2010-11 Donruss box break #1

I bought four boxes of 2010-11 Donruss Hockey Cards back in late December. I didn’t have time to open them until early January, and didn’t have time to post about my results until now. So, without further delay…

Results for Box #1

224 Base Cards – You get 10 cards per pack instead of 8. Take that, Upper Deck! Of course, the base set is bigger, but so what? I’d rather get 10 cards instead of 8 in a $3 pack.

6 Rated Rookies – Brock Trottier, Bobby Butler, Carter Hutton, Nick Palimieri, Justin Falk, Phillip Larsen

Hits
Why save these to the end when this is what everyone wants to see NOW!!!!

1 Rookie Showcase Threads Jordan Eberle – Normally, I hate jersey cards–especially “event worn” jersey cards like this one. But this…is actually pretty cool. This was worn by Eberle in the 2010 Rookie Showcase, which is a pretty well-known event among hockey card collectors. Plus this card is numbered 213/250, meaning that there aren’t 5,000 copies of this floating around.

Boys of Winter Phil Kessel jersey card – True, I don’t like getting jersey cards, but this one was done right. The swatch matches the photo (meaning it’s not a jersey piece from a Bruins’ jersey). Plus, the blue swatch actually looks kind of nice against the white background. AND it is of a pretty good player.

Boys of Winter Jeremy Duchesne jersey card – Who?

Inserts

2 Fans of the Game – Bieber! I got the Bieber! I also got Pamela Lee Anderson. I was really hoping to get Michael Ontkean.

1 Tough Times – Nice! Very cool-looking card that resembles the front page of a newspaper–remember those?

2 Ultimate Draft –  Ugh! This looks like your typical, run-of-the-mill Upper Deck insert. I got Tobias Enstrom and Jeff Carter. I’d rather have gotten more of those Tough Times inserts.This may be the dumbest insert in the Donruss set.

3 Boys of Winter – No, wait–THIS might be the dumbest insert set in Donruss. Like Garfield Minus Garfield, this is a jersey card minus the jersey. What’s the point? I got Mike Modano, Matt Carkner and Steve Valiquette.

1 Les Gardiens -These cards are clear, have rounded corners and are made of plastic. They also say “the goalies’ in the pictured player’s native language.

Parallels
Why does Panini bother with parallels? They’re not even that interesting..

Martin St. Louis “Proof” card – See that little gold word in the upper-left corner? That makes this card special. This one of Tampa Bay Lightning RW Martin St. Louis is numbered 085/100.

Nicklas Lidstrom “die cut” card – At first I thought this card was defective–improperly cut at the press. Nope. It is in fact a numbered parallel insert. This one is serial-numbered 01/30. I think that merits a penny sleeve and toploader.

One box in and I’m enjoying this set. No, I still don’t want jersey cards, but at least two of the three I got are good enough to trade to someone who does. The Fans of the Game and Tough Times inserts are cool, while the Ultimate Draft and (jersey-free) Boys of Winter are no worse than what I’d get in a pack of Victory.

Finally, check back Tuesday for a contest.