natural target for collectors to submit for grading. In the early PSA population reports, ’87 Donruss issues consistently ranked among the most frequently seen submissions of the modern era.

Graded examples of star rookies like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Bobby Bonilla rocketed to amazing prices as speculation soared. Bonds rookies in particular emerged as some of the most coveted and valuable modern sports cards. Meanwhile, near-pristine examples of set mainstays like Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs, and Kirby Puckett achieved previously unthinkable values.

Beyond the rookie class, the 1987 Donruss set is also renowned for capturing some iconic players and moments. Cards of Ozzie Smith backflipping, Eric Davis robbing a home run, and Nolan Ryan’s expressive windup started gaining icon status within the collecting community. High-grade versions of these artistic renderings became impossible to pry away once slabbed and labeled.

While the card bubble would burst in the mid-1990s, interest in 1987 Donruss issues has remained remarkably strong. These iconic cards helped usher in the modern era of sports card collecting and investing. They also captured the sport at the peak of 1980s excitement, when superstar sluggers like McGwire and Canseco were just emerging.

To this day, new discoveries of pristine 1987 Donruss star rookies or insert variants in attics and basements can still make headlines. An example is the recent unearthing of a PSA 10 Barry Bonds rookie, which sold at auction in 2022 for over $360,000. Such occurrences underscore how this seminal set continues capturing imaginations decades later.

The rise of grading and the growth of population databases fueled non-stop speculation. But the 1987 Donruss set persevered due to its combination of iconic imagery, historic subject matter, and the artistic achievements of Dick Perez. These factors coalesced to create one of the true “apex” sets that defined the modern sports card boom era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their impact is still being felt generations later.