Flashback Product of the Week: 1997 Donruss Studio Football

I can still remember going into my first card shop and seeing boxes of ‘97 Donruss Studio sitting on the glass case.  At the time of their release they were quite popular because inside each pack you would receive two large portraits.  The popularity didn’t last long and after 1997 Donruss never made this product again either for football or baseball.  A few years ago Upper Deck brought back this idea with a product called Portraits but it too didn’t reach much success, even though it contained relics and autographs.  I guess collectors find it a little harder to store photos rather than standard sized cards.  Both companies may have been able to avoid these failures if they would have looked back to the ’80’s when Topps produced a jumbo card sized product which didn’t take off.