So I may have gone a little crazy w/ 2015 Donruss

In my last post I shared the contents of a retail value pack of 2015 Donruss I picked up from my local Target store. I was enamored by the cards and inserts so much that I sought out what eBay had to offer in the area of Braves singles. Well as you'll see below I may have gone a little crazy with some purchases, but I scored them all for a song if you ask me.

Opening Day always gets me excited, however this year I'd be at the beach camping. I missed the first two Braves games against the fish in Miami, however I stayed glue to my phone trying to get updates on each game...that is when I had a connection!

Of course the wind was taken out of my sail Sunday night when I saw the news that Craig Kimbrel was traded to the San Diego Padres. My expectations for this season were already a little uneasy at best with the shake up new GM, John Hart has made. However I've tried to stay as optimistic as possible and none the less was please to see them Braves take down the Marlins in games 1 and 2.

I got home last night in time to watch the 3rd and final game in the series and wow, what fun it is to be watching baseball again. This just makes new card acquisitions that much more fun. I'll leave you with some images of my new 2015 Donruss pick ups, in the mean time I'm off to learn more about some of these new faces on the Braves that have impressed me early in the season.

Freddie is now the veteran on the team and has a lot of pressure on him as such. For many reasons I've gravitated to collecting more and more of his cards and these two sub-theme cards are great additions.

I always liked the old Production Line serially numbered inserts. Card looks way better in hand than the scan appears. Card has that rainbow "refractor" like look and is serially numbered to his .461 Slugging Percentage, 434/461.

Alex Wood is the other Brave that I've picked up the pace in collecting. I hate I missed his start in game 2 on Tuesday evening, but I'm looking forward to watching this young pitcher continue to grow and mature. I've already picked up the blue version of this beautiful auto so now to keep my eyes open for the red version numbered to /49.

Speaking of the red Signature Series autos, check out this Ron Gant! I'm glad older players were inserted into the checklist of this great looking insert set. Numbered 42/49, this card only set me back $3 believe it or not.

While labeled a member of the Astros, I could pass up this $2 auto of the young ace we picked in the Evan Gattis deal. This is one time where not having the logos on the cards doesn't hurt!

Lastly we have the former Brave, El Oso Blanco aka Evan Gattis. I hated to see this guy exit the club, but I can understand the move. I'm not sure his value would have gotten any higher and Christian Bethancourt was just waiting in the wings to show his stuff. Nice card design and for a change it's nice to get a small swatch of bat over jersey. B.J. Melvin Upton is in the same set, but unless someone sends it to me in a trade I'm not bothering with it.

Maybe I didn't go too crazy, but the initial offerings on eBay were pretty good and not many bidders either. I may have paid $15 total for these? And thanks to eBay Bucks none of that money spent actually came out of my PayPal account!

Pack Break: 2015 Donruss Value Pack

Panini has yet again revived the Donruss brand for the 2015 baseball season. If you remember I hosted one of my Affordable Group Breaks featuring 2014 Donruss. I enjoyed the break and the product, despite my disappearance from this very blog shortly there after!

While grabbing my first few packs of 2015 Topps Opening Day from Target earlier in the week, a value pack of 2015 Donruss caught my eye. New wax always makes me curious to the point where I'll buy one pack of just about anything to see what it's like.

The value packs boast 30 cards for only $4.99 (retail). In typical Panini fashion, there are tons of inserts and different levels of said inserts. Some inserts have been carried over from last year, such as Season/Career Stat Line. New to this years set includes many designs from past Donruss products. Painted Diamond Kings return along with other new stuff. Overall, non-base cards fall 1:5 packs.

I think I prefer this year's design over last year's just a little. Cards have a nice UV coating on the backs too. Don't remember if 2014 sported glossy backs or not. Granted the lack of a full MLBP license does suck, most of the images look decent enough. Freedie, Tony and Ryne are all in mid swing so you can't see where the team name on the jersey would be anyways. Same for Julio, however the lack of the team logo on his hat is painfully obvious.

Take the Braves for example. The base cards for the team start with #49 Alex Wood. Then #50 Freddie Freeman. Card #51 is Jason Heyward...now with the St. Louis Cardinals. #52 Justin Upton...now with the San Diego Padres. #53 gets things back in order with Julio Teheran. Small gripe, but still a gripe none the less.

Diamond Kings make their return with painted images. We also get an All-Time Diamond Kings set featuring retired greats. I think these look fantastic and I'm glad to have pulled the Iron Man himself. Some previous designs are paid tribute such as Studio, Elite, The Rookies and even Preferred. 

The Studio card of Jorge Soler looks decent enough, but I get more of a Pinnacle vibe than I do Studio. Perhaps if the card had a mauve boarder and the image was more posed.

I never cared for Elite so not much for me to say here. Still has the foil front.

The Rookies look pretty good. I even lucked out and got one of the serially numbered parallels of the same dude in the same pack! 031/106. Any Philly fans reading this that want it?

Now let me tell you about Donruss Preferred. I absolutely loved the inaugural release. From the metal tins the cards came in to the overall design and creativity (at the time) of the inserts. 

Even the autographed cards have a very familiar look. Check out this awesome blue serially numbered card of Alex Wood that just came in the mail. 

Does that design ring any bells? Leaf Signature Series? Yup. Who didn't like that set back in the 90's. I've already got a red serially numbered Ron Gant from this set in the mail and I'm trying to track down the non-numbered versions of both Gant and Wood. Love 'em...even if they are still sticker autos.

Overall it appears that 2015 Donruss is a solid double for Panini. I love the different Donruss brands represented in the set as it gives it some much need diversity. I've already crafted my want list with the few cards I'm looking for. The rest of the commons from this pack that weren't shown, plus the inserts have already been added to the Trade List so please make sure to check out those links in the right side bar if you're interested. Remember, if you see something you want and don't have anything I want please still let me know. My trades don't always have to be 1:1!