A recent flood of Downtown inserts in Panini America’s new 2023 Donruss Optic Football release is the result of a manufacturing error, the company announced Friday.
UPDATE: On Donruss Optic “Downtown”
— Panini America (@PaniniAmerica) August 2, 2024
Earlier this week we became aware of a manufacturing issue with First Off The Line (FOTL) Donruss Football Optic & a collation issue related to the Downtown insert.
After conducting a 72 hour onsite audit at a new print manufacturer, we…
According to Panini, an onsite audit of a new print manufacturer found a collation issue impacted a small number of First Off The Line cases, with a much larger number of Downtowns included than expected.
Panini added the additional number of Downtowns in certain cases didn’t result in others being shorted, and the rest of Optic Football's packout is unaffected, though a large number of collectors have already questioned the statement's validity.
Considered one of Panini’s most popular and important inserts, Downtown has long been described as a super short-print or case hit.
Expected to fall just once per case, on average, the hobby was stunned this week when a number of breakers and collectors opened cases with 20 or more.
Backyard Breaks, one of the most popular breaking companies in the hobby, reported 25 Downtowns in a single case on release day.
Anchored by its popular Rated Rookies set and a variety of popular inserts, including Downtown, Donruss Optic Football is considered one of Panini’s flagship products.
After originally debuting in 2016 Panini Studio Basketball as the From Downtown insert, the set was eventually shortened to Downtown and has appeared in Donruss and Donruss Optic products across a variety of sports since.
One of Panini’s most popular designs, Downtown features a player cutout backed by downtown-like scenery from the team’s city.
Downtown made its Donruss Optic debut in 2018 and has only become more popular in the following years. But as the popularity of Downtown has grown, so has speculation Panini has slowly increased the set’s print run. So far, the data backs up that theory.
According to third-party grading tracker GemRate, less than 2,800 Downtowns from 2018 Donruss Optic Football have been graded by PSA. That number rose to over 5,600 for 2020 Optic Football before jumping to over 15,000 for 2021 Optic Football.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.