Donruss: The demise of another company

[Archive]

Posted By: James Feagin

Thought some vintage folks might be interested to know of another death-blow in the modern card market. MLB just announced that Donruss is losing their license as of 1/1/06. Topps and Upper Deck will be the only players then. Interesting.

James

[Archive]

Posted By: Greg Ecklund

I have mixed feelings on this, just as I did with Fleer's demise. On one hand, there is now hopefully one less company to cut baseball relics into little pieces to put into cards. On the other hand, they did make some of my favorite sets of the 80's (loved 1983-1985 and 1987). 1989 Donruss cards were also the first cards that I started collecting as a kid, so my well worn set of 89's will always have a special place in my collection.

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

Playoff/Donruss/Score has a wide variety of issues, including non sport. Losing a MLB contract isn't the same as going out of business.

For some time, most major card companies have been of the opinion that MLB charges way too much for a license. Specifically, it has been expressed by some companies that MLB charges a fee based on past high revenue that doesn't exist today.

[Archive]

Posted By: cmoking

Upper Deck bought Fleer, right? Wouldn't they just keep some of the brands for future years? So in effect, the Fleer name will stay alive, and it won't make too much of a difference to collectors. Fewer sets, yes, but there's too many anyway. If what I just typed is correct, then the same would go for Donruss if they sold or went belly up.

[Archive]

Posted By: Brian Koyama

I thought Fleer was still on the auction block and that UD had a bid somewhere in the neighborhood of $2mil? I hate UD not only because they cut up one of a kind unis and slap them on cardboard, but I despise the fact that the president created employee cards (like Jordan cut unis) to create a false scarcity (the employees in turn sold the cards for a huge profit to a card shop down the road from the company). Let's get back to Vintage talk! I enjoy all of your banter on the awesome subject of vintage...

[Archive]

Posted By: Tom Boblitt

at approx. 6+ Million. The only decent thing fleer did recently was the greats of the game sets. They were all vintage guys and they had 50-60 autographs in the autograph set.