This past weekend we broke 3 boxes as part of our weekly Affordable Group Break. This wasn't planned per se as I had just planned to rip the Signature Rookies and Studio boxes...but I know we have some members in the FB group and readers of the blog that enjoy new product. I stopped by my local LCS and they had recently gotten in a reorder of 2021 Donruss, so even though the price was a little steep, I grabbed it anyhow. This led to a long, but fun Friday night. Since the live video clocked in close to two hours, I decided a quick recap post was in order.
We'll start off with the box of 1994 Signature Rookies KroMax. I grabbed this box not really knowing much about it, but I'd never seen it before and the box said one autograph included. I always like mixing things up a bit so here we go.
The base set is small so there were a lot of doubles. I'm pretty sure we could have completed two base sets! On the insert front we did get a few, such as these two First Rounders - this insert set highlighted some of the collegiate players that were to make a big splash at the next level. We got Donyell Marshall and Sharon Wright. Exciting, eh?
Super Acrylium are some interesting looking cards. This checklist features NBA players as opposed to collegiate players. All the cards in this product have protective covers (think Finest) so the front of these cards look rather bland, but flip them over and it gets interesting. I would've loved to peel one of these cards to see if they look as cool as I think they do.
The box mentioned an autograph, but I had no idea it contained redemptions. Blah. Not only did we get a redemption we got 3! That's almost like a slap in the face. It's a real shame too as that Dave Cowens would have been a nice card.
Time to move on to baseball...so let's fast forward a few years to 1997 with Studio. This large box contained 18 large envelope type packs that contained five cards and one 8x10 Portrait. We also had a good chance at some nice inserts too like Hard Hats and Master Strokes.
The Press Proof parallels are pretty sharp looking. The Silver versions had 1500 made while the Gold had 500 made. These are not serially numbered however.
I was really hoping we'd pull a Hard Hats insert as I think these are really cool. I love acetate and die cut cards and this set offers both. Serially numbered to 5000, these are some sharp 90's inserts. The Master Strokes cards revoke a Upper Deck Masterpiece feel to me so I've always been partial to these. I was hoping we'd see another White Sox player however...
The 8x10 Portrait cards seemed to be a hit with the crowd - Griffey and Ripken were two of the better ones pulled. The Master Strokes carried over to the 8x10s, serially numbered to 5000. I can already see these being fun to ship when the time comes!
The final box of the night was 2021 Donruss. I've been building the Donruss set since Panini brought the brand back in 2016, but with the current landscape of collecting I decided to bow out in 2021. I'm not wild on the design (or the price of boxes!), but it ended up being an extremely fun box nonetheless.
The design reminds me of 2021 Topps with the diagonal bits, but I think Topps outperformed Panini when putting the two sets beside each other. There are tons of small variations with the base set and I'm not about to try and break all those down, but here are a few examples of the base cards pulled.
These Red parallels are numbered to /2021. Unlike the Topps Gold parallels that are also numbered to /2021, these were a little bit more plentiful. These aren't too bad, but looking at them makes me want a candy cane.
Career and Season Stat Line parallels return again with each numbered to a specific stat for a career or a season.
Starting with 2020 Donruss, Panini came up with some wild parallels and this idea has carried over to 2021. First we have a Liberty parallel of Aaron Nola, then a Presidential parallel numbered to /50 of Lucas Giolito. There are more crazy parallels to chase too if that is your thing. I can say building the "rainbow" of your favorite player is a little of a challenge.
These two Rated Prospect cards look pretty great. The Zac Veen is numbered ti /999 while the Wander Franco is numbered to /149.
The box guarantees 3 hits and this Red parallel of Eloy was one of them. It features a small piece of gray jersey and is numbered to /99.
Our other two hits were both autos, from the Signature Series set. Sticker autos, but not that bad of a design. I'm told Babby Dalbec is a very good prospect in the Red Sox organization...I'm a fringe Sox fan since my wife's family hails from the New England area so I'll have to read up on him. Anderson Tejeda is our other auto, but I don't know much about him.
This Donruss box seemed to offer a lot of variety and a lot of color. It was a fun rip and if boxes weren't $150+ I'd love to rip a box for myself. The break as a whole was a lot of fun and I'm glad it seems that the majority of the participants were happy with the outcome. Until we do this again next week, I'll see you all later!
