First Look: 2015 Donruss baseball cards
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Donruss is back for 2015, too.
Panini America revealed on Friday the first glimpses at and the basic details of 2015 Donruss, a follow-up to the surprise release of a year ago that prompted two series of cards after several years on the bench.
Set to arrive on Feb. 25, it will include three autographs or memorabilia cards in every 24-pack hobby box with buyback autographs of Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr. Cal Ripken Jr. and Don Mattingly in the fold.
The base set will consist of 150 cards — a mix of active and retired players — while a 50-card 1981 Donruss set also will be found. The standard set as well as the 1981 set will have parallels. There will be nine types of parallels with none numbered to more than 99 copies.
Among the insert inclusions will be a five-card Tony Gwynn Tribute set, a new 30-card offering of All-time Diamond Kings, a 20-card Production Line insert and a Signature Series insert. Production Line will be limited to no more than 49 copies per player, while the Signature Series will showcase 95 players — only 30 of them rookies. Production Line will have an autograph parallel, while a third autograph set will be called Preferred Pairings. Among the younger signers will be Rusney Castillo, Javier Baez and Kennys Vargas.
Preferred makes a baseball comeback as a 40-card insert set with diecut Cut to the Chase parallels limited to no more than 49. Rated Rookies get the diecut treatment in an oversized 10-card set that will also have a Gold version for collectors to chase.
Each box will include more than 50 insert cards. A preliminary checklist was not announced.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
I think these base cards a re a little too plain for me and don’t “pop” enough with out the MLB license. But I will give Panini credit for the inserts that come out of the product. Those have been some nicer looking cards…
These cards look dreadful. The border design is horrible and the donruss logo might as well be the star of the card. It is huge. All that and no logos. Yuk! I’ll still trade for my PC Players, but I will have to be desperate to break these.
looks better then last year
Donruss is a breathe of fresh air. In a market monopolized solely by Topps, it’s nice to have some variety. I enjoyed last years return and am looking forward to this years edition. Love the 1981 design! Diamond Kings are always a favorite as well.
Ugliest cards I’ve seen in a long time. I won’t be buying, even on eBay.
Wow. Words can not express just how ugly these cards are. Memo to Panini: You’re not Topps. Vintage designs work for them because, well, they’re Topps. And you’re not. Stop it with the “Donruss Archives,” and give us a 660-card Donruss Baseball.
I agree with Nick, I enjoy looking at them, but without licensing, I just can’t quite bring myself to buy them. Otherwise, though I would definitely buy, some.
Not sure why these are attractive to anybody. I liked the licensed Donruss stuff back in the day, but this stuff is awful. Looks the same all the time and tired.
I’m actually a big fan of the look of some of these cards. I like the 1981 insert set, and the Studio design goes well with having no logos. The base cards look fine. I’m interested to see what Preferred and the Rated Rookies look like in person.
I’ll give it a chance.
I liked last years design a lot, i was really suprised to see the Donruss logo at the Target one day, bought one of their packs of 36 for 5 or so, really liked the inserts Preferred, Studio, subsets like Rated Rookies are back with the classic logo which feel special to a kid of the 80s and 90s. Also the card stock is thick, much more so than Topps, and while I loved the 14 Topps design, this years is quite a departure from the classic looks of late, and prefer the white bordered clean look of the Donruss. There is still a lot of room for improvement though as far as the base card designs go however. Liked the classic style card backs too, wish they gave more then 1yr, of stats. At least old donruss had-what 5 yrs or so. A nice alternative to Topps. wish they could get a licence from MLB. Odd how they can get the MLB players Association but not use MLB colors. (Remember how Upper Deck 09 took pictures from the side so the names of the teams were obscured- now I guess thats not allowed either). I’m enjoying these.