Buzz Break: 2020 Donruss Optic baseball cards (Mega 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 Optic baseball cards (Walmart Mega Box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (other formats)

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery of images.

Packs per box: 9 (8 standard, 1 parallel)
Cards per pack: 4 in standard, 8 in parallel pack
Cards per box: 40
Set completion: 
21 of 200 (11 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña Jr., Cody Bellinger, Gleyber Torres, Stephen Strasburg, Miguel Cabrera (DK)

Rookie Cards (5) – Nico Hoerner, Mauricio Dubon, Donnie Walton, Yu Chang, Aaron Civale

Insert/short-print cards: 18 (all in gallery below with some base)
Holo Prizm (2) – Anthony Rizzo, Aaron Civale
Rated Prospect (1) – Tristen Lutz
Rated Prospect Holo Prizm (1) – Nick Madigal
The Rookies (1) – Dustin May
The Rookies Holo Prizm (1) – A.J. Puk
Carolina Blue & White Prizm (8) – Austin Meadows, Travis Demeritte, Willi Castro, Matt Thaiss, John Means, Jeff McNeil, Adalberto Mondesi, Trea Turner
Retro 1986 (2) – Barry Larkin, Dale Murphy
Stained Glass (1) – Matt Chapman
Illusions (1) – Josh Bell

Autographs/memorabilia: 1
Signature Series (1) – Duane Underwood

What's Buzz-worthy: Normally, I'd totally be for the bigger-format box because of the safety in numbers, but this $35 Walmart mega box didn't seem to provide that -- especially compared to what I have seen from a couple of blaster box breaks you'll see here soon. Optic seems a little simplified once again -- there aren't a boatload of variations to chase here that have helped out in the past, especially when attached to rookies -- and there are really only Carolina Blue (Does that "color" matter in baseball? Why not just sky blue?) parallels to be found here that aren't elsewhere. This box did have a decent number of Rated Rookies but one blaster I ripped (just 27 cards there) actually had more -- and 11 total Rated Rookies if you count parallels. This one? Not so much. So, what's the draw here? An autograph per box has some appeal but this one didn't deliver all that flashy on that front for either the player or what he calls an autograph. It was tough to pinpoint my top cardboard here beyond a couple of key names among the base so that, in my mind, makes this one feel pretty average at best though not deficient. Perhaps these boxes can run streaky where the other half of the spectrum means a box that delivers so well you'd want to rip more. That's where the higher-volume box kicks in -- and conventionally speaking that's normally safer. In this case, I'll probably stick to blasters that would deliver 52 cards at $5 more instead of the 40 here and not sweat the guaranteed auto. Plus the blasters' Pink parallels just stand out more than the parallels here do and ink is possible over there, too, but not in every box. I'll offer more thoughts when I break that one.

Product Grade: B
Box Grade: C+ (Am I wrong to think my best run of players are in my base cards here?)
Fun Grade: B

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