Buzz Break: 2023 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes (mega)

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The box: 2023 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes baseball cards (mega)
First Buzz preview: Click here
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (all years of USA)

Keep reading for a full breakdown of what was in this one as well as a gallery.

Packs per box: 6
Cards per pack: 10
Cards in this box: 60
Longevity base set completion: 
49 of 100 (49 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards — see everything in gallery.

Insert cards: 7 (all cards from box in gallery below)
Silver parallel (1) – Stone Russell
Stars parallel (3) – Talan Bell, P.J. Morlando, Gavin Grahovac
Stripes parallel (3) – Wyatt Crowell, Roman Martin, Blake Mitchell

Autographs/Memorabilia: 4
U-18 World Cup - USA Materials Fireworks (1) – Jake Brown
National Team Athlete Development Program Signatures (1) – Ariston Veasey
Athlete Development Program Signature Materials (2) – Ervey Quijada, Landon Green

What's Buzz-worthy: This was the year USA Baseball went Optichromed and these retail mega boxes can deliver pretty well with the volume, four hits pretty much all the time and chances at some MLB players right now in there. Also part of the charm here? The depth of the player list here has some of the youngest players to ever hit cardboard with two of my hits, for example, players in the 2026 and 2027 high school draft classes. (Remember this, was from two years ago.) There could always be notables who surface here later. Paul Skenes and Bryce Eldridge were in this one along with some others of note but there were others, such as Dylan Crews, who weren't -- and you get half of the base set here pretty much every time. ... As noted previously, this is an interesting format as it's one of two at retail and it's one that delivers half of a base set for USA for the first time -- and also packs four hits with the full array of possibilities. Hobby boxes (link up top) give you nearly double the the hits every time but are smaller boxes at a higher price to go with the additional hits. Blasters are small, of course, but still pack two ... and between the three this is perhaps the sweet-spot box if you're one who wants to load up on base (again, on Optichrome) with some flashy but simple parallels (Silver, Stars, Stripes). There are also other possible finds -- lots of possible finds, actually. It's a simple way to load up.

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Product Grade: A  (all that USA potential with more depth than ever ... and an all-Optichrome base set is a win)
Box Grade: B+ (for the price, this delivers a lot ... with good potential)
Fun Grade: B (not a ton of variety here beyond the hits)

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