I won a box of 2014 Donruss Series 2!

I can't remember which blog it was, but a few months ago, one of you guys out there was talking about how they commented on a "comment to enter to win" post on Panini's blog and they won a free box of cards. I wanted to get in on that action, so I subscribed to Panini's blog and tried to be sure to comment on "comment to enter to win" posts. Four or five attempts later, I was the proud winner of a box of 2014 Donruss Series 2!

Thanks, Panini!

These boxes run about $70 a pop, so this might be the biggest prize I've ever won.

Let's see. Once when I was a kid, I won a jar of candy by being the closest guess to how many pieces were in it. Then in the mid 90s I won some drumsticks for writing a limerick about OJ. A few years later, I won a prize pack from the band Mercury Rev with an autographed CD and stuff. And in the past year, I've won 3 or 4 contests from other card bloggers. I think that's about it as far as me winning contests goes. Could be worse. My girl has better luck. She won a nice TV a few years back, as well as several tickets to concerts and a couple beer festivals over the years. Yep, she's a keeper.

Anyways, it definitely brightened up my day to come home to that email from Panini letting me known I won and asking for my mailing address. I was a little worried I wouldn't be home to sign for the FedEx package, but luckily my lovely wife just so happened to take a day off work so she was around to sign on their second attempt. This is the second instance she's saved me by coincidentally taking off on a day Panini sent me a package with live signature required for delivery. I wish Panini would just use standard mail.

I gotta admit I haven't bought any Donruss product since 1992. (Well, I take that back, I did recently pick up a few packs of 2002 Donruss Originals... but I haven't bought any current Donruss product since 1992.) But I love to rip packs, and for free, yeah! Sign me up.

I'll spare you a pack-by-pack breakdown of the box and instead get to the good stuff. (I could bust out the toys for another epic break adventure, but I just did that with the Donruss Originals.) As I type this, I haven't opened the box yet (this post was written several days in advance of receiving the box, with the exception of the photos and red text), but looks like the $ick mojo hit$ to hope for are autos of Kershaw and Jose Abreu. So.. fingers crossed for one of those! But again, this box was free so it's all good.

It seems the consensus on 2014 Donruss is that the base cards ain't anything special, though there are some inserts that look pretty good.

I love certified autos as much as the next guy, but I find myself more and more reluctant to pay good money for sticker autos. Unless it's an otherwise perfect card or I'm getting it in a trade (or as in this case, won it for free), I'll probably pass and wait patiently for an on-card autograph instead. I'm not familiar with Ehire Adrianza, but he's got a kinda cool signature. That diecut Yordano Ventura is the lowest #'d card from the box (21/49).

That Trout Dominator might be my favorite card of the box. Nice looking card. If I had more time, I'd make a gif of it shimmering all about.. maybe another day.

And while the last pack of a box is often anticlimactic, the one had a pretty solid hit to end on a good note:

Bogie isn't exactly in contention for ROY these days, but he's still somewhat hot, right? An everyday-player in the bigs at only age 21.. that's pretty impressive. I've got a small handful of decent cards of his, now led by this shiny auto. Looking forward to seeing him improve next year. 

So there you have it. Thanks again to Panini for hooking me up with a free box of cards!

I'm not going after completing the set or anything, so this is all pretty much trade bait. I'll most likely want to hang on to the Trout and Bogaerts, but otherwise if something caught your eye and you want to work out a little trade, just let me know. (Lots of base cards available too, obviously.) Thanks!