I have always been outspoken with my opinion that team logos do not make or break a card, that great cards can still be produced without a league license. Just the same, having a league license does not guarantee every set of cards will be fantastic. Unfortunately for 2014 Donruss Baseball, the thing that hurts the set is not the absence of a league license, it’s photo selection, or lack thereof. Here is an example.
That is a lot of cards that look pretty much the same. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of photos are from 4 vantage points, one for right handed hitters, one for left handed hitters, one for right handed pitchers and one for left handed pitchers.
Even with team logos, these cards would be uninteresting and repetitive. Add the “throwback” backs that are about as dull as humanly possible, short of the full names, and now you have an entire base set that is not worth collecting. (I can’t believe I just said that.) The only collectors who might be interested in this base set would be those people who collect a player or two that MUST have every card ever published to complete their collection.
The only thing that saves this set from being a complete write off would be the inserts, not even the hits. Clearly the most desirable cards to come out of this set are the Diamond Kings, a collector favorite. These are a prime example that no license is needed to produce a good looking card.
Still, will any of this stop true Donruss fans from gobbling up these cards, especially with the return of the Rated Rookie? Probably not.
2014 Donruss Baseball fits into our Trading Cards category. Each Hobby box includes 24 packs with 8 cards per pack, one oversized Diamond Kings box topper and 2 autographs and one game gear memorabilia card per box.
Here are some of the cards we pulled.
Base Set
David Ortiz, front and back
Clayton Kershaw, Tim Beckham, Nolan Ryan
Base Set Parallels
Stat Line
Hanley Ramirez #/400, Alex Rodriguez #/400
Press Proof
Yasiel Puig #/199, Shelby Miller #/99, Taijuan Walker #/99
Inserts
The Rookies
Billy Hamilton, Enny Romero
Power Plus
Joe Morgan, Carlos Beltran, Alex Rodriguez
No-No's
Roy Halladay
Hall Worthy
CC Sabathia, Albert Pujols
Elite Dominator
James Shields #/999, Miguel Cabrera #/999
Team MVP
Albert Pujols
Breakout
Denard Span, Chris Davis
Gerrit Cole, Hisashi Iwakuma
Diamond Kings
Miguel Cabrera, Yasiel Puig
Evan Longoria, Jason Kipnis, Chris Davis
Oversized Diamond Kings Box Topper
Mike Zunino, Oversized next to regular sized Diamond King
The Hits
Aroldis Chapman Game Gear
Andrew Brown Autograph, Josh Donaldson Autograph
Overall Look
So much of a card is the photo and these don’t do it for me. Diamond Kings still shine though.
Quality and Variety of Players
The checklist is fine and there are the Rated Rookies.
Do the hits hold up?
Recollection Autograph Buybacks return but like with other trading cards sets, the nice hits are very limited in number. The majority of the hits are OK.
Will you want to collect them all?
Sorry, the answer is no, unless you are a rabid Donruss fan.
Rating
2 out of 5
2014 Donruss Baseball offers little more than its previous reputation. Get creative with the base set in 2015 and then there might be something to talk about.
Review box provided by Panini
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