For me I've gotten away from doing group breaks for the most part. Most of the time I can add the cards I want from a set cheaper than what a slot cost in a break. I justified in previous years when I could chase expensive rookies like Gerrit Cole and Gregory Polanco, but the last couple of years have been light on impact Pirates in major releases.
Well, since I'm writing about group breaks you probably know where this is heading. Late last week I happened to be on eBay at about the same time as a slot for all the Pirates came up for a half case break of 2016 Donruss. I put in a bid and won. The cards were shipped very securely and if you got a nicer card they were shipped in toploaders.
If you can get past the licensing issue Donruss is one of the better group break choices you can make. It is stocked full of short prints, parallels and the auto list has improved a good bit over the 2014 and 15 releases. While I didn't get anything of note in the break for the Buccos the 8 boxes yielded some nice cards. Several Trout parallels and 11 autos in 8 boxes were pulled. Off the top of my head I remember a Jake Arrieta, Pedro Martinez and a Yasmany Tomas /5. It was a very nice mix of rookies, established stars and retired guys.
Here is the Pirates team set and a few inserts I pulled.
Like I said nothing too exciting, but I'll take the gamble if the price is right. Plus I can send a few teams sets to some friends that like the Pirates as well.
Thanks for reading!
Was odd seeing Alvarez in orange last night. I'm not looking forward to trying to win a Bowman case break this year.
ReplyDeleteIt is always rough with a rebuilding team as the farm system is stocked to the gills with high level talent. Group breaks will be great for you.
DeleteI sort of wish Panini would do a "Donruss Heritage" style set with a design truer to the original -- with a smaller D logo and year and the proper fonts getting used.
ReplyDeleteThe base set design is only okay at best in my book, though.
Still, you did pretty well here.
They did a really good job with their legend sets. Seems like they could have built something similar with Donruss or Prizm. At least inserts and hits are much nicer this year.
DeleteI like the callback to the sets from when I was a kid, plus there's always the "It Isn't Topps" factor, so I'd call this one a winner.
ReplyDeleteDonruss definitely has sentimental value with me. I admit I was super excited when I heard it was coming back in 2014.
DeleteThe only time I'll do a group break is if someone I know absolutely needs people to fill their break and I have some money left in my budget. Outside of that... I avoid them like the plague.
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note... I'm actually impressed by this year's Donruss design. For some reason, I thought that all of the base cards were based on the 82 design. Guess The Chop Keeper and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum ;)
P.S. I actually don't have anything against 82D. I just think that Panini did a poor job of recreating them this year.
I don't mind group breaks, but it comes down to bang for my buck. Series 1 and Heritage didn't have enough in way of Pirates for me to pull the trigger. Donruss has a better price point to begin with and the checklist had more interesting players. That sold me.
DeleteAesthetics are important, but the checklist is always a deciding factor for me. If their are enough interesting Pirates to be had I can look past most design flaws. Mix that in with a good price point and I'll happily snag a few Pirates via eBay.
ReplyDeleteThe inserts have looked good for three years in a row in my opinion - the base cards, though. Yuck. It's really not the lack of logos, it's the complete lack of personality on the base cards - with rare exceptions all the position players are shown mid swing, all pitchers are shown just before releasing the pitch. Just a lack of variety.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the base is boring. Some of the name variants are cool, but most still use the same pic.
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