1984 Donruss Don Mattingly #248 RC

Donruss's best set

Donruss entered the baseball card business in 1981, and by many collectors' reckoning its 1984 set was the best it ever made. The set runs to 658 numbered cards, plus two unnumbered 'Living Legends' cards (Rollie Fingers with Gaylord Perry, and Johnny Bench with Carl Yastrzemski) that came in wax packs but were left out of factory sets. Packs also held pieces of a 63-piece Duke Snider puzzle.

The 1984 issue was reportedly printed in smaller quantities than earlier Donruss sets, and it introduced the 'Rated Rookie' label that became a Donruss staple for years. Collectors who chase the set praise its clean design and photography, and some compare it to 1957 Topps. Rookies in the set include Joe Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Andy Van Slyke and Tony Fernandez, alongside second-year cards of Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg.

Errors added to the set's fame. Diamond Kings cards in packs misspelled the artist's name as 'Steel' instead of 'Steele,' and the Mike Stenhouse and Ron Darling cards came out of packs with no card numbers. Both problems were fixed for factory sets, and the corrected numbered versions carry a premium.

Donnie Baseball

Donald Arthur Mattingly was born April 20, 1961, in Evansville, Indiana. The Yankees took him in the 19th round of the 1979 draft, and he signed for a $23,000 bonus instead of going to college. He debuted on September 8, 1982, and hit .283 in 91 games in 1983.

In 1984 he became a star. He hit .343 with 207 hits, 44 doubles, 23 home runs and 110 RBI, made his first All-Star team and finished fifth in the MVP vote. The batting title came down to the last day of the season and to a teammate: Mattingly went 4-for-5 while Dave Winfield went 1-for-4, and Mattingly won it .343 to .340.

He won the American League MVP in 1985 with 35 home runs and 145 RBI, then hit .352 with 238 hits in 1986. In 1987 he homered in eight straight games, tying Dale Long's record, and hit six grand slams, a single-season record; they were the only grand slams of his career. Back trouble that began in 1990 sapped his power, and he reached the postseason only once, in his final season of 1995, when he hit .417 in a Division Series loss to Seattle.

Mattingly finished with a .307 average, 2,153 hits, 222 home runs, six All-Star selections, nine Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers. The Yankees retired his No. 23 on August 31, 1997. He is not in the Hall of Fame.

Why a 10 is hard

Collectors who build the set agree on the problem: centering. The top-ranked 1984 Donruss collector on PSA's Set Registry once noted that only about 1% of the Mattinglys submitted had graded 10, and another called it 'a tough one to find centered.' The share has improved since, but a July 2026 report still put the gem rate at 2.2%, against 6.1% for his 1984 Fleer rookie.

PSA's report on October 3, 2026, showed 346 PSA 10s, 4,111 PSA 9s and 6,718 PSA 8s. The July 2026 report counted 350 PSA 10s; the two counts differ slightly.

A PSA 10 needs well-centered borders, four sharp corners and clean surfaces.

Boom, bust and back

For a stretch of the 1980s the Mattingly Donruss rookie was the most coveted card from the hobby's most celebrated set. Interest faded after Mattingly retired in 1995, and his name on a Hall of Fame plaque never arrived to revive it.

The PSA 10 has come back hard. A PSA 10 sold at auction in summer 2025 for $3,840. Another brought $6,778 at online auction on March 30, 2026. On July 10, 2026, a PSA 10 sold at auction for $9,455, a record for the card, about 25 times what a PSA 9 brought in the same period.

Lower grades remain affordable, which is part of the card's pull: a collector who grew up with the 1980s Yankees can own a sharp copy for a fraction of a gem's price.

The card of a decade

Mattingly's Donruss rookie is the anchor of a set many consider the company's finest and the rookie of the player who dominated the Yankees' 1980s. When George Steinbrenner hired Mattingly as the Yankees' hitting coach after the 2003 season, PSA's writers saw a comeback in interest in the 1984 set and its anchor card as well.

Mattingly later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Miami Marlins. His rookie remains one of the few cards of a non-Hall of Famer that collectors treat as a blue chip.

The numbers

1984 season

153 G, 603 AB, 91 R, 207 H, 44 2B, 2 3B, 23 HR, 110 RBI, 41 BB, 33 SO, .343 BA (AL batting title), .381 OBP, .537 SLG, .918 OPS. All-Star; 5th in AL MVP voting. Age 23.

1983 season

91 G, 279 AB, 34 R, 79 H, 4 HR, 32 RBI, .283 BA

1985 season (AL MVP)

159 G, 652 AB, 107 R, 211 H, 48 2B, 35 HR, 145 RBI, .324 BA, .939 OPS; Gold Glove, Silver Slugger

Career (1982-1995)

14 seasons, 1,785 G, 1,007 R, 2,153 H, 442 2B, 222 HR, 1,099 RBI, .307 BA, .358 OBP, .471 SLG, 42.4 WAR

Honors

1985 AL MVP, 6 All-Star selections, 9 Gold Gloves, 3 Silver Sluggers, 1 batting title; No. 23 retired by the Yankees

Records

Six grand slams in 1987 (single season); home runs in eight straight games (tied)

Timeline

1. Apr 20, 1961

   Don Mattingly is born in Evansville, Indiana.

2. 1979

   The Yankees draft him in the 19th round.

3. Sep 8, 1982

   Mattingly debuts for the Yankees.

4. 1984

   Donruss issues its 658-card set with Mattingly at #248 and the first 'Rated Rookie' cards.

5. 1984

   Mattingly wins the AL batting title on the final day, .343 to Dave Winfield's .340.

6. 1985

   Mattingly is named American League MVP.

7. 1987

   He homers in eight straight games and hits a record six grand slams.

8. 1995

   Mattingly reaches the postseason for the only time and retires after the season.

9. Aug 31, 1997

   The Yankees retire his No. 23.

10. 2025

    A PSA 10 sells at auction in summer for $3,840.

11. Mar 30, 2026

    A PSA 10 sells at online auction for $6,778.

12. Jul 10, 2026

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for a record $9,455.

The world in 1984

• Jan 1, 1984

  The Bell System is broken up.

• Feb 3, 1984

  Space Shuttle Challenger launches on its 10th mission.

• Jun 4, 1984

  Bruce Springsteen releases 'Born in the U.S.A.'

• Jul 28, 1984

  The Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles.

• Aug 30, 1984

  Space Shuttle Discovery makes its first flight.

• Nov 6, 1984

  Ronald Reagan wins reelection, carrying 49 states.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 10 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly #248 RC is number 69 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (93 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Mattingly won the 1984 batting title on the season's final day, beating his own teammate by three points.
• His six grand slams in 1987 were the only grand slams of his career.
• Donruss's 'Rated Rookie' label debuted in this 1984 set.
• Two 'Living Legends' cards came in 1984 Donruss wax packs but not in factory sets.
• Mattingly is the only Yankee to have his number retired without winning a World Series.
• A July 2026 PSA 10 sale was about 25 times the price of a PSA 9 sold in the same period.