1983 AJAX Dog Food

[steve B]

Originally Posted by DaClyde

Keep in mind that there were two "Broders". Ed Broder prodiced the TCMA-style sets of Japanese players or Americans in Japan in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Rob Broder started selling his unlicensed cards as advertisements for his glossy 8x10 photos. Very quickly he, and others, realized collectors would eagerly scoop up any new cards of popular players and just started cranking out set after set of the simple, unauthorized sets to be sold at card shows. He was eventually sued by MLB and settled for a fine.

About that time, MLB changed it's licensing rules to prevent "publications" like Ballstreet or Legends from basically printing baseball cards in a magazine wrapper. The cards were supposed to be simply a feature of the magazine to enhance articles, and as such, were subject to the rules of your average newspaper or magazine (as started by Baseball Cards Magazine in the 80s), but eventually people saw that as a way to print their own baseball cards without a license, and wrap it in a tissue thin veil of a magazine.

Interesting, I sort of knew there were two, but didn't know what stuff went with which or even if it really was two different people and not just the same guy using a different name to confuse things.

I've never seen the cards that were ads for the photos. Did they have ad backs or were they more like regular cards than promos?

I should make a start at cataloging these things, but it's not easy. There's probably some ads in the hobby magazines for a little while, but they eventually stopped allowing them.

While they're unlicensed, I find that they're all a good deal harder to find than the licensed stuff.

Steve B