Hobby Quick Hits Ep.146 "Legends of the Hobby" Lud Denny Jr.

Transcript

probably quick hits

delivering that breaking hobby news

directly to your earlobes

we want to know those hot drops from the

card shops

[Music]

hey everybody another episode of hobby

quick hits coming your way this is one

of those uh we've done these before we

used to call them uh hobby histories and

take a person from The Hobby no longer

with us and kind of Deep dive their

career and their accolades and you know

I did it because we had a lot of new

people in the hobby uh may not you know

know about the history of the Hobby and

maybe in some cases don't care about the

history of the hobby but in some cases

they do and I wanted to give some people

no longer with us like I said uh credit

for their place in the hobby but but

really you know when doing like a

biography right talk about everything

not all just good stuff right if if

something bad happened to give the whole

sort of background so we're not going to

do these all the time maybe every couple

months I think we've done uh Alan Rosen

we've done uh Bowman and today's subject

is a little more modern uh even though

you know Mr Mr Rosen was was Modern too

but he kind of covered decades uh the

gentleman we're covering today is

ludwell Denny Jr also known as La Denny

founder of Pro Set uh initially football

but they branched into other things I

also want to give a shout out to a

listener who you know like I said we

used to call these hobby histories

and a listener Mike lack uh message me

said uh he appreciated the shows but why

not call them you know Legends of the

hobby call these kind of shows Legends

of hobby So based on Mike's uh advice I

I know he said you you've used that term

John I'm just repurposing your line but

with him reaching out to me that's

gotten me to change the title of these

episodes when we do them to Legends of

the hobby so this I believe is the third

Legends of the hobby if you will

it's LED Denny Jr from Pro Set Fame uh

we're going to start the show but we're

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let's check out this week's hobby wax

releases take it away Owen

hey guys I'm from sports car shops cover

the weekly leashes on the 15th we have

diners football

Panini Immaculate Panini Mosaic

basketball fast break top shares one

baseball Hobby and jumbo on the 17th we

had donors basketball prism Collegiate

draft picks basketball on the 22nd we

have Bowman Chrome University football

Leaf in the game itg kmu sports

Panini macklet WWE

Phoenix football prison premieres League

Soccer

rookie in Stars Football

on the 22nd also we have super fast

break football Edition

Panini resolution soccer on the 24th we

have Lee Signature Series basketball

Panini Elite extra

Edition baseball and last but not least

Panini prism Collegiate draft picks

basketball Choice have a great time

Let's Go Round The Hobby verse and catch

up on this week's hobby news

all right appears the Panini Babe Ruth

Cut Auto

dilemma is over

the card that came out with a George

Brett Auto instead of a Babe Ruth Otto

Panini has finally chimed in they are uh

have received the card uh and are

putting in a Babe Ruth Cut Auto they

even went as far as the show a picture

of where they cut the Babe Ruth Auto out

from and just below it was a Lou Gehrig

Auto so look for a Lou Gehrig Auto cut

I'm sure sometime in the Panini future

good to see that Saga sort of uh put to

rest but it doesn't you know doesn't

change that it did occur and uh you know

someone aired with the brat inside the

Ruth card but uh Panini is making it

right

morphy's auctions

just sold a you know brick together

eight packs of the 1952

famous baseball tops

packs many times we see that at the

national uh that eight pack brick sold

for 873 thousand dollars which includes

a 23 percent buyer's premium no uh no

details on the buyer or what the plans

for the eight packs are just that it

brought in 873 thousand dollars

what's back the McDonald's All-American

cards tops is doing them again

March 1st Chrome caps Chrome McDonald's

all Americans are going to be in pack

form 20 packs through a box four packs

or four cards

to a Pack 12 boxes to a case two back

two Autos uh per box and this will be

again on March 1st it will be a hundred

card set obviously there will be

parallels and inserts and uh two Autos

guaranteed uh per box so uh they're back

foreign

[Music]

[Applause]

right you heard some highlights from

Joe Cool Joe Montana's uh legendary Hall

of Fame career arguably still the

greatest quarterback to ever do it uh he

putting some of his personal collections

uh into Golden's auction including his

gold jacket for the Hall of Fame some

Notre Dame items and and many NFL

awards and trinkets and whenever I see

this I always

wonder if

you know is it Financial is he I

wouldn't think Joe Montana needed the

money uh he's 66 years old so is he you

know maybe his family or kids not

necessarily don't are not interested in

keeping those which you know also find

hard to believe so I always wonder when

you see a player who's still around

start to sell off their personal

collection of accolades

what's going on so you know obviously I

don't know but I just just strikes me

that way so if you want to own a part of

Joe Montana or his award or his gold

Hall of Fame jacket the Golden's uh is

where you want to head all right our

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[Music]

