Breakin Wax:2015 Donruss Baseball Hobby Box

Last years edition of Donruss baseball, especially Series 2, was by far my favorite baseball card bust of the year. Yup, I said it and would say it again with full confidence. NO OTHER PRODUCT IN 2014 TOUCHED 2014 DONRUSS SERIES 2!!!

 

In every box of 2015 Donruss Baseball is 24 packs per box with 8 cards per pack. Each box will run you just under $70 and you will find three hits per box. There will also be more than 50 INSERTS!!

BASE CARDS

The design of this years Donruss baseball base cards is a bit overtaken by border in my standards. It's always so hard for me to look at baseball cards without the MLB team on the helmet or hat. There are some great shots of individual players, not much in terms of action shots here, but my eyes immediately jump on the missing logos. I hope MLB wakes up soon and realizes that they need more than one licensee.

I must also make note that I do like the Donruss throwback symbol a lot.

There are 150 cards in this years base set consisting of veterans

and Retired players such as Frank Thomas and Pete Rose.

One thing I didn't read about anywhere that caught me off guard was these black/white parallels. Same number, different photo and color.

 

It also appears just like in my basketball review of Donruss yesterday, that Panini Sp'd the rookie cards in this product. I only pulled 4 (sorry one wasn't shown). This means these fall at an alarming rate of 1:6 packs. This adds value to the rookies and makes if fun to have a chase for the set collectors out there. I was glad to see Pederson in my box.

INSERTS

Every box should have the following amount of inserts, four 1981's, four Diamond Kings, 12 Donruss Preferred, one Elite Series, one Dominator, one Longball Leader, one USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, one All-Time Diamond Kings, two The Rookies, two Stat Line and one Press Proof.

The base set all have parallels from Stat Lines to Press Proofs. All of which are numbered.

  

Panini went old school with including 1981 Donruss design as one of the inserts. These as well have parallels.

See!

In every pack of Donruss, you get one of these Elite inserts. I really like the design of them. I was happy to find Kris Bryant who I only have one rookie of.

Panini also added more nostalgic feel with Dominator and Elite Series two fine looking inserts. Can't forget about...

The Rookies nostalgia too!

We continue the nostalgia with Diamond Kings and All-Time Diamond Kings. These are just like the originals. Except for the really high gloss.

(parallels too)

These are very cool Completely die-cut.

Even more nostalgic adds, sorry for the blurry pics, these are Production Lines.

And then Panini took a classic product and added a "new times" touch to Donruss Preferred. I wonder if this is a sneak peek at a future full line product....

A die cut low numbered parallel.

THE HITS!
So far this product has been built on nostalgia and throwbacks. I think this theme carries over to the hits as they have a retro feel to them. Not much to show here in terms of big hits, but there are some to find. Panini has inserted original autograph buyback cards from names like Frank Thomas to Cal Ripken Jr to Derek Jeter. So there are bigger hits waiting to happen. Just not in my particular box.

The Jersey Kings look nice and I like that they used a crown die cut around the jersey swatch. Just adds more to the card especially because they are single-color swatches.

Here is my autographed hit. If you know me by now you know I am totally digging this rainbow foil auto.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Donruss has a great price point for the value you find and the hits you could get. I cannot argue with that. I will say that this years version fell just short of last years full excitement but still was a fun bust. The inserts are bold, colorful and nostalgic.If you have been a collector for awhile and remember these classic designs and throwback product names, you will rather enjoy opening up some. I think even newer collectors can appreciate what Panini is doing here.

Once again, the biggest catch for me is the fact that they don't have logos. But, that's just my thing and others may not be bothered by that. Overall, a very underrated product that has plenty of potential and is worth the risk.