Opening a First Year Wax Box of 1981 Donruss Baseball Cards! Searching for Hall of Famers & Rookies

[@DJspAce82]

I bought 2 packs of these a couple months ago. Pulled a Danny Ainge BlueJays rookie card. So fun collecting the vintage stuff!!

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Nice! The Ainge rookie is a cool card. Not many people played in NBA and MLB

[@mikegkelly123]

Fun video. Big fan of the oldies

[@johnkelly1198]

I bought crds from my lawsons store. Each pack was full of reds and dodgers. Every pack.

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

I’ve definitely seen boxes of 81 donruss like that. Terrible quality control back then.

[@theodorerivera81]

Great cards

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks!!

[@artboston4787]

'81 Donruss had gum as stated on the box/packs. The Lou Gehrig puzzle is from the '85 set indicating searched/resealed packs.

[@andrewgaffney4881]

I bought a box in the 90's that had been opened, and a few packs had already been sold, I think. Anyway, it wasn't a full box. I recently opened the packs and a lot of the cards had stains, and they felt kind of flimsy, and weren't all the same size. I did get a Raines rookie in decent condition.

[@delmarsportscardsllc6810]

Thank for the interesting info on the '81 season. Good Stuff.

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks man!

[@DonnieKnott-zm5pg]

Ur right it does have gum in those packs

[@seeweda]

Feels like a repackthe wrappers all should of been the same color, gum was in the packs and definitely no puzzle pieces in 81 Donruss. No idea why good cards are there though. Donruss did some weird things with 81 towards the end of the run as they were short on cash and put out product anyway they could. The Lou Gehrig puzzle is from 1985 Donruss which is really weird.

[@seeweda]

So yeah did some further looking and you are correct these are packs from Fun Packs someone must of put in a box and they did have the Gehrig puzzle which they released again as the puzzle in 1985 Donruss.

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks! That was the conclusion I came to after some further digging too. Likely from the fun packs and someone just put into a empty box. 81 donruss always seems to be a bizarre rip. Never know what you’ll get

[@shaneshelby9348]

People opened that year looking for the era cards they was the most wanted back in the day

[@scottcornwall9320]

Update: My reference to the Babe Ruth puzzle was for the 1982 Donruss packs. They issued a slab of gum in their 1981 packs. The packs that came in that box, however, had a different looking wrapper with a head-on look of a pitcher, having just released a pitch (not a side view).

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks for that information! I have some random fun packs that have some different looking wrappers on them I believe they are from 1983 so I’ll be opening them up in the near future.

[@bacjones435]

Thumbs Up for the vid & love the 81's. Where there is no gum & puzzle pieces from 4 years later you know fishy stuff went on. Could have been someone searching for errors or something we will never know. Remember with 81 Fleer & Donruss IF THERE IS NO GUM RUN RUN RUN!!!!

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks for watching! Definitely something fishy going on! Those puzzle pieces are from 85 so I have no clue what went on here but glad I still pulled some stars and a Tim Raines rc

[@vintagecollectiblestuff9744]

Nice pulls. I'm jealous that you got a few Rickey Hendersons. When I opened I pulled 3 Ozzies but no Rickeys. And I love the Gary Carter card - sweet Expos uniform!

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks! I love those expos uniforms too.

[@rockscousteau]

Hell yea man. I opened so many of these as a kid. I remember some of the packs as well because the quality control was so damn bad...but sometimes that was good. I got 6 1981 Donruss Pete Rose cards in the same pack...ahhaha.

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Haha that’s awesome! Nothing like ripping wax back in the 80’s, so much fun.

[@mattmc5069]

I have a red pack with gum as well. I heard these ones where only in Canada? I'm not sure but it is a mystery

[@CHRISROYALSCHIEFSFAN]

I don't remember to much of 81 season, I was only 6 years old. But I do remember my dad complaining about it!

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

I was too young to remember it too

[@stuke1976]

Thanks for opening this box. Always fun to watch. I don't remember 1981 Donruss packs like you just opened. I only remember red wrappers and all had gum. The snow on the front of some of the cards might be gum stains. 1982 was the first year of puzzle pieces, the Lou Gehrig puzzle was in 1985 packs. This may have been some kind of a Donruss repack box. 1981 Donruss did have a centering issue, and this was long before Panini had an interest in the Donruss brand. As bad as the rumors you hear about BBCE, they are still the best chance to get a good box. There are good boxes out there, just have to find a trusted vendor to buy from.

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks for watching! After further investigation this box was definitely repackaged in some kind of way. At first I thought maybe someone took random packs from the donruss fun bags they used to have and put them in an empty box of 81 donruss but the puzzle pieces inside these packs were all Lou Gehrig which is from the 85 donruss packs. So I’m honestly not sure what’s going on with it but it was still fun and interesting to rip open. Never know what you’ll find in old wax products.

[@toddrichardson8595]

I can tell you as a lifetime collector without a doubt someone put these packs together. And they're ALL searched because the pack colors are wrong (Minus Red) and there is supposed to be gum in every pack. That puzzle piece is almost an insult saying "Gotcha" Maybe they were somewhat fair and left a few good cards in the packs..

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Most definitely a repack or something fishy! I investigated the multi color packs and they came out of donruss “fun packs” so someone either resealed them or who knows what, especially with those 85 puzzle pieces but at least they left a few decent cards in there. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@jeffreypeace2696]

Fun fact: These cards were produced in a guys garage who had a propensity to consume massive amounts of liquor.

[@johnbishop8109]

Do you still have that don stanhouse baseball card. He is from my home town and my uncle played high school baseball with him

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Yes I believe it do.

[@scottcornwall9320]

1981 Donruss baseball cards DID issue gum (so did 1981 Fleer). Topps tried to sue both companies to try and monopolize the market. As a loophole, Fleer would start to issue stickers of different teams, while Donruss would issue pieces to a puzzle (a panel with 3 pieces to a 63 piece puzzle of Babe Ruth for that year). I only saw the red wrapper packs in 1981, but I had a harder time finding them than I did finding Fleer. Fleer could be found in any 7-11 store. They REALLY did a better job at marketing their product than Topps or Donruss.

[@classicwaxsportscards9440]

Thanks! I appreciate that good information.

[@shaneshelby9348]

They was made for kids never meant to be anything else

[@ddan1208]

This is repacked searched wax. Nice looking cards though