[ad_1]
As the season passes halfway through, more and more new NBA card products are making their way to the public. Just a few months ago, NBA Hoops was released, followed by Donruss Elite. At this point, Panini has released its latest Donruss edition, much to the delight of collectors around the world.
Much like its previous editions, this latest Donruss set features plenty of hits with a few hiccups along the way. Below are some first impressions of this NBA card game from Panini.
The basics of this new Donruss NBA card game
Like NBA Hoops before it, Panini’s Donruss has always been a favorite among collectors due to its sheer amount of cards and the affordability this product possesses. It includes a base 200-card set of today’s active players in the league, a 50-card Rookie set, and a wide array of parallels between the two.
Some side offers, such as Silver Press Proof, Yellow Flood, Holo Lasers, can be easily obtained from the various boxes or packs of this product. By contrast, collectors will have a much harder time obtaining rarer parallels, such as Blue (numbered up to 49), Gold (numbered up to 10), and Black (numbered up to 1), than can be found in a hobby box format.
In addition to these base and parallel cards, collectors will receive a fair amount of inserts from this latest Donruss product. These inserts vary from retail offerings and those included in hobby boxes, with the former expected to be released in the coming weeks. Currently, a Donruss hobby box is sold at an average price of $490 in the market.
An improved base NBA card design
Last year’s Donruss base board design was definitely different from its previous generations. While the ones that came before had a cleaner, more minimalist approach, the 2020-21 base cards had a bit more sparkle.
In a way, this year’s Donruss NBA base cards took the design philosophy of their predecessor and made it more elegant. In its place, a player’s profile is placed in a tilted box. This creates an illusionary effect that makes the player appear to step off the map.
It is also helpful that the photos used by Panini for the veteran base cards help put the action in these action plans. This small factor goes a long way in making these cards more valuable by making them look better, especially if they are displayed all at once, printed in parallel, or if the color matches the player’s shirt. Either way, this new base card design is a breath of fresh air for NBA card collectors.
The Next Day Autos are back
Much to the dismay of collectors last year, Panini’s Donruss NBA card game from the previous season had no autographed cards the next day. Due to the league limiting contact between players and other people, the inclusion of this fan-favorite set of cards did not make its way to the previous product.
The same cannot be said for this year’s Donruss set. After a year-long hiatus, these Next Day cars are finally back where they belong – inside a Panini hobby box. This set is remarkable and highly valued in the hobby as rookies sign them right after being drafted by their respective teams. Hence, the Next Day tag.
With these cards back on the table, collectors can expect quite a high value for them once they hit the market. With up-and-coming stars like Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes and Josh Giddey, these cars are sure to be in demand once they’re taken straight from the peloton.
For context, the latest batch of Next Day autos are currently selling high in the market. Ja Morant’s Donruss Next Day auto encased in a BGS 9 slab last sold for $4,500 on eBay while Luka Doncic went for $8,288. If these two can serve as an example, it’s not hard to imagine that this set of signed rookie cards from Donruss will hit those price points.
Net Marvels and other inserts
Perhaps the NBA card most collectors are looking for in Panini’s latest Donruss product is the Net Marvels set. Rightly so, as it combines the hottest stars in the league with an eye-catching design that can’t easily be found anywhere. Those looking to hunt this set will be happy to know that LeBron James and Stephen Curry are joined by some of the NBA’s hottest prospects, such as Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant and LaMelo Ball, among others.
And if collectors are only releasing Press Proof variants, don’t jump for joy just yet. According to the official checklist, there was an error in the printing of these inserts, which resulted in them all being labeled Press Proof in silver font. The real hunt here is the one that has a black label on the bottom since those are the genuine Press Proof parallels.
Of course, it’s not just about Net Marvels. There are other non-basic offerings from Donruss, such as Crunch Time and Craftsmen, to name a few. To some extent, recreation-exclusive inserts aren’t as hot as comic book-style NBA cards. Nonetheless, any collector will have their fill of inserts each time a box or pack of Donruss is opened.
While Panini is set to release its chrome-based NBA card products in the coming months, like Prizm and Select, it’s expected that these Donruss cards will give way at some point. But until then, those looking for the latest rookie cards and crisp inserts can’t do better than this latest basketball set.
[ad_2]
