Quest for 1998 - Part 7 Donruss Collections

In 1998, Donruss had four primary sets: Donruss, Leaf, Donruss Elite, and Donruss Preferred. They also produced a set called Donruss Collections which featured cards which were parallels of these four sets. The cards featured the same design and photography as the regular sets but were either printed on thin plastic or are plastic coated. It's hard to tell. The background of each card had a sunburst kind of effect which was raised from the surface of the card and the word Collections was embossed in the background as well. Each 5-card pack featured 2 Donruss Collections Donruss, 2 Donruss Collections Leaf, 1 Donruss Collections Elite. A Donruss Collections Preferred was inserted 1 in 2 packs.

There were 750 cards in the set, 200 each of the Donruss, Leaf and Preferred and 150 of the Elite. Also, the Preferred were limited to 1400 sets.

As if this wasn't confusing enough, there were also parallels of the parallels called Prized. The Prized parallels, in addition to all of the above, had a refractive rainbow finish. They were also limited in production although they were not serial numbered. I just picked up 3 of the 4 parallels.

Donruss Prized Collections Donruss #26 Jeff BagwellThe Donruss Prized versions were limited to 560 sets. Unfortunately the rainbow colors didn't show up in the scans very well, but this is a pretty attractive card.

Donruss Prized Collection Leaf #295 Craig Biggio
The Leaf version was limited to 400 sets.

Donruss Prized Collections Elite #511 Derrek Lee
The Prized Elite cards were limited to 220 sets.

Although I have one Donruss Collections Preferred card, the Prized versions are limited to 56 sets. The Jim Thome card is currently being offered on eBay for the Buy It Now price of $22.50. That's a bit more than I'm willing to spend.