General Forum

Since we recently had a poll of everyone's favorite set, I thought it would be real interesting to see the opposite end.  I don't know if you want to go down the road of least favorite, ugliest, or if you want to limi it to the worst set you ever collected or just worst set even if you haven't collected.  I'll leave it open so everyone can post about what they deem worthy of the discussion.  Remember, everything has to have a last place in a ranking system, so just because you write about a set here, doesn't mean you necessarily hate it, just that it cames up less than the other sets in your mind.

So, as for me, out of everything I collected, I think I would have to say 1991 Donruss Series 2.  The Series 1 had the blue borders weren't bad, but weren't great, they had a cheap look to them, but the Series 2 release just had an awful look, the packaging even looked bad.  The lack of value or any cards of substance in the set contributed as well.  Plus, this was the first year Donruss went to Series 1 and Series 2, and I personally prefer one large set rather than having to purchase 2 separate boxes of cards to have enough to start to work at completing a set.  Donruss redeemed themselves with a very nice 1992 set, one of their best from a look perspective, but man, those 1991's were something else.  I am still going to try to complete them, but even when I got a box of the Series 2 for Christmas that year, I was thinking, man, I would rather have gotten a box of something else.

Honorable mention to 1990 Topps in this category.  This was tough for me, there are days where I like this set and days where I think it is awful.  I remember a prior discussion when I joined this site about 2 years ago where this set had divided people on both ends of the spectrum, so I feel most people struggle with how they would rate it.

OK, those are my thoughts, I hope this was deemed worthy enough for others to participate.  I eagerly await everyone's thoughts!

Basketball- How long has Panini had the NBA exckusive? I vote all of their sets from then until today (exluding Instant).

Baseball- 1986 Topps

Never been a fan of the 1996 SPx cards. I feel like they had the right idea and I like the action shot, but I find the headshots that follow you to be creepy. Plus, it’s a die-cut set, GIVE ME THE WHOLE CARD.

Just going by design alone...

Most of mine would be Donruss and Score sets. For Donruss (and Leaf), 1986 and '88 would be the worst, even worse than '91 to me. For Score, the worst ones would be 1988 and '91. If I were to pick a worst Topps set, 1990 would probably be at the top. I can't decide which Fleer release is the worst b/t 1988 & 1989, but I loved 1990 Fleer and '91 has grown on me over the decades.

As for 1996 SPx, I LOVE it! Loved it then and still love it now. But I'm a sucker for die-cuts so that makes me a bit biased.

Two of my least favorites (in my opinion, dumb concepts):

Baseball: 1998 Pinnacle Inside Cans

Football: 2000 Collector's Edge Odyssey "Restaurant Quality"

1994 Stadium Club baseball quickly comes to mind here.  For an older set, 1970 and 1971 Topps baseball may be my least-favorites.  (Ugh, I just realized that those will be the next two years of Topps Heritage designs).  But that label-maker Stadium Club set I mentioned is probably my least favorite ever.  Still, I bought tons of them.

Both good suggestions, muskie. I'm going back and re-collecting all the junk wax sets from my youth and there are three that spring to mind that I have been putting off: '90 Topps, '90 Fleer and '91 Donruss. Bland designs, one great rookie from the whole bunch... ugh. Those were the first ones to come to mind when I think of worst sets.

I'm slowly working my way back to sets from just before I started collecting, and dealing with so much junk wax really made me appreciate how nice the '83 and '84 Todd Topps and '85 Donruss sets were, so that's something.

1996 & 1997 Topps Baseball. Both less than 500 cards, blah designs. When you only have 12-15 cards per team, you’ve failed. 

V3

I don't know why that one didn't pop in my mind before, but I would agree that the '94 set is the worst design for any Stadium Club set.

1998-99 Fleer Brilliants. The cards have been sticky and greasy since new, and if you try to get the dust off them, the coating chips. Not even a mention that it's just a cutout photo of a player over some computer generated backdrop. 

2000 Topps USA is terrible as well...every single image for the men's team is badly photoshopped. 

I actually wrote up a post on Cardboard History that shows my 6 least favorite sets and gives reasons and illustrations why I dislike them. https://cardboardhistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/nba-20th-anniversary-countdown-my-6.html

For NASCAR, I think my least favorite is 2009 Wheels Main Event. It's an entire set made up around the poker craze of the time. All base cards are black and white and are made to look sort of like playing cards. Even worse, they dropped American Thunder, a patriotic/military themed set, to make way for it. 

I don't have a least favorite in the NHL yet, I'm just getting started there. 

For non-sports, any garbage pail kids. For sets in my collection, I don't really dislike any.