Production Estimates / Print Run Archive

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by West

Very few, if any employees remain from the pre-1995 era. Some undoubtedly have passed away. I've reached out to several folks who were involved with the industry. I was only able to get one person to respond.

This is the most helpful article I've found in which a former employee has gone on the record about information that was not publicly available at the time.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...hn-tassoni-jr/

I'm not aware of any other articles that go behind the scenes of production, besides a Topps Magazine piece from 1991 that was more of a publicity piece. I shared that article in a different thread.

I have several friends and a few relatives that worked for Score for years. They all cared about cards as much as most of us care about playing with Barbie dolls.

Even when working there they knew little to nothing about anything but the crappy job they done. Now about the only thing most remember is Score gave them those "damn worthless" cards instead of bonuses for Christmas(holidays).

[seanofjapan]

If I recall correctly, Donruss in its advertising for the 1992 set claimed that it was scaling back production to 1985 levels, so I am pretty sure there is less 1992 Donruss out there than there was for the years immediately preceding it.

[JUrsaner]

That would be interesting if we could find a source for that because I'd actually calculated a bunch of the junk wax years based off 1992 Donruss. I think that print figure of 2m/card is going to be fairly accurate because can back into it from Elite. Odds were never stated but a lot of empirical evidence of around 1:1.5x per case

Would mean even higher numbers for 1989-1991

[insidethewrapper]

Donruss and Leaf cut back stating with the year 1994. I'll post shortly with their releases.

[insidethewrapper]

Here's some more numbers based on Donruss/Leaf Media releases ( see scans):

1994 Donruss Series 1 : < 17,500/20 box cases = < 350,000 boxes
1994 Donruss Series 2 : < 17,500/20 box cases = < 350,000 boxes
1994 Leaf Series 1 : < 19,000/20 box cases = < 380,000 boxes
1994 Leaf Series 2 : < 19,000/20 box cases = < 380,000 boxes

The Leaf production was decreased by 25% from the previous year , therefore:
1993 Leaf Series 1 : around 25,000/20 box cases = around 500,000 boxes
1993 Leaf Series 2 : around 25,000/20 box cases = around 500,000 boxes

Note: 1994 Donruss production was the lowest since 1985 Donruss. So 1986-1993 Donruss had higher production.

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by JUrsaner

That would be interesting if we could find a source for that because I'd actually calculated a bunch of the junk wax years based off 1992 Donruss. I think that print figure of 2m/card is going to be fairly accurate because can back into it from Elite. Odds were never stated but a lot of empirical evidence of around 1:1.5x per case

Would mean even higher numbers for 1989-1991

Yeah, its possible I'm remembering that wrong and getting it mixed up with another set.

This is going to bother me though as I definitely remember reading an ad (probably in one of the major hobby publications) in 1992 claiming that a set that year was being limited to 1985 production levels. Maybe it was Leaf or Fleer, I bought a lot of packs of them that year too.

[JUrsaner]

It looks like it was 1994 Donruss

Go up to Insidethewrapper's post with images. Tried to incorporate that into some of the ranges on the list

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by JUrsaner

It looks like it was 1994 Donruss

Go up to Insidethewrapper's post with images. Tried to incorporate that into some of the ranges on the list

That kind of makes sense, but I stopped collecting in 1993 and am sure it was for a set from before that year.

Just looking at this entry from baseballcardpedia it does state that Donruss reduced production in 1992:

http://baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/Donruss

"In 1992, with sales of standard card lines plunging in the face of more attractive higher-end versions, Donruss announced that it was severely curtailing its production and doubling their flagship set's retail price to 99 cents a pack."

They don't give a source for that so I don't know what that statement is based on, but it does jive with my memory. I bet if anyone has any old hobby publications around from 1992, or maybe some Donruss promotional stuff from that year (I worked in a card shop at the time and we used to get that stuff) they might find something with an announcement like that.