Wednesday, June 21, 2023

2023 Donruss "Cubs"

Panini has not had a license from MLB for years.  That hasn't stopped them from putting out baseball products, because they did get a license from the players association, giving us years of ugly-looking logoless cards.

Now Panini doesn't even have a players license.  Does that stop them from putting out a 2023 edition of Donruss baseball?  

Sadly, no.

The ugly got uglier because the 2023 edition of Donruss is comprised of retired players and prospects, which allows them to skirt the lack of both an MLB and MLB Players Association license.  The set has 290 cards.  The Diamond Kings subset remains.  Rated Rookies has been replaced by Rated Prospects.  The final 50 cards in the set are Retro 1990 and have a suedo-1990 Donruss design.

There are ten Cubs cards, though none of the cards feature a current Cub.  I picked up the set for just one reason - I have all of the previous Donruss sets.  I got the cards from a seller who had the complete team set, so my investment was minimal.


Ryno is the Diamond King and this marks the fourth time has has been the king.  His previous cards were in 1989, 1991, and 1993.

  

  

 

Five Cubs are in the base set, two prospects and three retired players.

 

Mark Prior and Lee Smith have the Retro 90 cards.

 

Here's a real1990 card so you can do a comparison.

 

Wrapping thing up, these two are the Rated Prospects.

3 comments:

  1. PCA has two cards in the set? There's plenty of Cubs prospects they could have chosen from to spread the wealth.
    Also, it's weird having a Diamond King featuring a non-current player.

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  2. Why would the borders on the 1990-style cards not be all red? Trying to appeal to Night Owl by reminding him of the 1975 set? (I don't think it's going to work.) So many problems inherent in the set, they don't need to add an unforced error like that.

    I see the Mets also have 2 guys with regular cards AND "Rated Prospect" cards in the base set. Well, they're good guys to have if they're limited. The Mets checklist isn't bad, considering. I guess I'm kind of glad this exists. Be more glad if they give better value for money than Topps--blasters under $20 (or at $20 with a good amount of cards) would be nice.

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  3. Wow. Not only does PCA have 2 cards, but he's wearing 2 numbers!

    ReplyDelete