all right let's get into our subject

Mr Gladwell Danny Jr uh son of a

minister born in 1943 just before

Christmas in Inglewood New Jersey but uh

came to call Texas home uh some things

he did before he launched Pro Set he was

a brand of pilot from 1973 to 1981 an

avid pilot and from 1978 to 85 he sort

of made his fortune as an oil

Wildcatter it was also the creator of

the 1986 game armchair quarterback and

got licensing to do NFL sunscreens uh

you know the things you put on your

windshield or your car and hot days to

keep you inside cool uh he did NFL ones

of those and I believe it was those

two football related items that sort of

got him noticed by

the NFL and if you know anything about

the hobby around

1988 football cards are really only five

percent of the hobby market uh they were

sort of boring uh I don't want to say

forgotten but kind of Forgotten they

were like you know the those stepbrother

of baseball and and even other sports

and so you know uh La Denny I think

reached out to the powers that be in the

NFL

and talked about you know producing

cards uh that were more exciting that

would bring more attention to football

cards and do it in a different sort of

way than you know what tops uh was doing

uh at the time and you know in defensive

tops a little bit baseball was their

their bread and butter and football was

just a license they had to produce uh

cards but you know Pro Set and let any

pitch hey we want to do things

differently we want to be more proactive

and was granted

licensing uh and we actually became the

first company to get direct licensing

including access to the NFL's own photo

archive so there was more of a

partnership between pro set in the NFL

than tops in the NFL and such So Pro Set

was born they started very small in a

1500 square foot office to launch their

company and uh rumored uh a lot of Denny

told his landlord a quote I don't know

if we're going to need it after the

first month as he was a little nervous

with this new Venture whether they

they'd survive or not and survived they

did they you know get a little ahead of

ourselves they wound up eventually being

in a 44 000 square foot location having

225 employees at their Peak and

eventually as most know or remember got

into production of hockey cards golf

carts racing soccer and even music and

movie carts some of their cards were

produced in Spanish and also King's

English one of the things pro set wanted

to do like I said was things differently

so they featured more color under cards

more action shots more in action photos

players draft picks they did more draft

picks before they actually played in the

league and they had you know the

cardstock was was also thicker with some

uh you know coding on it and you know

wanted to make waves and wanted to

announce their presence and when they

launched the company it was 1989 and it

was really a great year to do so because

it was as many know was Barry Sanders

Troy Aikman and Deion Sanders uh rookie

year for cards the other thing that Pro

Set did a little differently which I'm

surprised you know even all these years

later these card producers don't do but

they own their own

printing press and produce the cards

themselves uh and people you know have

confirmed that was the case it allowed

them to produce cards quicker get it to

Market uh faster 1989 became sort of

when the modern football card Market

started would Pro sets launch other card

companies started producing football

cards as well as we know tops was

already in that market but soon the

follow was score which had uh started

with 1988 with baseball but now they

would enter the football card Arena all

World Proline Wild Card Upper Deck in

Pacific soon followed but Pro Set was

sort of leading the way uh during that

time period in 1991 the company

made 125 million dollars in 1992 that

number went up to

165 million dollars their 1990 releases

were full of Errors spelling stat uh

mistakes and um you know uh they were

either criticized for it for lack of

attention to detail or for some

collectors uh it was a Chase to get some

of those error cards or even the

corrected versions as they did in many

cases issue uh corrected versions and so

that became sort of a Chase but many of

their card producing counterparts

pointed to it as you know a lack of

caring a lack of proof reading and and

sloppiness and you know with their their

holding the football card Market in

their you know maybe they did get a

little complacent I know you you know

ultimately their downfall was over

production we know what that error

wasn't just relegated to football but

prosep was the football equivalent of

you know the junk wax error but you

can't deny what they brought to the

table they pushed other card companies

and you know let's talk about some of

the other uh products like Danny and Pro

Set uh produced after getting you know

licensing uh with the NFL a year after

launching their football in 1989 and

1990 they launched hockey

and they uh a golf which the golf was a

hundred card uh complete factory set

first set they've ever introduced in

Factory form was that 1990 uh golf set

uh they went on to release uh

1991. we all remember it right yo MTV

wraps cards including my one of my

favorite groups the Beastie Boys

considered their rookie cards and a lot

of other musical acts in that release

NHRA Racing uh some movie cards

including for Disney Beauty and the

Beast mermaid and Dinosaurs

1991 also saw the company go out and

acquire the Parkhurst hockey name hadn't

been produced in many many years and

with them already doing hockey they

