A little help & an odd request

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

This may turn out to be nothing but as a nerd I am bound by nerd code to exhaust this possibility until it has been beaten into the ground.

I'm sitting here opening a box 1991 Donruss Canadian. Wait. I should explain that. Here's the nickel version:

Donruss did so well in 1984 they wanted to expand to Canada. Boom, here's Leaf. Canadians hate baseball cards (see: Leaf/OPC QC). Leaf sales down every year. Leaf done after 1988. Donruss stays in Canada with regular Donruss, just 10 card packs instead of 15. Cards are the same as American Donruss. They do this in 1989, 1990, 1991. You're all caught up.

I've opened '89 and '90 Donruss Canadian and there wasn't a single difference between the cards there and the cards we got in our 15 card packs here in the States. I never bothered to open any of my '91 because it's next to impossible to find and I only had 3 total boxes for the two series. I recently found two more boxes for each series so decided to rip one to see if I could find a pack with Frank Thomas showing on it so I'd have a cool wrapper variation. Lo and behold, all of these cards don't have a period after INC. All of the American Donruss cards I've been able to find a scan of online have a period after INC.

My question is: does anyone actually have a decent stash of '91 Donruss? Does anyone know of an American '91 Donruss card that DOESN'T have the period after "INC" on the back?

I what I'm asking is akin to asking someone to go hang out at the DMV for a few hours but if anyone else is into this crazy stuff too I would be eternally grateful.

Arthur

[swarmee]

https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/1991/Donruss_-_Base,sm,i100
Here are thousands of Donruss cards you can browse through. Check the first page of Ken Griffey Jr's and you'll see a few with no . after INC. I'm guessing the Canadian ones also say "PRINTED IN USA", right?

[cardinalcollector]

I don't think there are differences between the USA and Canadian wax packs. Donruss had differences every year from 1987-1991 between their wax versions and factory sets. It could be the backs oriented differently, different border patterns, differences in asterisks, or the period after inc as in the case of the 1991s.

[ALR-bishop]

Arthur-– I have no idea what the answer to your question might be, but learned some interesting stuff :)

[bnorth]

Without looking I am sure there are INC and INC. versions for all the years you mentioned. From memory(guess) they come from different packaging here in the US. Can't remember for sure.

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/1991/Donruss_-_Base,sm,i100
Here are thousands of Donruss cards you can browse through. Check the first page of Ken Griffey Jr's and you'll see a few with no . after INC. I'm guessing the Canadian ones also say "PRINTED IN USA", right?

Thanks for that link. God help whoever had to scan all those cards in. You're right, there are "no period" versions among those. However, without knowing where they originated, we can't say for certain that they're American Donruss. Basically, I'm going to have to open some American Donruss boxes and gol through them until I find a "no period." I have no doubt that there are no period cards but in order for me to put this to rest I'm going to have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

And the packaging is different between Canadian and American Donruss. Canadian Donruss has 10 cards per pack as opposed to the 15 cards in an American pack. The wrappers say 10 cards on the front. Because of the reduced number of cards, the boxes are smaller. Depending on the year, there are also variations in the back panel product code as well as the location of "36 COUNT" on the box top. I've never seen a case of '89 or '91 Donruss Canadian but I have a factory sealed case of '90 Donruss Canadian and it has 12 boxes in it, the only case I've seen in the Donruss line that contains 12 boxes.

Arthur