Box Break and Review: 2014 Donruss Series 2

My thoughts on 2014 Donruss Series 2 ...

1) The base set violates The First Commandment of Baseball Card Product Development.

(In case your wondering, Our Lord and Savior, Jefferson Burdick, was given these Commandments by God Himself one day while he was out on a stroll on the banks of Lake Onondonga.  It's in The Bible, trust me.)

The First Commandment of Baseball Card Product Development: Thou shalt not short-print thy base cards in a Flagship product.

Between the 30 Diamond Kings (of which there were already 30 in Series One), and 25 Rated Rookies, over a third of the base set is SPed.  And we're not talking one-per-pack SPs either.  You only get ten in a 24-pack Hobby box. Which brings us to point #2

2) The base set is way too small for a product like this.

155 cards (100 if you subtract the SPs) for a flagship product.  I mean, really?   Why even bother with it then?

MEMO to Panini: If you want collectors to keep ripping packs, don't gimmick-up the base set.  MAKE THE BASE SET BIGGER!

3) Haven't we seen these guys before?

As I document in the video, many of the same players who had base cards in Series One, also have base cards in Series 2 -- which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a second series, doesn't it?

Look, I see where Panini's thoughts were.  Series One was such a hit with collectors, it made sense for them to release a second series -- even though they had no plans for S2 originally.  And since there are only so many players who switched teams in the interim, and only so many rookies that got called up, they couldn't just fill out the rest of base set with a bunch of Ham & Eggers.

Hopefully for 2015, Panini will plan out their checklist better and avoid a repeat of this year's repeats.

4) Donruss Elite needs to come back as a standalone product.

In lieu of releasing it as its own distinct product, each pack of S2 has one card from a 100-card Donruss Elite set.  These foil-fronted cards are, hands-down, the highlight of Series 2 and it makes you wonder why Panini didn't release Elite on its own.  Maybe for 2015 we'll get a proper Donruss Elite Baseball.

Speaking of Elite ...

5) Did we really need four different "Elite" inserts?

In addition to the one-per-pack "Elites," there's also "Elite Dominators" and "The Elite Series" ( continuations of the Series One inserts), and "Elite Series."  I get that The Elite Series is the "Donruss" insert and Elite Series is the "Elite" insert, but come on!  They couldn't think of anything different?  And it's not as if there aren't any Donruss Elite inserts from the past collectors wouldn't want to see back again (Title Waves, Primary Colors, Passing the Torch, Back to the Future, et al), am I right?

6) Tracy Hackler is The Man, and you know it.

For one week, I want to be Tracy Hackler.

Or two.

Or ten.

Or 1000.

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Don't get me wrong, I like this product.  It's not the "flagship" product I would have preferred -- it's more "Donruss Archives."  But for all it's faults, 2014 Donruss Baseball is still better then anything Topps has made this year.

RATING: 3 Gumsticks (out of 5).

On-Location Video Box Break: 2013 Triple Play

Because FUN IS GOOD!!!

See, it's easy when you don't have a license.

Hey Panini, Want to Make a LeBron James Football Card? For Reals?

Instead of a fake Miami Dolphins card that you'll never be able to legally produce, how about this?



Just a thought.

The real GAMECHANGER! for 2012. Panini is back in baseball (sort of)

Last week on Cardboard Connection Radio, I flippantly remarked that I'd be willing to take Panini/Donnruss-Playoff back as a licensee if only to break up the Topps monopoly. Well today, it was announced that
Panini has been granted a license from the MLBPA.

So our prayers have only been half answered.

I could be wrong, but 2014 is the year Topps' exclusive license with MLB Properties expires.

Anyone know the number to the HR department at Panini America?

And now a Special Comment.

There are a million-and-one other things I'd rather be doing than this blogpost. Hell, I don't even collect hockey cards.

The last time I seriously cared about hockey, Ron Hextall was still playing for the Flyers. But I would be shirking in my responsibility if I did not comment on this issue.

A 100-card boxed set where 95% of the boxes are purposefully short a card is, by definition, NOT a "set."

PERIOD.

FULL STOP.

END
OF
DISCUSSION.

That is all. You are now free to more about the cabin.

And now, a message from The Upper Deck Company -- courtesy of Stale Gum's Robot Theater.

Going into the Basement.

In about a month, a Master's in Applied Economics from George Mason University will (hopefully) be conferred to me. The next few weeks will be hectic for me, and as such, will probably not post anything here until then.

If you need your Stale Gum fix, there's always the ol' Twitter feed.

In the meantime I'll leave you with this...

The "Great Video Trading Card War of 2011" is the cardboard equivalent of the East Coast/West Coast rap wars of the mid-90s. Panini = Bad Boy; Upper Deck = Death Row; and Topps are the "Dirty South" rappers who just "Have something to say" at the Source Awards.

Let's all hope this doesn't end in violence.

Card-Ola: 2010 Absolute Memorabilia Football

So, now that Tracy Hackler is working for PanPlayRuss, or whatever they're calling themselves now, I now have two (count 'em, two) different card companies sending me unsolicited wax boxes.

