Donruss Rack Pack Dash & Grab

I don't get out to the stores very often. But when I do (at least for now), I find it's about the only way for me to get a cardboard fix. Such was the case Saturday night, after we swung by Target to pick up a few items (while wearing masks and keeping our social distance), and picked up a 30-card rack pack of 2020 Donnruss.

This is the second pack of Donruss (Panini) I've grabbed, and I can't actually say I'm really blown away by this year's set. They don't have an official license, so they can only feature the city name on the cards. As for the cards themselves, to me, they seem just a little too busy for my taste, with the stripes and boxed lines breaking into both sides of the card. The lines coming up from the bottom of the card also seem a little out of place, and could have provided for a better, less cropped photo.

Despite all that, I do have to admit, however, I was rather happy with this particular pack.

I'll begin with the variation cards, of which there's a total of 38 different ones. When you look at the back of the base cards, if the Donruss logo is red, instead of black, you have yourself a variation. the variations can range from a different photo on the front, to having a different rendition of the team's name, i.e., Mike Trout's card reading "City of Angels," rather than "Los Angeles.

The variations I pulled in this pack were the Shohei Ohtani (#94) (pitching instead of batting); Javier Baez (#90) ("El Mago," instead of "Javier Baez"); Red Holo Eloy Jimenez (#121) ("The South Side," instead of Chicago); and Anthony Rizzo (#132) ("Chi-Town," instead of Chicago).

There were more pretty, shiney cards, as well as an autograph in this pack. The autograph was of the Los Angeles Angels' Matt Thaiss (#SS-MT); Holo Red Retro 1986 Paul Molitor (#235); Holo Red Anthony Rendon (#154); and an American Pride Justin Foscue (#AP15). Thaiss' auto is really lazy - I guess your initials pass as an autograph these days, when you're a first round pick. Another thing I can't quite figure out - On the Foscue card, they have him pictured on the front of the card, but yet on the back, they have another player's action photo, in this case, teammate Andrew Vaughn. Maybe they just want to give you a 2-for-1 card?

As for RCs, there's a Rated Rookie Kyle Lewis (#56) and Zac Gallen (#17); as well as RC Retro 1986 cards for Jake Fraley (#246); and Willi Castro (#236).

 

There were also four other Retro 1986 cards, one of which was also a variation - Barry Larkin (#211); Kirby Puckett (#217); Darryl Strawberry (#231); and Don Mattingly (#216). The variation card was the Puckett card, and the only way you could tell, was the baseball logo on the back of the card is printed black with white numbering, instead of the normal plain baseball, with black numbering).

Needless to say, this was the card I was most happiest about - a Diamond Kings Fernando Tatis, Jr. (#1). Hopefully, El Nino will stay healthy heading into his second season, while continuing to excite with ESPN highlight plays.

The rest of the pack included a Shane Bieber Diamond King (#18), and base cards of Max Fried, Joey Gallo, Sonny Gray, Mitch Hanger, Bryce Harper, Albert Pujols,  Robbie Ray, Eduardo Rodriguez, Carlos Santana, Jean Segura, Justin Verlander, and Luke Weaver.

I think someone trying to put a set together would either go nuts, or broke, with all the parallels and variations in this set. I didn't pull any of the other parallels, such as Baby Shark, Emojis, Independence Day, but that's ok.

Would I buy more of this product? Maybe. I'd like to see more of what 2020 has to offer, but to be truthful, the selection has been rather limited at our local Target. Another reason it'll be nice to be able to move about the country again.

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy out there.
.