Donruss
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Donruss is a brand of sports card produced by Donruss Playoff, LP, and was one of the so-called "Big Three" sports card brands of the late 20th century, along with Fleer and Topps. They are most recognized for their baseball cards produced between 1981 and 2005 and their entertainment cards dating back to the 1950s.
Donruss baseball cards were produced continuously from 1981 to 1998, when its then-parent Pinnacle Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Playoff Inc then purchased the Donruss name and produced Major League Baseball sets again from from 2001 to 2005, when Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association revoked the company's production license. They also produced NHL hockey cards from 1992 until 1998, and NFL football cards since 1996. Today, Donruss Playoff LP produces NFL football cards, along with a line baseball draft picks products and entertainment cards.
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[edit] History
Donald and Russell Weiner founded the original Donruss company in 1954, combining their first names to arrive at the company name. During the 1950s and 1960s the company put out several entertainment-themed trading card sets until 1969, when General Mills acquired the brand. Donruss was active in the entertainment card market with titles like "Saturday Night Fever," "Elvis Presley," "Dukes of Hazzard," "Dallas," and the hugely successful "Kiss" set based on the legendary '70s rock group.
[edit] Entry into the baseball card market
In the winter of 1980, on the heels of Fleer's historic court victory over Topps, Donruss rushed into production a 605-card set for the 1981 season. The first printings were riddled with errors, most of which were fixed in subsequent runs. They were also printed on flimsy card stock and there were no factory sets; rather, the cards were shipped to dealers in 100-count lots and were then collated by hand. TCMA of Amawalk, New York handled dealer business.
With an entire offseason to prepare, Donruss shipped a much improved, more polished 660-card set for 1982. The 1982 offering also saw the introduction of the Diamond Kings subset, made up of oil paintings by noted sports artist Dick Perez and were always a fan favorite. Another Donruss innovation for 1982 was the inclusion of jigsaw puzzle pieces with a pack of cards in place of gum. (An appeal of the 1978 Fleer v. Topps ruling in 1981 barred the two new card companies from using gum premiums; Fleer switched to team logo stickers in 1982.) Donruss also began selling to dealers directly, the first of the major card companies to offer factory sets for those buying in bulk.
In late 1983, after moderate success, Donruss was acquired from General Mills by Finnish conglomerate Huhtamäki and was rolled into another of the company's recent acquisitions, Leaf Candy Company. The 1984 base set that followed was among the company's most successful, due to its unconventional obverse design and two bona fide rookies in Darryl Strawberry and Don Mattingly.
[edit] Increased competition and market saturation
Throughout the 1980s, the baseball card market boomed, with new collectors getting into the hobby as well as speculators hoarding cards in hopes of selling them off later for a tidy profit. Unfortunately, as the "Big Three" ramped up their production numbers, new brands like Sportflics, Score and Upper Deck crowded the marketplace.
[edit] End of an era
In the late summer of 2005, Major League Baseball created new license criteria for cardmakers in response to collectors' complaints that: 1) the market had become too fragmented and confusing; and 2) rookie cards were becoming too scarce, with diminished importance due to the race between makers to feature unknown players first. MLB chose to renew only their licenses with Topps and Upper Deck, tacitly sealing the fate of Donruss and Fleer, who had folded just weeks prior due to the fragmentation of the industry. The last baseball product shipped by the company was the third series of the Playoff-branded Prime Cuts memorabilia cards.
Today, Donruss is exclusively a football card producer. The Score brand was revived in 2005 for the flagship set, while Donruss and Leaf exist as premium brands and Playoff as a memorabilia-oriented brand.
In late 2007 however, Donruss did release Donruss Elite Extra Edition, which is their first product outside of the NFL. This product was a multisport release that included cards of the top 30 picks in the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft. Since this product wasn't licensed by Major League Baseball, the players from the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft were pictured in their High School or College Uniforms and existing Minor Leaguers had their uniforms airbrushed to remove all marks. In addition, there are a number of collegiate themed cards as well as soccer themes.
[edit] List of Donruss Hall of Fame Diamond King puzzles (1982-92)
1982 Donruss: Babe Ruth
1983 Donruss: Ty Cobb
1983 Donruss Action All-Stars: Mickey Mantle
1984 Donruss: Duke Snider
1984 Donruss Action All-Stars: Ted Williams
1985 Donruss: Lou Gehrig
1986 Donruss: Hank Aaron
1987 Donruss: Roberto Clemente
1988 Donruss: Stan Musial
1989 Donruss: Warren Spahn
1990 Donruss: Carl Yastrzemski
1990 Leaf: Yogi Berra
1991 Donruss: Willie Stargell
1991 Leaf: Harmon Killebrew
1992 Donruss: Rod Carew
[edit] List of Donruss "King of Kings"
In addition to their trademark Diamond Kings subset/insert set, Donruss recognized several "King of Kings" for extraordinary achievements. They include:
1986: Pete Rose, for breaking Ty Cobb's career hits record.
1990: Nolan Ryan, for his 5,000th career strikeout.
1994: Dave Winfield, for reaching both 3,000 hits and 400 home runs.
1996: Eddie Murray, for becoming only the third player to reach both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.
1996: Cal Ripken, Jr, for breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games record.
[edit] See also
- Donruss baseball products
- Donruss hockey products
- Donruss football products
- Fleer
- Topps
- Upper Deck
- Score
