A Puzzling Purchase

Donruss puzzles have been a part of my life since the early 80's.  I don't remember opening a ton of 1982 or 1983 Donruss packs, so I doubt I was trying to build complete puzzles of Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb.  But by the middle of the decade, I'm sure I was coming pretty darn close.  And there's not a doubt in my mind that I put together a Roberto Clemente puzzle in 1987.

Since then, I've put together a complete run of (wax pack insert) puzzles from 1982 to 1992 (Ruth, Cobb, Snider, Gehrig, Aaron, Clemente, Musial, Spahn, Yastrzemski, Stargell, and Carew), as well as the 1983 and 1984 Donruss All-Star puzzles (Mantle and Williams), the 1990 and 1991 Leaf puzzles (Berra and Killebrew), and the 1991 Leaf Studio puzzle (Carew).

1986 Donruss The Rookies Hank Aaron Puzzle #NNO

1987 Donruss The Rookies Roberto Clemente Puzzle #NNO

1988 Donruss The Rookies Stan Musial Puzzle #NNO

 1990 Donruss The Rookies Carl Yastrzemski Puzzle #NNO

I was also familiar with the miniature puzzles (standard card size/15 pieces) of Aaron, Clemente, Musial, Spahn, Yastrzemski, and Stargell that Donruss included in The Rookies box sets.

But I had no idea what I was looking at when I stumbled across these jumbo puzzles at the Bay Area Sports Cards & Collectibles Show back in June:

At first glance, you might think these are the standard size puzzles that came in The Rookies boxed sets, but these are much larger (approximately 5"x7") and contain only 12 pieces.

Here's a side by side comparison of the two Hank Aaron puzzles:

Both puzzles feature blank backs... but the larger puzzle utilizes much darker cardboard:

Thankfully... you can find information on just about anything on the internet.  After a few clicks on the keyboard, I discovered that these jumbo puzzles were included with the Donruss Super DK sets from 1985 to 1990.  Donruss produced these wrapper mail-in order sets from 1985 to 1991, but I didn't find any information on a Willie Stargell super-sized puzzle online... so I think these are the only six puzzles to collect.

***Donruss also produced a 1992 Super DK set which is extremely rare.  Based on this post it wasn't released to the general public, so I'm guessing they didn't produced a super-sized puzzle for Carew.

Well there you have it... another puzzling baseball card mystery has been solved.

Were any of you familiar with these Super DK puzzles?

I'm pretty happy that I discovered these, learned something new, and added them to my Donruss Puzzle PC for only $1.20.  Just like the 1998 Topps Super Chromes I showed off a few months ago, these puzzles were in a vendor's 5 for $1 box.

Stay tuned.  I still have several more purchases from this card show that I need to write about.  Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!