[djohn]

When Donruss introduced Studio in 1991 the cards were unique in that they took studio photos of players instead of on-field photos. They had some great inserts for the first few years, and I will probably highlight one or two of them later, but not at this time. By the mid-90s the US economy was booming as the Internet was spreading. With this boom in the economy came the influx of more and more people charging everything on credit cards. Studio came out with a set that was meant to look just like a credit card in 1995, but what made it even more fun was that they made 2 parallel sets that were on plastic stock and rounded edges just like a credit card. They even had raised data on the front of the card in the same position as a credit card (for card number, name, expiration date, and member since date). In fact they even named the sets in the same manner made popular with credit cards Gold and Platinum, with the Platinum being the tougher pull (just like in credit cards, where platinum cards have higher credit limits and are harder to get). For today's card I selected the 1995 Studio Platinum card of Albert Belle. A player who was huge in the 90s, but with a lot of controversy over the years and eventually faded away. It looks like Albert is looking at the fact he's on a Platinum card and giving it a thumbs up.