2008 Donruss Threads Century Stars

Year: 2008

Manufacturer: Donruss

Set: Threads

Card Number: CS-13

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Century Stars

2008 would mark Donruss' return to the baseball card game.  Donruss lost their MLB license in 2005 and never got it back.  I don't remember if there was a big tado over this set, but you can clearly see parts of logos and team colors looked true.  Of course Upper Deck made sure that you couldn't get away with this anymore. And this would be the last year before Donruss was aquired by Panini.

 I was really excited when this set came out.  Robin was featured in the main checklist and was in the inserts and had lots of parallels, relics, and autos to chase.  Through my collecting life I've gone through ebbs and flows with collecting.  That mainly had to do with what I was doing for work.  My first be reawakening came in 2002 when I discovered ebay and had time to spend lots of money.  It didn't hurt, or maybe it did, that 2002 was also a great year for Robin's relic cards and inserts.  But my second great awakening came in 2008 and I'll be honest I've been riding the crest of that wave for awhile now.  

The base insert itself is fine, but like all the inserts it's made for the relic and auto versions.  There are also serial numbered parallels to chase. 

2008 Donruss Threads Century Stars Blue Jersey relic card

Year: 2008

Manufacturer: Donruss

Set: Threads

Card Number: CS-13

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Century Stars 

Relic Type: Jersey

Card Attributes: Memorabilia, Serial Numbered

Serial Number:060/100

I'm not sure why, but I was all over this set when it came out in 2008.  It might have been that Robin was in the set and had a bunch of new cards for me to chase.  We also get one of our first tastes of  a non-MLB licensed baseball project.  But here Donruss gets a few liberties, things it could not get away with now thanks to Upper Deck's 2010 baseball set and lawsuit from Topps.  You can clearly see that there is no team name on the card, but there is a piece of the Brewers's logo visible, although not fully, on the batting helmet and chest.  The back of the card also clearly states, although very small, that this card is not authorized by the MLB or team.  But not having the blatant air brushing and uniform color change makes these cards very appealing.  It doesn't hurt that the card also has the Brewers color scheme.  

Robin actually has three different relics in the set and a couple autographs.  As a guy who collects Robin's cards I also pay attention to little things like that this card has two colored relic swatches that were  used.  This blue one featured and also a plain gray swatch.  There is no differentiation within the set, meaning both colors were mixed into the 100 issued cards, but for a Yount collector they are two different cards, at least for me and I'll feature a gray swatched card sometime in the future.

2004 Donruss Throwback Threads Century Stars

Card Manufacturer: Donruss

Card Set: Throwback Threads

Year: 2004

Card Number: CS-48

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Century Stars

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 1471/1500

Some times I really miss all the different card companies being out there.  I don't mean card companies using old imprints. I mean back when Donruss was not part of Panini, when Fleer was not part of Upper Deck, when O-Pee-Chee use to copy Topps.  And I miss inserts like this believe it or not.  This is a typical insert from the mid-2000 by Donruss.  This base insert is an after thought. It was created mainly for the relic, autographed, and relic auto versions of this insert and that's why I like it. It's an orphan so to speak, the red headed step-child of the group. And even though this card is serial numbered it's still easy and fairly cheap to find.  Robin has all the parallels too. He has an autograph, relic, auto relic, prime relic (which I'm assuming is a patch piece), a prime relic auto, and also the Spectrum foil board parallel numbered to 100.   The relic was placed where the star is and the sticker autograph was run along the bottom part of the card.

I think I covet these base cards more than their parallels simply because I like that Robin gets included.  And for any player collector that's big.  I like the old mid-70's photo of a young Robin with a clean shaven, smiling face and old school Milwaukee hat. But I find it funny that Donruss chose to use the Brewers current logo.