This will be a brief post, but it's something that grabbed my attention. While perusing through the giant stack of cards that Ted from Crinkly Wrappers sent me, I came across one colorful shiny card that had some writing on the back that caught my eye.
Great looking card, 1998 Pacific Aurora Jose Cruz Jr., card # 23
Here's the back:
Check out the writing on the bottom of the card "Pacific baseball player cards are not manufactured, sponsored or authorized by any team or league." Logos appear on both front and back though. I know that Pacific produced cards for a few years afterwards, I wonder if it would have been different for Upper Deck if they had labelled their cards this way as well.
Probably not, but I found the parallel kind of interesting.
Thanks for reading, Robert
MLB filed a lawsuit against Pacific in 1998. There isn't much online about Pacific at all, but it looks like Pacific eventually received a full MLB license that year and kept it through 2000. Prior to 1998 they were producing licensed bilingual cards.
ReplyDeleteThings were different in '98, too. There several other manufacturers and a trading card boom occurring thanks to Sosa and McGwire. Topps, Donruss/Pinnacle/Score, and Fleer all had major licenses and adding a fourth would mean more money. Compare that to 2010, when Topps wants to monopolize the baseball market again with their exclusive license, and MLBP is probably under a lot more pressure by Topps to crush Upper Deck for good. Upper Deck had language similar to Pacific's on their cards, packs, and boxes, but 2010 was a different climate from 1998. It is an interesting observation, though. And Pacific *loved* their parallels.