wanted to bring the Parkhurst brand back

so they launched that in the 1991 1992

hockey season cost them you know some

money to get that licensing also in 1991

they wanted to up their game and issue a

football product uh with a high-end feel

and Pro Set Platinum football uh was

born I remember uh those days vividly it

was a a thick cardstock very high gloss

and uh sold very well my only problem

was they never stopped the presses and

you can find boxes of that now anywhere

between 10 and 20 dollars I can tell you

in 1991 those were going for well more

uh than ten ten dollars in 1992 they

released the Guinness Book of World

Record cards that was a worldwide

release released in the United States

Canada Australia South Africa and the UK

and uh was in uh different languages

as well blood Denny was an opportunist

so you know when the Desert Storm uh

storm uh war broke out uh he produced

cards in in 1991 uh as well featuring uh

you know improminant people uh from that

campaign uh you know a lot was a risk

taker uh he launched Pro Set Gazette

which was a free magazine he tried to

launch a show uh Nationwide but was

local in Dallas called uh profiles was

going to be a collector based uh TV show

like I said it did air in Dallas but he

wanted to uh go bigger uh with it you

know Pro Set got to be known for some

really different things you know they

started producing uh coaching cards uh

in you know in their football sets we

all remember the Pro Set Santa cards

right couldn't they were chased to get

one of those and then the ultra rare

Lombardi trophy hologram card that to

this day is still desired by uh

collectors and hobbyists and uh still

holds a pretty uh good value as it's uh

you know very short printed some

personal notes about uh you know a lot

of Denny's like I said known as a risk

taker sort of a a gambler like to have a

lot of fun one live his life you know

sort of that pilot you know fly by the

seat of his pants uh you know people

knew him would tell you uh love to put

on parties have open bar enjoy himself

his wife Jan was the Executive Vice

President of pro set for a time as well

uh and uh she just was sort of a larger

than life figure wanted to uh also add

that he produced soccer cards in the UK

Germany Spain and France and what a lot

of people didn't know at the time he was

really efforting to try to land a Major

League Baseball license so yeah people

probably didn't realize how close

you know they were the scene Pro Set

baseball that obviously did not

uh occur so it didn't happen but you

know with gambling right with risk

taking sometimes you don't always win

and so he he built up some debt Pro Set

lost some of its luster with the

overproduction of it and things started

to go bad it was then in 1992 that you

know Pro Set and loved any owed money to

uh insisted that he be ousted from the

company which is what exactly happened

and that was really you know the end of

the hobby career for La Denny at that

point Parkhurst hockey was acquired by

Upper Deck in 1990 293 and they started

producing uh the Parkhurst line after

acquiring it from pro set those at knew

LED Danny Jr would tell you you like I

said he was a go-getter you know wanted

what he wanted was willing to take risks

and sometimes those didn't always pay

off there's a you know a couple of uh

Denny cards in some of his uh product

releases that are interesting uh to this

day and some people still look for him

and you know whether you liked them

disliked um you know people sometimes

blame them for the overproduction of the

cards and the downfall of pro set and

that they didn't last a long time they

sort of uh you know Rose to stardom and

burned out and faded away rather quickly

you know most people would tell you

Denny wasn't a bad guy just uh you know

very outspoken very outgoing and wanted

to make things happen and you know

frankly he did right we still talk about

Pro Set to this day and in 2021

you know Leafs Brian Gray procured uh

the name and bought the company and now

they produce uh Pro Set cards under the

uh Leaf brand all right I think that's

going to wrap up our Legends of the

hobby Series this week focusing on

ludwell Denny Jr he did pass away at the

age of 66 in

2010 he did some other business ventures

post uh post hobby career including

Insurance salesmen and some other uh

titles that he held so but regardless uh

a very prominent figure in the

especially in the football card market

with the launch of Pro Set 1989 and like

I said the the brand lives on uh today I

want to thank a couple people uh you

know in putting this episode uh together

uh Rich Klein wrote a great article back

in the day about lud that I referenced

and Dr James Beckett did about four to

five episodes of sports cards insights

those episodes are number 494 494 B 680

and 685 and that's just a great show in

general those are just uh pertaining to

blood Denny and or pro set in the

entities as well check those out if you

want to learn even more so uh thanks

everybody for uh listening uh we'll do

these Legends of the hobby uh probably

every other month or around that we have

a list of folks to cover if there's

someone you would like us to cover that

maybe not on the list I haven't

announced the list but if there's

someone you want to learn more about in

you know Legends of the Hobby and

history of the hobby uh let me know

reach out give us some feedback and

we'll make sure uh we cover those

deserving of an episode thanks

Hobby Quick Hits Ep.146 "Legends of the Hobby" Lud Denny Jr.

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