Just before Christmas I received a big box of basketball cards from Billy (Cardboard History) which was loaded with 2015-16 Donruss cards. I had previously received a handful from Jon (A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts) and when I added them to the cards Billy sent I was at about 35% completion of the 200-card base set. Since I hadn't completed a basketball card set in at least 20 years and this was a colorful, affordable set I decided to go for it.
I had made a resolution not to spend any money on cards in 2018 (which I've already broken, btw) and so I ordered a bunch of card supplies and retail wax (including the Hunger Games boxes I discussed here) from Dave & Adam's late in 2017. Originally I had only planned to buy one box of Donruss basketball, but at $19.95 each I couldn't resist adding a second box to the cart.
In the first pack of the first box I pulled this Marc Gasol holo parallel:
These are very cool cards, but unfortunately they're only one per box (I got Markieff Morris in box #2)
Because every Donruss set must include a nod to their baseball beginnings, there are Rated Rookies short-prints and The Rookies inserts.
I don't mind pulling two The Rookies dupes; they're not part of the set. Getting two dupes of Rated Rookies is a problem since there are 50 in the set and only 6 per box. Fortunately Jon sent me a couple so I do have 12.
Passing/Rebounding/Scoring Kings are a slightly less obvious nod to the traditional Donruss 'Diamond Kings' (I'm assuming the reason Panini didn't use the catch-all term "Court Kings" has something to do with Star) I think these are three per box, but I got a low-numbered gold parallel in each box as well. The serial numbering corresponds to the player's career average.
The other inserts are kinda bland. Elite/Extra/Futures all look similar so I wont bother scanning them all. And why do the Futures cards have the RC logo? They’re inserts, aren’t they? I'm fine with the RC designation when it's on a base card - but not on an insert, and not on an Update card if they already had a RC in the main set Topps.
Also, I pulled an autograph in the second box - which is included on my 'trading post' post.
As for the base set, I knew I'd get a fair amount of dupes between the two boxes and the cards I received previously. With that said, the collation was...interesting. Nearly all the dupes in the first box were the lower numbers, which meant that the cards I needed were almost all from the first half.
After the first box I needed cards #6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41, 46, 50, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 74, 75, 76, 80, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 119, 156, and 161.
The second box helped a lot, but it wasn't enough to complete the base set. I still need #28, 35, 41, 46, 50, 65, 70, 76, 83, 91, and 100..in addition to 38 short prints. The complete list has been added to my updated Wantlist tab.
If anyone is interested in base or insert cards from this set let me know. I have plenty to trade, including dupes of nearly every card from 101-200.
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I would be interested in Cleveland Cavaliers cards. Love the look of the Mark Price Passing Kings card; he was my favorite Cavs player growing up.
ReplyDeleteI could send you a PWE full of Cavs (and a couple Indians) cards. Do you have anything on my wantlist?
ReplyDeleteI will look over your lists and see what I have. I could also get together some cards of the teams you collect.
DeleteFor the price, these don't seem like they were too bad of boxes. I had no idea that the Rated Rookies were considered short prints. I hope to be attending a fairly big show in a couple of weeks, and there are always at least two guys there who have a selection of the last couple of years worth of Donruss and Hoops, so now that you have a list up, I'll look through them and see what I can do. Although, I suspect the Rated Rookies would have been easier find last year, or the year before, but if I do go, it certainly doesn't hurt to look (and buy, provided their reasonably priced).
ReplyDeleteI don't know for sure that the rookies are short printed, but I assume so because they're inserted at the same rate as Upper Deck inserts Young Guns hockey RCs (1:4 packs/6 per box)
ReplyDeleteIf you do find any of the cards I need I'd definitely appreciate the set help. Not sure what I could send you in return; I've checked your wantlist twice and sent everything I could - which wasn't much.