Today I want to bring up something I find interesting. In 1992 McDonald's had baseball cards for sale with purchase. According to the TCDB, the Donruss McDonald's MVP cards were sold only in GTA, but I got a bunch of them from my uncle who would eat at McDonald's in Thunder Bay.
Anyway..
I'll talk about the Donruss cards first. The base set is 26 cards, one MVP from each team.
As you can see the design is standard 1992 Donruss but the McD's mark in the corner. I've pulled a couple images to show a comparison to the flagship Donruss set. The McDonald's cards use different images..
In some cases I think the photo used on the McD's set is nicer than the one used in the main set.
If you want to check the checklist for this set out, You can go here!
And now the backs of the cards
As you can see, it's the same, aside from the McD's logo on the back and different numbering. Actually, a small detail I noticed as I wrote that.. The MLB and MLBPA logos are in different orders..
Along with the 26 card base set is a 6 card Blue Jays Gold subset.
No photo on the back of this card and the MLB, MLBPA, and McD MVP logos are all in colour.
The front is a full bleed photo with a gold foil MVP logo and a gold foil Donruss logo that they started using more often on the sets starting in 1994. There were also 1000 Alomar autographs that were in the set, but it's unknown how many were redeemed.
The Checklist for this subset was
1. Roberto Alomar
2. Joe Carter
3. Kelly Gruber
4. Jack Morris
5. Tom Henke
6. Devon White
Now. The Topps McDonald's Baseball's Best cards were apparently distributed in the NYC and Philadelphia area, but they may have been more widespread than that. This information was taken from the Baseball Card Pedia..
This set was 44 cards, but not all teams were represented. In fact there was only one team not represented. My poor Montreal Expos were overlooked in this set.
The Jays have three cards: Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, and Derek Bell
As you can see, the McD's logo and player's name are foil stamped, the Topps logo is tucked into the corner.. The team name is underneath.
I do like the look of these over the Donruss MVP cards and even the base 1992 Topps set. I think 1992 Topps is one of my least favourite sets, but I digress..
Logos aplenty on the back of the card. MLB, MLBPA, Topps and McDonald's all having real estate on the back. It's not a bad back at all.
I wanted to show a Fisk back to see how busy it got with a long-term player..
As above, if you want to take a look at the checklist, It's right here!
So there's a quick and dirty look at the two versions of McDonald's cards that came out in 1992.
If anyone has any more information about either set that I may have missed or just flat out didn't mention, let me know.
Thanks for writing this post. I never knew about this! In the base Donruss, I'm truly concerned about Nolan Ryan's legs. They look like they're going in all sorts of wrong, weird ways. I love the MVP Ripken and MVP Brett. Fairly certain I've never seen the Baseball's Best set.
ReplyDeleteWell as one of the dedicated baseball bloggers in Canada, my aim is to inform of different sets we have.
DeleteI have a bunch of the US Topps McDonald's cards, but I don't think I've ever seen the Canadian Donruss ones before. Gotta look out for the George Brett at least.
ReplyDeleteTook me a moment to realize that "GTA" means "Greater Toronto Area". Would be weird if the cards were only available in Grand Theft Auto! B^)
Especially since GTA hadn't even released the top down versions yet lol.
DeleteYeah it's Greater Toronto Area. Though in this case I think it's Ontario.
I've updated the wording on Tcdb (which may have been taken from BaseballCardpedia) to indicate " participating McDonald's restaurants in Canada", which may not be exactly precise but doesn't location lock the cards to the GTA since I too got some from other Ontario locations
DeleteThank you Derek. Figured getting more accurate info is good
DeleteI've come across a few samples from each set. In regards to designs, I prefer the Topps over Donruss. I especially like the bright red border on the back.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think the Topps design is nice. I like elements of both
DeleteDefinitely those Donruss cards were not limited to the GTA. In addition to your uncle in Thunder Bay's evidence, I was living in Kingston, Ont. in 1992 and I remember making many trips to our local McDonald's that summer specifically to get those cards. Hard to believe that was 30 years ago, I have a lot of fond memories of that summer.
ReplyDelete