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2021 Donruss Baseball Variations Guide

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The 2021 Donruss Baseball variations come in many forms. Some have different photos. Others use nicknames for the player or their city. And some squish letters together a little differently on the back.

Between the main base set and the Retro 1987 subset, there are 38 total variations in 2021 Donruss Baseball. Although exact odds haven’t been announced, they don’t appear to be very hard to pull.

Variations also have a full range of parallels like the base cards:

  • Career Stat Line
  • Season Stat Line
  • Blue Holo
  • Independence Day
  • Liberty
  • Orange Holo
  • Pink Holo
  • Purple Holo
  • Red Holo
  • Red – /2021
  • One Hundred – /100
  • On Fire – /75
  • Presidential Collection – /50
  • Mask Emoji – /19
  • Artist Proof – /10
  • Press Proof – /5
  • Number 1 – 1/1
  • Printing Plates – 1/1

How to Spot 2021 Donruss Baseball Variations

For the most part, the variations aren’t difficult to identify. Some may not jump out right away, like the nickname cards and those that play with the city name. Still, once you see it, there’s no question.

Photo variations are a little tougher unless you have both cards next to each other. They don’t draw attention to themselves and it doesn’t look like Panini included any sort of giveaway on the back like they did with the 2020 Donruss variations.

Three 2021 Donruss Baseball variations are extremely difficult to notice and play off some obscure printing variances found in some vintage sets where the spacing comes out differently in the text. For Christian Yelich and Babe Ruth, it means words dropping to another line. For Starling Marte, the tell is how much space there is between his teams and games played for his 2020 stats.

Panini doesn’t use production codes in their products so looking to the fine print isn’t relevant with these.

2021 Donruss Baseball Variations Checklist

Here’s a quick 2021 Donruss Baseball variations checklist so you can see them all at a glance. If you’re looking for a particular card, click on the links to see what’s currently available on eBay.

2021 Donruss Baseball Variations Gallery

67 Mike Yastrzemski, San Francisco Giants

Variation – Yaz
Base – Mike Yastrzemski

71 Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres

Variation – Slam Diego
Base – San Diego

79 Josh Donaldson, Minnesota Twins

Variation – The Mini-Apple
Base – Minnesota

82 Keston Hiura, Milwaukee Brewers

Variation – Kestdaddy
Base – Keston Hiura

90 Lucas Giolito, Chicago White Sox

Variation – Bigfoot
Base – Lucas Giolito

101 Walker Buehler, Los Angeles Dodgers

Variation – Buetane
Base – Walker Buehler

105 Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers

Variation – white jersey
Base – gray jersey

107 Anthony Rendon, Los Angeles Angels

Variation – Tony Two Bags
Base – Anthony Rendon

130 Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs

Variation – throwing
Base – batting

139 Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians

Variation – fielding
Base – batting

143 Luis Robert, Chicago White Sox

Variation – La Pantera
Base – Luis Robert

146 Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies

Variation – fielding
Base – batting

150 Jacob deGrom, New York Mets

Variation – Big Apple
Base – New York

154 Starling Marte, Miami Marlins

Variation – small space between “MIA 61”
Base – larger space between “MIA 61”

155 Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays

Variation – Bamm-Bamm
Base – Brandon Lowe

161 Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs

Variation – Windy City
Base – Chicago

165 Bo Bichette, Toronto Blue Jays

Variation – The 6
Base – Toronto

170 Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Variation – gaiter covering face
Base – batting

172 Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals

Variation – The Lou
Base – St. Louis

173 Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies

Variation – running
Base – batting

174 Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros

Variation – H-Town
Base – Houston

182 Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

Variation – throwing
Base – batting

183 Shane Bieber, Cleveland Indians

Variation – Forest City
Base – Cleveland

189 Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers

Variation – Pico de Gallo
Base – Joey Gallo

200 Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers

Varaition – “ways” on first line
Base – “ways” on second line

202 Jose Altuve, Houston Astros

Variation – Gigante
Base – Jose Altuve

206 Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals

Variation – white jersey
Base – black jersey

212 Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees

Variation – Chef G
Base – Gerrit Cole

216 Jim Thome, Cleveland Indians

Variation – The Thomenator
Base – Jim Thome

223 Lance Berkman, Houston Astros

Variation – Big Puma
Base – Lance Berkman

228 Babe Ruth, New York Yankees

Variation – “time” on second line of Career Highlights
Base – “time” on first line of Career Highlights

235 Ken Griffey Jr., Seattle Mariners

Variation – navy blue jersey
Base – gray jersey

236 Roger Clemens, Boston Red Sox

Variation – 354 Career Wins
Base – Roger Clemens

239 Sammy Sosa, Chicago Cubs

Variation – .534 Slugging Pct.
Base – Sammy Sosa

240 Bartolo Colon, Cleveland Indians

Variation – Big Sexy
Base – Bartolo Colon

247 Rickey Henderson, New York Yankees

Variation – 1,406 Career Steals
Base – Rickey Henderson

253 Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

Variations – 14x All-Star
Base – Alex Rodriguez

257 Paul Molitor, Milwaukee Brewers

Variation – no gap between legs
Base – space showing between legs

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Ryan Cracknell

A collector for much of his life, Ryan focuses primarily on building sets, Montreal Expos and interesting cards. He's also got one of the most comprehensive collections of John Jaha cards in existence (not that there are a lot of them). Want to get in touch? Drop him an email.

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6 comments

  1. JDonovan 16 March, 2021 at 18:22

    A slight difference in spacing on the stat line? A word on a different line? Is that what qualifies as variations now? The nicknames and city nicknames are kind of fun, but I don’t want to collect cards based on margins or spacing. I can’t imagine anyone being excited over that Marte variation.

  2. Jason Hopp 25 March, 2021 at 18:43

    Just got some of the Donruss cards and figured out an easier way to tell the variations from the others. If you line up the backs of all the cards, where they are all in the same direction, the front face of the card on the variations will be upside down as compared to the others.

  3. Tyler S Edgington 13 April, 2021 at 22:00

    So if you have sets of the variations are they worth anything? I have alot of these so far

  4. Daniel L Nickerson 13 February, 2023 at 22:35

    IN THE 201 DONRUSS O BASE SET OF SILVERCARDS IS THEIR SILVER CARD SUB SET OF 99 CARD S TO FIND

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