2007 Donruss Elite Extra

Donruss is back in baseball! Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I can't quite tell yet. It looks like the same endless crap that was pouring out of Donruss since 2001. If that sounds bad, it isn't meant to be.

Donruss, in the 21st century, is a double edged sword. They put out a good baseball product. It's good quality and it usually looks nice. The trouble is in the repetitiveness of the design. When I recently went through White Sox cards of Donruss Elite to sort, I always had to look 2 or 3 times to make sure I was putting the right card with the right year.

They all tend to look alike. This reminds me of those cards, which I suppose is a good thing. I have seen most of my favorite brands of cards, from when I was younger, either lose their license and disappear or get bought out by a rival company. In Donruss' case, I believe both happened.

Donruss takes shortcuts. There's no way around it. The original owners used thinner card stock and the current owners repeat themselves endlessly. It seems that Topps has picked up on this trend and is currently using it in their Topps 52 product. Just like Donruss, only lazier because Topps didn't bother to make any changes.

This new Donruss release has me excited though. I hope they do get their license back. I kinda miss them being around. Even though the cards look like the same product, the subjects sure aren't. This time around, Donruss focuses on draft picks and college players. The set isn't even exclusively baseball. They throw in celebrities and basketball players too. Burt Reynolds having a college card somehow disturbs me, but I don't know why. But there is a lone White Sox card.

• 46 - Aaron Poreda

That's it. One card. It should be simple to pick up and complete a set. Or will it? There are 8 different parallels to the base cards. So, essentially there are nine different variations of Aaron Poreda. The black parallel is a 1/1. There is also an autograph parallel /500, a rainbow blue tint parallel /100, a rainbow red tint parallel /50, a gold foil die-cut parallel /25, another blue tint parallel with a signature /100, another red tint parallel with a signature /50, and another gold parallel with a signature /5. Add the base card and that's nine cards all together.

I've already prepared myself to the fact that I'm never going to complete the parallels. A 1/1 that you are wanting is nearly impossible to obtain. Unless you sell your soul, it's not going to happen. I'm not lucky enough to pull it from a pack, so basically I'm screwed with completing the parallels. It's just like the 2007 Topps Moments & Milestones Konerko red cards all over again. They will never be in my collection either.

Donruss has put out a good set this time around. A two year break is probably what collectors needed. This set itself is a great edition to any collector. The cards have potential to skyrocket in value. My only wish is that Donruss is less parallel happy if it does get it's license back. It ruins a good product when it has too many. As parallels go, eight is more than enough, but you can't blame them for wanting to wow everyone.