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2010-11 Donruss Basketball
$3 per 10 card pack
24 packs per box
12 boxes per case
Box Break
3 Autograph or Memorabilia Cards Per Box - At Least One Autograph
More than 20 Inserts Per Box!
Find One Short Printed DUOS Insert in Every Other Box
Highlights
Classic Vintage Donruss Design!
Return of the Rated Rookie -Including Some Autographed Versions!
295 Card Base Set and Die-Cut Parallel Set!
Autograph Signers Include
John Wall, Wesley Johnson, Evan Turner and Other Top 2010-11 Rookies, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Magic Johnson, Derrick Rose, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Allen Iverson, Kevin McHale, Artis Gilmore, Clyde Drexler, and Many Other Current Stars and Hall of Famers!
Set Consists Of
227 Commons
35 Rated Rookies
30 Team Checklists
3 Player Checklists
Donruss is here for its first iteration of Basketball, and looks to invigorate feelings of nostalgia with its throwback design.
What We Pulled
Base
Kudos to Panini for bringing the Donruss product into Basketball. And I mean BIG kudos. The base cards were done beautifully, the best basketball base design so far this season. A stylized, full-color action shot of a player takes up most of the room on the card. There seems to be a hint of yellow/sepia color on the action shot. Player Name and Position appear on a horizontal blue line at the botton of card, and Team Name appears on a swoosh-like yellow line right above the blue line. The Donruss logo in silver appears in the lower right corner of the card, and the entire front is layered in gloss. Even the card backs have a retro feel, with stat lines and mini bios. Doesn't sound like much, but he results are amazing. A very nice retro design. Out of our box, we were able to pull 157 out of the 227 possible base cards with no dups, meaning a base set can be completed with only a hobby box and about 7-8 loose packs.
Rookies
The Rookies are also packing a retro feel. The classic Rated Rookie subset from Donruss products past is back for it's first go in basketball. It's one of Panini's best non-auto rookie sets so far in its two years of basketball. A very straightforward design, action shot covers most of the card. Two Blue and Orange horizontal lines at the bottom of the card contain player name, team name, and position. The Rated Rookie logo is in the upper left corner of the card, and the Donruss logo is in the lower right. The back features standard college stats and mini bios. Very great decision by Panini to include the Rated Rookie set in Donruss, and rookies should be very popular with collectors. We pulled 26 out of 35 Rated Rookies in our box.
Team Checklists
Team Checklists are back, and contribute to the old-school card nostalgia. The cards are presented horizontally, with a large team shot in the middle. The cards are nicely decked out with team colors. The team shots range from photoshoots of newly acquired players, photoshoots of a rookie draft class, on court and on the bench shots, to classic portraits of the entire team and staff. These cards may seem like insignificant pieces of the set, but I like them immensely. We were able to pull 23 of the 30 Team Checklists, meaning this card falls nearly falls 1 per pack.
Player Checklists
These are pretty standard checklist cards. The only significant feature of these cards are that they feature headshots of star players in the upper right corner of the front of the card. This continues the Retro theme, since players used to be featured on checklists in the olders sets of the '80s and '90s. There are three checklists in the set, we were able to pull two.
Parallels
One major feature of the Donruss product was a retro design. The other feature is die-cuts. Panini is trying to bring the once popular, long forgotten card technology back. The base set is littered with die-cut parallels, and so are the insert sets as you will see later on. The Rookies and Base share a similar parallel. They are the same as their counterparts, except the top is partially cut off, in order to make a rounded die-cut. The Donruss logo is also green. We were able to pull seven of these die-cuts, including one Rated Rookie. There is also a team checklist parallel, although the only added feature is the green Donruss logo. We pulled one. There's one more parallel within the set, the Press Proof. It seems to be the answer to the Topps Refractor/XFractor. These cards are nearly the same as their base counterparts, the only difference is the holofoil coating that almost resembles an Xfractor. We pulled a Patrick Patterson numbered to 100 copies.
Inserts
Donruss is heavy with inserts, with one box guaranteeing at least 20 pulled. All the inserts are limited to 999 copies. Like the base set, all the inserts have die-cut parallels, which are surprisingly not numbered, and Press Proof parallels numbered to 100 copies.
Gamers
A very simple insert. This set features tough and competitive players. Most of the card is taken up by an action shot of a player. The Gamers logo is in the top left corner of the card, while the Player's name and Team name are featured near the bottom right corner. We pulled one regular and one Press Proof.
Magicians
This insert features players who are dazzling with the rock in their hands. Pretty straightforward design, a horizontal card with an action shot in the left side and team colors are featured prominently. We pulled 1 regular and 1 die-cut
Masters
The Masters insert set focus on retired legends who were masters of their craft back in their playing days. The cards run horizontally, with the right side of the card being covered by a black veering line containing the player's name and team name, along with block lines in the team color running down the middle right of the card. In the middle of the block line is a basketball with team logo inside, and a player action photo is just to the left. We were able to pull one regular and one die-cut.
Production Line
The Production Line features star players with their most prominent statistical average from the 2009-10 season. These seem to be variations of the Gamers insert. They are basically the same, except that the background of player's action shot is mostly whited out. These are more common than any of the other insert sets, as we pulled three regular and three diecut.
Hits
This product offers 3 Autograph or Memorabilia Cards per box with at least one of the hits being an Autograph.
Production Line Game Used
These are the exact same as the Production Line, save the fact that a GU Swatch is embedded in the card, in the shape of the statistical number featured on the card. We were able to pull a Dwyane Wade limited to 399 copies.
Magicians Game Used
These are the same as their Production Line insert counterpart. A Game Used swatch has been added in the empty space above the Donruss logo. Unlike many other Panini Game Used parallels, the swatch fits in perfectly with the card. We were fortunate enough to pull a Prime parallel swatch of Steve Nash limited to 25 copies, complete with a nice swatch and a nice shot of Mark Cuban in the background.
Rated Rookies Autograph
Autographs come at least one per box. Our auto was a parallel to the Rated Rookies set. An autographed sticker is applied to the lower middle of the card. Our box yielded a Quincy Pondexter numbered to 599 copies.
Final Thoughts
Panini starts off 2011 with a bang with this dynamic product. The product's focus on inserts and retro feel make Donruss a success. The base set with the Rated Rookies and Team Checklists were beautifully conceived and should sell well. The Press Proofs and Die-Cut parallels were great ideas. The insert sets were a bit bland, but doesn't deter much from the product. And with box prices hovering around $50-$60, this makes for a great value buy.
Pros
- Excellent base card design
- Team Checklists are a plus
- Die Cut cards make for nice insert pulls
- Great decision to produce Rated Rookies
Cons
- Insert Sets a bit bland
Ratings
Value = 5
Innovation = 5
Fun and Experience = 5
Rebuy Value = 5
I give this product an A+
NPN Info
NPN 2010-11 Donruss Basketball
2300 E. Randol Mill
Arlington, TX 76011-6333
Hand print your name and complete address on a 3x5 card and use a #10 envelope.
Canadian residents answer this question: 567 plus 179 divided by 129 times 903 minus 906 = ?
Postmarked by 3/9/11
Limit to 2 entries per household.
Only one card per envelope, mailed separately.
I would like to thank Panini & Card Collectors World for giving me the opportunity to review this product.
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