The National Lacrosse League surprised fans and collectors this week when it announced a new exclusive licensing agreement with Leaf Trading Cards. The agreement grants Leaf the rights to produce a product line that will include “exclusive autographs, game-used memorabilia, and limited-edition cards.” This will be the first league-wide box lacrosse set since the 1992-93 STX set featuring the old Major Indoor Lacrosse League, an early iteration of the current NLL.
Leaf as a brand has been part of the hobby since the 1940s, when a company by the same name produced some of the first post-war baseball, football and boxing sets in 1948-49. Leaf was also the Canadian arm of Donruss, Pinnacle Brands and Playoff in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the current version of Leaf was founded in 2010 and has no connection to the previous card manufacturers, beyond simply sharing the name.
In recent years, Leaf has made its niche in the hobby by offering both licensed and unlicensed products, as well as a combination of flagship-style sets and print-on-demand single card offerings. The company’s previous lacrosse card experience is basically two POD cards of high school players and a series of Chris Gray cards that were issued several different ways in 2023.
A very brief and unofficial review of social media responses to the announcement suggested mixed feelings among collectors. The majority of lacrosse fans, and seemingly newer collectors, were excited about a new line of NLL cards, while others preferred to reserve judgment until they saw the final product.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR LACROSSE CARD COLLECTORS?
This seems to be the question on everyone’s mind. What do we think about Leaf producing a new series of NLL cards, and what will it mean for the lacrosse card genre?
The answer is that we don’t yet have enough information about the actual cards or how they will be presented, so it is simply too early to tell. Leaf has the ability to produce a quality product, especially when it has a license in place as is the case with the NLL. That means team names and logos will be part of the Leaf cards and we should not be offered cards of our favourite players in photo-shopped, generic uniforms listing them as a “box lacrosse player.”
If forced to give my thoughts about these cards, I would simply say that it depends on how much effort Leaf puts into the product. The company’s Chris Gray cards were not well-received by collectors. With Gray, Leaf offered roughly 40 different versions of what was essentially the same card, each with a serial-number between 1-5, with parallel names and designs that were simply over-the-top: “Prismatic Parrot Auto”, “Crystal Clownfish Auto”, “Halloween Exclusive Auto Spider Webs” and “Christmas Exclusive Auto Candy Canes”, for example.
The product had the aura of a cash grab and, though the cards were printed in very small quantities, they received very little interest on the secondary market. If the new NLL release follows a similar path, the final product could actually do more harm than good to the lacrosse card genre.
However, if Leaf puts forth a concerted effort to understand box lacrosse, the players, and what drives fandom, and then helps to educate collectors about the sport and these new cards, then it could put together a very special product that has the opportunity to be a cornerstone in the lacrosse genre. As the first league-wide NLL release in 30+ years, this set will be loaded with rookie cards (or first box lacrosse cards, depending on how we view the two games). Combine a star-studded checklist with interesting (and appropriate) inserts and parallels, mix in some autographs and the first-ever box lacrosse relic cards, and you have a recipe for something really special that could have long-standing value.
My personal concern is that simply dropping a new product with little effort to help collectors understand box lacrosse could result in frustration among the new fans we are all hoping to draw into both the sport and this section of the hobby. The PLL has the vastly superior social media presence of the two major leagues; if collectors have paid attention to lacrosse cards at all, they have only seen PLL products released.
NLL fans understand the differences between the two games but, if the goal is to grow the lacrosse card collecting base, then the newcomers will likely have a lot of questions pertaining to these two versions of lacrosse and which one is “better.” This issue ultimately gets back to our sport having multiple styles, leagues, governing bodies and even Halls of Fame that all want to grow the sport, but do so independently of each other. Again, for those who are already passionate about lacrosse, it is not such an issue. But it can all be very confusing for potentially interested parties that don’t already have a basic understanding of the lacrosse scene.
The other thing we don’t yet know how these cards will be sold. Will they be offered in single packs like the recent PLL issue, or in a hobby box format? How large will the base set be? What about the print run? Will these cards be readily available in Canada or will they be much easier to find in the U.S.? Will customs costs drive the price of unopened material above acceptable levels north of the border?
I am sure that Leaf and the NLL have already considered these issues and planned accordingly. We, as collectors, will get more information as it is released. But regardless of how things ultimately play out, it is exciting to have a new NLL offering to collect. If nothing else, it will be a new experience for all of the box lacrosse fans who weren’t around to rip STX packs back in 1993. That is a good thing no matter how you look at it!