Since I only collect baseball cards, I had been five years since I ripped any wax from this company -- not including Panini World Cup stickers, of course. So with this box, I was curious. Donruss-Playoff baseball sucked, and I was glad when they had their MLB/MLBPA licenses pulled. But have they changed in the five year's since?



More rainbow foil. More gimmicked rookies. More mindless parallels. New name, same ol' Donruss.

Memo to MLB Properties and the MLBPA: Please do not give this company a license. Ever.

One of these things IS kinda like the other...

When I first saw this on page 14 of the February 2010, Beckett, I couldn't believe my eyes.




I know it's only unlicensed Minor League stuff, but still...

Rand-dumb Thoughts on the Pani-Russ Deal.

So Panini is about to buy-out and takeover Donruss. I guess I have to write something, huh? Alright. Here it goes...

Unlike basketball, I still believe that baseball is a sport that can support more than one licensee -- albeit 34 product releases is still about a dozen too many. With the MLB/PA contracts set to expire at the end of this year, will Pani-Russ outbid Upper Deck for yet another license?

And if Pani-Russ does get a baseball license, then what? I know I'm in the minority when I say this, but I was happy to see Donruss go at the end of '05. I may be jumping the gun here, but I hope Pani-Russ gets a license. But with that said, I hope it's the Donruss of the mid-to-late-90s and not the Donruss-Playoff of the early-00s.

If only to satisfy the 10-year-old in me, I hope Pani-Russ brings back the stickers.

What did we learn today?

Ten years from now, we'll look back at the events of today, January 27th, 2009, as the day that changed The Hobby forever. Much like that day in 1980 when Judge Newcomer broke up the Topps monopoly; that day in 1988 DeWayne Buice went searching for Chinese food, and walked into The Upper Deck sports card shop instead; or that day in 2005 when Donruss's MLBPA license was revoked; the day MLB properties filed suit against Donruss on the same day Panini acquired the exclusive rights to produce NBA cards and stickers will be, I believe, a turning point in the history of The Hobby.

First off, the suit was something Donruss should have seen coming. When the sell sheets for Donruss Threads were first issued, and showed most of the logos weren't completely airbrushed out, in my mind a lawsuit was inevitable. It wasn't a matter of if D'russ would get sued, but when. But even if Donruss eventually wins or settles this suit, they've all but lost any chance they had (however remote) of ever getting their MLB license back, and they only have themselves to blame.

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As for Panini, most collectors probably remember them from their late-80s sticker books, or from their European soccer cards. So what can NBA collectors expect? Their primary business is still in stickers and collectible card games (both sports-related and non-sports). It should be a given that they'll try to import both into basketball. What they've never done before is an "American" style sports card set. Panini has never made an autographed card; nor have they made a game used card; and most of their existing products sell for less than $1/pack.

Can Panini adapt to the tastes of the American collector with more upscale products? Or will they stick (no pun intended) with what works in Europe? We won't know until the first sell-sheets come out, but judging from this quote from Sal LaRocca, Executive Vice President of the NBA's Global Merchandising Group, we can expect basketball cards to go down-market.

“Our exclusive partnership with Panini provides us with the best opportunity to recreate the trading card market by developing the key retail channels with a variety of products and promotions geared towards all consumer segments.”

"Recreate the trading card market." That's a interesting choice of words, eh? And Mr. LaRocca may have a point. Over the past decade-and-a-half, as the price of a pack of cards has skyrocketed past the $5, $10, $20, $100, and $500 price-points, total revenues have plummeted, and that is no coincidence. It's a trend that started in the mid-90s across all sports, and despite the best efforts of the existing manufacturers (or perhaps, because of them), shows no sign of letting up. So maybe the NBA giving an exclusive license to a company with a track-record of affordable and collectible products, might not be so bad for basketball collectors.

"A variety of products ... geared towards all consumer segments." Again, an interesting choice of words. The NBA has given Panini the right to produce anywhere from 15-20 card sets per year, so variety should not be an issue. With that many products, there ought to be something for every collector. However given Panini's efforts in European Soccer cards, I have a feeling that the era of the $100/pack product may be coming to an end -- at least in basketball.

Here's one thing that should give basketball collectors pause. Although an established company in Europe, Panini hasn't had a US presence since the early-90s. They are, for all intents and purposes, a start-up company. The first basketball sets are traditionally released in the late Summer/early Fall, which is six to eight months from now. Will Panini be able to get a product out the door by then? And will it be any good? Or will they half-ass it like 2001 Donruss baseball?

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And what about Topps and UD? Will they go the unlicensed route and produce sets of retired players and draft picks? Considering that they still have Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and others locked up to long-term exclusive contracts, Upper Deck might issue single-player sets. However today's lawsuit against Donruss may put the kibosh on that idea.

Finally, it will be interesting to see if Panini will be content with just an NBA license, or if they'll try to acquire another sport's license. Both Topps and Upper Deck's MLB licenses expire at the end of this year, and if Panini makes the kind of offer to baseball as they did with basketball, 2009 may very well be the last year for Topps and/or Upper Deck baseball.