Some Modern Broders

There were a ton of unlicensed cards produced in the late 1980s and these came to be known as ‘Broders’ after Rob Broder, one of the first ones to produce them in large quantities. Typically, neither MLB, nor the players depicted on the cards had licensed the cards. This made them illegal and the trend quickly faded away after the producers started hearing from the image and trademark owners. These cards are typically not cataloged in any of the major checklist books and most collectors view them as an oddity and not a significant part of their collection. A few of the classic Broders are below. They are interesting in that there are so many different cards out there and I do occasionally pick up new ones when things are slow for me on my other lists.


It looks like someone has decided to revive the concept 20+ years later. I’ve been noticing several seemingly unlicensed cards appearing on eBay over the last year or so and wanted to show off a few of the Cubs here as they appear to be similar to the Broders from the late 1980s. They are credited to Superior Card Company on the card back and state that they are limited to print runs of 500 cards. They don’t feature an MLB Properties logo anywhere although they do show MLB trademarks. This leads me to believe they are likely not a legitimately licensed product. It remains to be seen how long they will be able to stay in business before they are caught. I've seen four Cubs cards, shown below.