It’s always nice to see an alternative to the monopoly on baseball cards from Topps. For the last few years, Panini has been releasing an alternative set, even if it is not MLB licensed. They’ve done a good job of downplaying the fact that team names can not be used.

The set features 195 cards, including 30 SP Diamond Kings and 15 SP Rated Rookies, along with a slew of parallels, and inserts with parallels. The set contains mainly current stars along side older former players. A few favorite insert sets return again this year, with The Elite Series, Dominators, The Rookies, The Prospects, and many more. We also see a retor variation set, paying tribute to players on the 1983 Donruss design.

The box gives you pretty good value, with low count parallels, while advertising three autograph or memorabilia cards per box on average. This box even came in slightly above average.

This box contained:

118 Base (118/150 – 78.7%)
6 Diamond King SP (6/30 – 20%)
3 Rated Rookies SP (3/15 – 20%)
5 Base VAR SP
1 Base Aqueous Test
2 Base Career Stat Line
1 Base Gray Border
1 Base Magenta Back
1 Base Season Stat Line
1 American Pride
1 American Pride Silver
1 Dominator
1 The Elite Series
1 Masters of the Game
36 Retro Variations
1 Retro Variation Magenta Back
3 The Prospects
3 The Rookies
1 The Rookies Cyan Back
1 The Rookies Pink
1 Diamond Collection Relics Addison Russell
1 Promising Pros Materials Gold Tyler White
1 New Breed Autographs Luke Jackson
1 Significant Signatures Blue Rickey Henderson