Dateline: 07/20/99
When Pinnacle Brands went bankrupt last year many people believed that it was for the best as there were already too many manufacturers and definitely too many brands. On the flip side our hobby would be losing three brand names that had been very popular over the past decade in Score, Donruss, and Leaf.
Soon after the financial problems at Pinnacle were announced a bidding war of sorts occured as the rights to the brand names were on the block. Playoff came away as the winner and owned the names, but not the licenses. Since Playoff had previously only produced football cards, an NFL license was all they were able to bring along to the new Score and Donruss.
As this happens to be the 10 years since the now famous first Score football set was released, Playoff used their new brand name to create an Anniversary set, 1999 Score. While many young collectors might be unimpressed with the simple base cards with plain colored borders, Playoff has done a good job of bringing back some of the charm of 1989 Score while still offering the chase of a modern set.
Most of the chase is for autographs. 1999 Score features autographs of most of the major rookies, as well as some stars like Barry Sanders featured on reprints of their original 1989 Score card. In addition to the reprints, Playoff has bought back a quantity of 89 Score rookies including the Sanders, to be put in some boxes as a boxtopper.
While Score used simplicity to make its mark back into our hobby, Playoff used some glitz and glamour in its re-introduction of Donruss with 1999 Donruss Elite. While they cost nearly three times as much per pack as Score, the Elite base cards are thicker, sharper, and will definitely hold a greater value.
It won't be the base cards that get people ripping packs. The inserts are hot including tough parallels, tons of numbered inserts, game-used jersey cards, and autographs. Keeping with Elite tradition, Playoff has included the Passing the Torch insert set which is 18 cards, six with older stars, six with young stars, and six double-faced cards featuring one old and one new. The match up of Ricky Williams and Earl Campbell (shown above) as well as one with Barry Sanders and Walter Payton, make this a truly special insert set.
The game-used jersey cards, called Common Threads, are equally interesting and unique. Using the same idea, Common Threads come with either one jersey swatch or two on the card. Look for the Randy Moss and Randall Cunningham or John Elway and Terrell Davis pairings to be the most popular. Just 150 of each card was produced so they are a tough pull.
In all I believe it's a great start for Playoff in using its new brand names. I look forward to see what else they have planned and hope to see a baseball or hockey license going their way sometime soon. I'm off to the National Sports Collector's Convention in Atlanta so look for me there if you plan on attending, or check out the site as the weekend comes for some updates from the show.
ANDY
CHAT