Feeling Nostalgic

Long time collectors know how important the Donruss brand was in our rated rookie collecting conquests back when we were young--back in the overproduced product days.  So many of those cards that were important then are faded and bent now, left to sit in 5,000 count boxes for years on end.  Every once in awhile I go through those boxes of old cards and when I do it is like they are new again to me.  I am also brought back to a time when collecting was simpler--there were no game used cards or one of ones or redemptions.  Just cards.

When I saw that Donruss was coming out with a baseball product I was immediately interested. More rated rookies with current players? Cool!  I asked Rich to get some boxes and he very generously did. I bought one and watched it opened online.

I like the design of the insert cards. I am not too crazy on the design of the base cards, however.  It is the inserts (of which there are many) that make this product desirable.

That said, above are my favorite base cards I pulled.  I got three cards for my PCs here--Roy, Strasburg, and Machado.

 There are also "Press Proof" parallels like in years past.  This is a sweet one of Griffey Jr., numbered /199.

This card design brings me way back to the late '80s, early '90s. The only thing "off" is the Donruss logo, which is retro looking and way off of the old logo design for the brand.

The colorful "no-no's" insert includes one card I must chase: the Roy Halladay version of course.

Halladay also makes the "Hall Worthy" insert list.  I am also chasing that card.

One of the hits I got was this Brandon Barnes sticker auto. I was hoping for a Don Mattingly, but Barnes made the appearance.

Who doesn't remember Diamond Kings?  Diamond Kings are back in this set, in all their glory.

More inserts: Breakout Hitters and Pitchers.

Donruss also included numbered cards with stats on them, and the stats dictate the number of print runs.  An example above is Shane Victorino, who has 222 career stolen bases, thus these cards are numbered out of /222.

This is one seriously ugly jersey card of Curtis Granderson.  There is way too much going on with the card, and the yellow lettering takes away from anything else.  Also, Yankees.

The press proof version of the Diamond Kings cards are shiny, and numbered.  This McCutchen is out of /199.

My second auto hit was a Reymond Fuentes.

There were a few more inserts and parallels, but none that I have pictures of at the moment. If you are really, really interested in seeing what else came out of the box, including the Josh Hamilton insert pictured below, you can check out the video.

Here is the whole break.