Just opened a box of the brand new 2016-17 Donruss Basketball set and am quite happy with the set overall. I really like the design, with the player's name in a script font across the top, team-coloured borders and the cards sorted in team order. I don't collect baseball but assume it is probably inspired by a classic Donruss baseball set from the 80s or 90s.
The set is quite small at only 200 cards (150 veterans + 50 rookies) which makes it easy to complete, and even with only 5 veterans per team on average they still managed to fit in some key players who were conspicuously absent from this year's Hoops offering (e.g. Jeff Teague, Joakim Noah, Andre Iguodala). But still no love for J.R. Smith.
Collation in my box was quite good. With 288 cards in the box and just 200 in the set a bunch of doubles were inevitable, but I'm only four cards short of a complete set. Rookies are seeded 3 per pack, which is great for set collectors like me but bad for "speculative" collectors since being so plentiful means most of them will never rise above dollar box value. Still, there's umpteen different parallel versions to chase after and fuel box purchases.
I love "one insert per pack" but the number of different insert sets means I will never try to complete any of them. I would rather have half a dozen cards from 3 or 4 different sets than 1 or 2 cards from a dozen different sets. Breakdown of inserts and parallels was as follows:
All-Stars (3): Dwyane Wade; Paul George; Paul Millsap
All-Stars Press-Proof (1): LaMarcus Aldridge (Not serial numbered)
The Champ is Here (1): Alonzo Mourning
Court Kings (3): Dwyane Wade; Kyrie Irving; Emmanuel Mudiay (One of these things is not like the others)
Crashers (1): LaMarcus Aldridge (Uh, "Crashers"? Seriously?)
Elite Series (2): Klay Thompson; Kyle Lowry
Elite Series Press Proof (1): James Harden (Not serial numbered)
Hall Kings (2): Jamaal Wilkes; Dennis Rodman
The Rookies (1): Brandon Ingram
Rookie Kings (2): Kris Dunn; Marquese Chriss (Did we really need Rookies and Rookie Kings? Surely one rookie insert would have been sufficient)
Jersey Kings (1): Danilo Gallinari
Untitled Autograph Set(1): Diamond Stone (This is a signed memorabilia card serial-numbered out of 75 and it's card number 32 in that set, but the set literally has no name on the front or back of the card. And I don't know a thing about Diamond Stone except he has possibly the greatest pro athlete name ever, so count me as his newest fan.)
Press Pass Silver (3): Frank Kaminsky; Ben McLemore; Tyrone Wallace (Serial Numbered to 299)
Press Pass Purple (1): Draymond Green (Serial Numbered to 199)
Shiny Red Parallel (2): Dwight Howard; Caris LeVert (Serial Numbered to 99)
Shiny Blue Parallel (1): Omri Casspi (Serial Numbered to 49)
I've never been much of a fan of parallels, but these red and blue ones are quite sharp looking with sparkling refractor-like technology. I may try putting together a Cavs team set once singles start showing up on COMC.
I give the set a solid B+, and between Hoops and Donruss I suspect my shopping for 2016-17 basketball sets will be over once I track down those four missing cards.