2024 Donruss Cubs

 Before I show the cards, a question.  Didn't Panini lose both their MLB and MLBPA licenses?  Last year's set was made up of retired players and players not yet on the 40-man roster.  And I haven't heard anything about that changing.

 

So how is it that there are 2024 cards of Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong? Do they have specific contracts with those players?

Sammy Sosa is the only other Cub in the blue bordered subset.

 

The green cards are the Rated Prospects, and it has three Cubs.

This year's Donruss has Diamond Kings as an insert set instead of being a subset of the main set as in the past.  This is the only insert I bought.

1989 Sportflics Fixed

 The 1989 edition of Sportflics saw the most Cubs cards to date, with 13.  Every card has the same three-picture format of a portrait and then two consecutive action shots.  The player and team names were in a variety of color combinations and the colors changed along with the picture.

2024 Topps Chrome Cubs

 This year's Chrome set is the 29th edition.

You'd think that after nearly 30 years, the technology would have advanced enough that the cards wouldn't be curled.  This is a stack of nine cards that arrived from Sportlots.  New cards, yet bowed like a bridge.  Maybe Topps is waiting until the 30th anniversary to release the flat version of Chrome cards.

The big news with 2024 Chrome is the increased set size.  It has been in the 200 - 255 range over the past several years, but this year's set has 300 cards.  Eleven of those 300 curled cards belong to the Cubs.

 

 

 

 

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 21,863 Cubs cards from 317 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1964 Topps #424 Dick Bertell Bertell was the Cubs starting catcher in 1964 but hit just .238.  

1980s: 1981 Topps #676 Cubs Team  This card is a notable last for two reasons.  It is the last floating head Cubs team card and also the last team card during the Wrigley ownership.

1990s: 1992 Kaye's Sports Cards #1 Ryne Sandberg Insert This card came inside the August 1992 edition of Allen Kaye's Sports Card News and Prices.

2000s: 2005 Vine Line Carlos Zambrano This card is part of an eight card pack that was given to anyone who subscribed for one year to the Cubs magazine Vine Line.

2010s: 2018 Kris Bryant Highlights #3 How crazy is it that Topps put out an insert set of 30 cards featuring highlights of a guy with three years MLB experience.  He averaged 152 games over those first three seasons. which were the peak of his career. In the following seven years he's averaged just 83 games a season.

Eighties Alphabetically - General Mills

 The cereal giant's Canadian subsidiary had a three year run of stickers or cards from 1985 through 1987.  MSA was the producer and lacked an MLB license, so all the logos have been removed.

Their first release, in 1985, was a sticker set.  Boxes of Cheerios contained a two-sticker panel.  There were 15 different panels that featured 26 players (a few players were on multiple panels).  Ryne Sandberg was the only Cubs player among the 26.

 

The 1986 edition also came in boxes of Cheerios, but instead of stickers, they were "Baseball Players Booklets."  There were six different booklets, one for each of the two Canadian teams and one for each of the four MLB divisions. Ten players were featured in each booklet.  Three Cubs were in the NL East booklet.

The 1987 edition was the last, and it too was in booklet form, with the same six categories.  The only Cub in the NL East booklet was Ryne Sandberg.

1988 Sportflics Fixed

 The 1988 version of Sportflics used the same basic formula as in the past.  The cards have either a head shot and two action pictures or three action pictures.  There are eight Cubs cards and six of the eight have the headshot.

One new feature of the design is the inclusion of player's name, number, and position.  The lettering changes colors too.  On the Cubs cards it goes from blue to white.