Buzz Break: 2020 Donruss baseball cards (blaster box)

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The box: 2020 Donruss baseball cards (blaster box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (for hobby)

Packs per box: 11
Cards per pack: 8
Cards per box: 88
Set completion: 
61 of 264 (23 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Juan Soto, Buster Posey, Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña Jr., Pete Alonso, Aaron Judge, Keston Hiura, Max Muncy, Ramon Laureano, George Brett, Dale Murphy, Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice

Rookie Cards (15) – Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Nick Solak, Brendan McKay, Jordan Yamamoto, Nico Hoerner, Mauricio Dubon, Sam Hilliard, Tony Gonsolin, Brock Burke, Yu Chang, Joe Palumbo, Edwin Rios, Josh Rojas, Aaron Civale, Yonathan Daza

Insert cards: 26 (a sampling of everything in gallery below)
Variations (9) – Mike Trout, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Jose Altuve, Christian Yelich, Alex Bregman, Josh Bell, Tony Gwynn, Travis Demeritte, Bobby Bradley
Variation Holo Purple parallel (1) – Cody Bellinger
Variation Independence Day parallel (1) – Aaron Judge
Holo Purple parallels (10) – Aaron Judge, Trey Mancini, Adrian Morejon, Pete Alonso, Jose Abreu, Matt Chapman, Kirby Yates, Max Scherzer, Eric Hosmer, Barry Larkin
Rapture American Pride (2) – Casey Opitz & Yasmani Grandal, Luke Waddell & Kris Bryant
Rapture Rated Prospect (1) – Alex Kirilloff
Rapture Now Playing (1) – Bo Bichette
Rapture Elite Series (1) – Matt Chapman

Autographs/Memorabilia: 1
Retro 1986 Materials (1) – Darryl Strawberry

What's Buzz-worthy: Donruss is back -- just dropping at retail this week -- with the familiar format of recent years but with a design this year that seems like an improvement over 2019 that has a cleaner and slicker look (i.e. simpler) that lets the photos and the various features carry the way here. This box included a hit -- I'm not sure if all do as a guarantee is not noted on the box -- but the various other inclusions are actually a little more interesting. The Diamond Kings and Retro cards are 1986-style here and you can spot variations in two simple ways. On a base set variation, the rarer versions have a red Donruss logo on the back and on the retro cards the backs are flipped around with a black baseball for the card number instead of white. Simple as that. Those are a mix of nicknames, full names, alternate team notations (on backs) and photo swaps -- and they can also be found as parallels as this box shows a couple of times. Blasters are the home of Rapture (sparkly) and Holo Purple (foilboard) inserts and parallels only found here. From a collector perspective, there's a lot to chase here -- and hobby boxes (hit that link up top) will deliver a lot more with ink guaranteed, too. I didn't do as much of this one last year (the design got me) but this year's is one were i'll likely dabble more.

Product Grade: A-
Box Grade: A- (not sure if hits are guaranteed -- only opened one -- and some key names among variations)
Fun Grade: A-

Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to buy MLB cards on BlowoutCards.com