The 1988 Donruss baseball card set was one of the most popular and beloved issues of the late 1980s. As with any large scale production of collectibles, a few errors did slip through that have intrigued and delighted card collectors for decades since. Let’s take an in-depth look at some of the more notable errors found in 1988 Donruss baseball cards.
One of the biggest errors came in the form of Darryl Strawberry’s photo being replaced by that of Eric Davis on card #219. Strawberry was one of the biggest stars in baseball at the time, playing for the New York Mets, so this mix-up caused quite a stir. Only a small number of these Strawberry/Davis swapped cards are known to exist today, making it one of the most coveted errors from the 1988 set.
Another wrong photo error saw Mitch Webster’s image replaced with that of fellow Texas Ranger Ruben Sierra on card #526. This error is far more common than the Strawberry/Davis swap, but is still a fun and easily recognizable mistake. Baseball card historians believe the Webster and Sierra negative strips were accidentally switched at the printing plant.
Speaking of the Rangers, the team name was misspelled as “Rangers” on Jeff Honeywell’s card #527 instead of the proper “Ranger”. This minor typo is a consistently found error in the set. Card #99 featuring San Diego Padres pitcher Eric Show also has the team spelled incorrectly as “Padders” rather than “Padres”.
Moving beyond photos and text, some 1988 Donruss cards had mistakes with positioning of important information. Perhaps the most noticeable is Craig Worthington’s #238 card, where his batting average is curiously placed on the right side of the card instead of its usual spot on the left by his other career stats. Some speculate this was caused by use of the wrong card layout template during production.
Another card that saw out of place info is #308 featuring Chicago White Sox hurler Bobby Thigpen. His career pitching stats are positioned above his name and photo instead of below as was standard. The oddly positioned stats make for an eye-catching variance from the other primarily designed cards in the set.
In terms of statistical errors, #194 featuring Minnesota Twins pitcher Les Straker has an incorrect wins total listed as “2” when Straker’s actual career major league wins stood at 1. Card #405 for Boston Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice provides another off stats example, citing a career .302 batting average when Rice’s real career mark was .298. Information provided to Donruss for printing may have contained errors in these cases.
Moving beyond just photos and text, some cards had dimensional defects as well. For example, the iconic Nolan Ryan Express card #1 is known to exist in properly cut and centered versions as well as off-center copies where the image is noticeably higher or lower than others in the set. The stiff cardboard stock used for 1988 Donruss also sometimes resulted in waves or creases marring an otherwise perfect card, like #532 featuring Blue Jays pitcher Jim Acker.
Similarly, the thickness of some cardboard stock sheets led to “double print” errors, where the same image was unintentionally printed twice side by side on a card, such as known copies of Chris Brown’s #253. The extra wide stock simply wasn’t trimmed properly. And in at least a handful of cases like #601 featuring San Francisco Giants outfielder Candy Maldonado, the card stock was printed on the white backing side instead of the regular player design front.
Moving beyond specific player cards are errors found in the unique “Traded” subset included with 1988 Donruss. Here, the intended players swapped teams are sometimes incorrectly identified, such as #T91 mislabeling Terry Francona as going from Montreal to Cincinnati when his actual traded happened with the Red Sox. Other Traded cards like #T27 simply have the wrong seasons specified for a given player move.
Last but not least, the massive size and production scale of 1988 Donruss led to a number of short printed player cards accidentally left out of series one. Most notable is Oakland A’s pitcher Jay Howell, whose #479 base card is extremely scarce having likely very limited production. Cincinnati’s Norman Charlton on #230 also appears to have been short printed, making complete sets with their cards very difficult to assemble.
While not all are mistakes per se, 1988 Donruss is also famous for oddities like the “teased” photo of Baltimore Oriole Larry Sheets on #287 where half his face is cropped and silhouette uniforms on Kansas City Royal cards #297-299 giving them a one-of-a-kind deco look. Such quirks have become part of the appeal and intrigue of the set nearly 35 years since its release.
Whether subtle stat glitches, wrong photos, miscut cardboard, short prints or unusual design choices, the 1988 Donruss set exhibits many of the “errors” that make error cards so endlessly fascinating to collect. Even a generally well produced mass market issue had inconsistencies that seem more noticeable and beloved today than any of the pristine near-perfect examples. For scholars of oddball and wacky variants in the vast world of sports cards, 1988 Donruss will doubtless remain a goldmine for study and discovery for years to come.
