Monday, April 6, 2015

Review: 2014-2015 Donruss Basketball Hobby Box

Do you like retro feel products?Were you a fan of Donruss of the 90's? Do you collect basketball cards? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you will appreciate the power of 2014-2015 Donruss Basketball.

In every box of 2014-2015 Donruss basketball is 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. Boxes will run you a little under $70 and carry three hits per box. Boxes are also heavily loaded with insert content.

BASE CARDS

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the base cards, but you will get the point in a second when you see the rookie cards as they are the same design other than the added Rated Rookie. You can also see the base card design featured below in the inserts section.

There are 200 cards in the base set with the soon to be mentioned Rated Rookies.

This was an interesting twist to the product,seem as if rookies were limited in the product or what I would consider base card Sp's. Out of the 24 pack box I only found 6 rookies meaning they fall at a rate of 1:6. I haven't been able to confirm this, but it seems to be that way with baseball as well. If this stands true, it not only puts added value onto them, but it makes set collecting a bit more fun as it will be a chase. To me, that's the biggest thrill of trying to complete a set. Having to chase down those missing singles and how excited you are when each one arrives in the mail. That also adds value on the set.

I like the base card design despite the thicker border, but the photography is very nice. So it evens it out. For the rookies, the throwback appeal of Rated Rookie is a draw in for me as a collector from the 90's.

INSERTS

The inserts in Donruss are one of the biggest draws to me about the product. They are well designed and with so many of them being numbered they bring added value to a box.

This product overall has a ton of throwback designs especially the inserts. Just take a gander at the Donruss logo. Panini hit a lot right on the dot in terms of this. The nostalgic insert and parallel sets that are included are Court Kings, Elite Series, The Rookies, Production Line and Scoring Kings. They’re all well represented in this triumphant return of Donruss Basketball. We will get to these throwback inserts in a second.

The base cards in Donruss all have parallels. They range from Press Proofs to Stat Lines that range in numbering and go as low as to 1. My box had three base card parallels including a Chris Bosh Silver Press Proof numbered to 25.

My favorite base card parallels are these Swirloramas. So cool looking. I just wished my camera could have captured them better.
Now onto some throwbacks!

The Scoring Kings and Court Kings  have a canvas feel to them. Brings me back.


Inserted one-per-pack, Elite can be found. I like the design as it strays away from the usual silver background.

The Elite also have parallels. They are numbered all the way to one. I landed a Elite Red numbered to 25. Love the rainbow appeal.

A couple other inserts in Production Line and

The Rookies that include top rookies from this years class and uses the throwback design in doing so. Great way to capture them.

Elite Dominator looks awesome. Cracked ice appeal and very reminiscent of the 90's design. These are numbered to 999.

Some of the inserts in the product also have parallels from Stat Line to Press Proofs. Here are three that I pulled.


THE HITS

The hits in the product also have a throwback appeal as well. This Gamers jersey card feels like it would have been produced in the 90's. I was a bit surprised with all of the numbered items in this product that this jersey card wasn't numbered.

I really liked this design. The added rainbow foil was a big plus.

And my final hit of the box was a player that seems to have been around for centuries in Jason Terry. This was nice looking autographed card as well on the Elite design. There are a wide variety of these die-cut autographs to pull as well from the base Die-Cut ones numbered to 249, the Red Parallel I got numbered to 99 all the way to a Black Parallel numbered to 1.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I think with a great price point, tons of numbered and fun inserts, great base card photography, and a chance at some big hits, Donruss is a great way to go.

Sometimes the simplest of products can be the most fun.

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