Donruss Campaign
Page 5, Donruss Premium Giveaways
Every large company in the world offers incentives to buy their products, and premium giveaways are a part of doing business with their best customers. So far I've only obtained two premiums from the period when Pinnacle Brands owned the Donruss/Leaf brand name, but I suspect there's a lot more out there.

Frank Thomas Autographed Baseball with Leaf COA
(circa 1995)
This is the very ball that was given to a master account holder. I know because I was there when the package sent by Donruss arrived in the shop. (I regret not asking for the letter thanking them for their business as it would've compliment the ball) Still, you can see the Leaf COA is "complete" - meaning that it's still attached to the pre-printed form. Most of the COAs I've seen over the years have been detached from the form.

Personal Note: I'm still, even after all these years, investigating the form itself. Notice it says "Authentic Memorabilia From Leaf". The intricacy of the design, the detail, the indivdual certificate numbering - all point to a more complex plan on the part of Pinnacle Brands. However, to the best of my knowledge no such program was ever introduced to the public. It's my belief that this was a prototype effort by Pinnacle to see if they could compete with Upper Deck Authenticated™. But, for whatever marketing reasons, a full scale program was never launched*. (*see below)

A very interesting side note: Just before Pinnacle Brands went bankrupt, in the early summer of 1998, they were exploring many different strategies to boost falling revenues. One of them was their approach into the then-exploding memorabilia market. They called their program "PinnAbilia". It's only recorded use was a random redemption prize inserted into boxes of 1998 Pinnacle Plus. A lucky 50 cards would've entitled the winners to an indivdually numbered Nolan Ryan autographed ball. While none of the balls were ever signed (to the best of my knowledge) the cards themselves were indeed inserted as part of the progam. I know - because I busted one of the winning cards.
Check it out here.

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