2014-15 Panini Donruss Basketball hobby box

Sport:  Basketball

Product:  2014-15 Panini Donruss Basketball

Break Date:  February 28, 2015

Hit Breakdown:   Three hits (autograph/jersey)

Summary:  I was intrigued by Panini's revival of Donruss basketball when I saw them preview it on their website, mainly for the nostalgia factor. The base card design is a loose throwback to 1987 Donruss baseball, and they also pulled in many of the insert sets from back in the day. Early returns on various forums suggested that it seemed to be a fun break, so I figured I'd break a box.

All in all, I think I did pretty well. But, the caveat is the whole "flipper vs. collector" factor. I'm a collector at heart, so I'm looking for cool cards that I can keep in my collection. If you're buying to resell, then this probably isn't the product for you. It will leave you with a TON of base cards and low-value inserts and parallels that will sit forever and a day.

But, I've felt that, at least this year, Panini has done really well with their low-end products. I really thought the two boxes of 14/15 Hoops I opened were a fun break.  

So, I got to opening, and the first pack delivered the first really nice card - an Elite Julius Erving red parallel, numbered to just 25. Elite fall one per pack, and it was nice to hit a serial-numbered one, and a low-numbered one at that.

There was also a Kevin Love Production Line Press Proof /25 that came out a few packs later. So, in a product chock-full of inserts and parallels, getting two that were really low-numbered was a total win, and they were big-name stars to top it off.

Each box of Donruss comes with three hits – two game-used cards and an auto in most cases, but sometimes two autos and a jersey. This box was the two-jersey set up. The first jersey card was a Jersey Kings Eric Bledsoe, which is a nice enough card. The second was a Gamers Dirk Nowitzki, a decent name but a card that looks generic enough that it could have been pulled from any number of Panini Products.

The autograph was, at the very least, "on-card," per se. It was a Rated Rookie manufactured patch Kyle Anderson. I really don't love the manufactured relic design, and never really have. But, given the choice of a lower-end guy on a sticker and a lower-end guy on card (or cloth, as the case is), I guess I'll take the latter.

Some decent inserts were in there also - an Anthony Davis Court Kings (like the old Diamond Kings), and a Lebron James Scoring Kings. There were also a ton of numbered cards and Swirlorama parallels. But, in the entire box (which is a lot of cards), there was no Andrew Wiggins and no Jabari Parker, which was kind of a bummer. 

When all was said and done, I was pretty happy with the box. I would obviously have liked to hit a bigger name on the auto, but at least it's on-card. And, I was pretty stoked with the two /25 parallels. I'm not sure I'm in any hurry to open another box because it is a lot of volume I'm adding to the closet. But, for the right price, I'd probably pull the trigger again.

Grade for the product:  B+

Grade for the break:  B+

Rated Rookie Signature Patches:  Kyle Anderson
Jersey Kings:  Eric Bledsoe
Gamers Jerseys:  Dirk Nowitzki
Elite Red /25:  Julius Erving
Production Line Press Proofs Silver /25:  Kevin Love
Press Proofs Purple /199:  Danny Green
The Rookies Press Proofs Purple /199:  T.J. Warren
Scoring Kings Press Proofs Purple /199:  John Havlicek
Stat Line Career /159:  Tiago Splitter
Stat Line Season /333:  Steve Nash
Elite Dominators /999:  DeAndre Jordan
Production Line Swirlorama:  LaMarcus Aldridge
The Rookies Swirlorama:  Bruno Caboclo
Swirlorama:  Carlos Boozer, DeMarcus Cousins, Russell Westbrook, Joe Johnson
The Rookies:  Elfrid Payton, Julius  Randle, T.J. Warren, Kyle Anderson, Gary Harris, Nik Stauskas
Court Kings:  Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, Paul Pierce, Gordon Hayward, Thaddeus Young, Jeremy Lin
Scoring Kings:  Lebron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mitch RIchmond, Clyde Drexler, Oscar Robertson, Kiki Vandewegh
Production Line:  Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry (x2), DeMarcus Cousins, Jeff Teague, Al Jefferson