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Company History
In 1954, brothers Donald and Russell Weiner became owners of the Thomas Weiner Company, a manufacturer of Super Bubble gum, hard candy and suckers. Using a combination of their first names—Don and Russ—the brothers formed the Donruss Company, beginning the run of the second-oldest card company today. Donruss begin in the industry by making a variety of entertainment card sets, including products based on hit TV shows like "The Monkees" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." Donruss remained active in the entertainment card market in the '60s and 70s with titles like "Saturday Night Fever," "Elvis Presley" and the hugely successful "Kiss" set based on the legendary '70s rock group.
Baseball cards offered obvious potential for the future, and once Topps' monopoly over the baseball card market ended in the late '70s, representatives from Donruss immediately flew to New York to meet with Major League Baseball in an attempt to get a trading card license. Granted the desired baseball license late in 1980, Donruss rushed out its debut baseball product in just a few months and became a player in the baseball card market.
In 1982, the popular Diamond Kings cards made their debut. Diamond Kings is the longest running subset in the sports card market and remains a wildly popular part of each Donruss set. It was 1984 that marked a turning point in Donruss baseball card history with the release of that year's set, noteworthy for its inclusion of New York Yankees rookie Don Mattingly and the fact the cards were in short supply for the first time. Continuing its momentum, Donruss produced a corresponding baseball set for Canadian collectors in 1985 known as Leaf. Pioneering the growing rookie card craze, Donruss produced a 56-card boxed set known as "The Rookies" in 1986. Featuring the top prospects in the major leagues and available only in hobby shops, the set was an instant success.
Continuing their success throughout the remainder of the decade, Donruss launched its first premium brand in 1990 called Leaf Baseball. The following year saw the debut of Studio Baseball, which was the first black-and-white card set issued in more than 30 years and spawned many similar sets from competitors.
Donruss responded to the industry slowing down in 1992 by attaining a NHL license and producing Donruss and Leaf hockey sets for the 1993-1994 season, becoming a major player in baseball, football and hockey throughout the '90s. Reacquiring a license from Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association in 2001 allowed for the release of 2001 Donruss Baseball, which incorporated 1999 and 2000 "Lost Years" sets for avid collectors of Donruss baseball cards. Now making a name for itself with several innovative autograph and memorabilia insert programs, Donruss maintains it's standing as a company renowned for heritage and innovation.
Founded in 1992, Playoff has established a well-deserved reputation in the realm of sports collectibles as the manufacturer of the finest, high-end trading cards available at any price. Absolute, Contenders, Prestige and Momentum brands have given collectors premium innovations and features such as extra-thick card stock, TekChrome printing technology and the industry's first leather cards with the debut of Pigskin Previews in 1995 Absolute Football.
Playoff's brands have long topped many industry publications' hot lists, highlighted by the Peyton Manning and Randy Moss autographed rookie cards in 1998 Contenders Football, which was also the first set to feature an all-autograph rookie set. Stepping to the forefront of the hobby's memorabilia boom in recent years, the 2001 Quantum Leaf Football Gamers insert was the first to feature six swatches of game-used jersey, while 2001 Honors Football debuts with eight jersey swatches in Rookie Tandems/Quads Materials.
Heralded for quality and value, Score's groundwork was laid in 1970 with a company called Optigraphics, which was known for its advanced printing technology. 1983 marked Optigraphics' first move into the sports market with the manufacture of multiple-image discs for 7-Eleven stores to be given away with Slurpee drinks. A smashing success, the Slurpee Disc utilized the lenticular printing process allowing the image to change, and it became the most successful promotion in 7-Eleven history.
Riding the Slurpee Disc success wave, the company gained baseball licenses in 1985 and produced "Magic Motion" cards under the name Sportflics. Besides the obvious technology, the Sportflics cards were revolutionary in that full-color photography was seen on the backs of cards for the first time.
That same attention to detail was brought to conventional baseball cards in 1988 when the company released a baseball set under the brand name Score. Instead of traditional spring training portraits, Score favored action shots from the actual Major League Baseball games.
Score obtained a license for football cards in 1989 and promptly produced a card set that many believe single-handedly lifted the football card hobby to new heights. A superb rookie class highlighted the importance of this set, which was celebrated with the reprinting of twenty 1989 Score cards and inserting authentic 1989 rookie cards to mark the set's tenth-year anniversary in 1999.
Dealing into the burgeoning collectible card industry at the turn of the millennium, Score has designed and published award-winning collectible card games to its fans with the recent production of Dragon Ball Z, named "Best Collectible Card Game of 2000" by InQuest Gamer and "#1 Most Popular Card Game of All Time by Players Under 15" by Scrye Magazine, beating even Pokémon in the survey.
Score's rich heritage in sports trading cards, combined with its award-winning collectible card games, promise to deliver for years to come the excitement and quality that Score's fans have come to expect.
In 2004, the parent company Donruss/Playoff L.P. purchased the naming rights and logo's of the Pacific trading card company. Pacific Trading Cards, Inc. had produced cards for three of the four major sports in its history, but the most significant impact the company had was in the production of NHL cards.
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Card Company Profiles