2024 Clearly Donruss Football Review: Acetate Aesthetics Meet Rookie Chase

Releasing at $250, 2024 Clearly Donruss Football returns on May 16, 2025, offering collectors a unique blend of the classic Donruss design on clear acetate stock.

This year’s release continues to highlight top rookies, current stars, and NFL legends, all presented in a sleek, transparent format.

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Overview for Clearly Donruss 2024 Football

The 2024 Clearly Donruss Football set offers collectors a fresh blend of minimalist yet premium design, with acetate (transparent plastic) cards being the core feature.

The set focuses on maintaining the clean, recognizable look of Donruss’ classic football cards while adding a modern twist through the use of clear acetate stock. This gives the cards a sleek, polished, and futuristic aesthetic. 

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Hobby box configuration

Each hobby box contains:

• 4 packs per box
• 5 cards per pack
• 1 autograph
• 2 parallels
• 1 insert
• 8 Rated Rookies
• 8 base cards
  

Base set and parallels

The base set retains the iconic Donruss card layout, featuring a player photo centered on the transparent acetate card, with a minimalist nameplate and team logo.

The cards emphasize player action shots with rich, sharp colors, while the acetate background enhances the photographic quality. These base cards are light on text, allowing the focus to remain on the player’s image.

But note: these cards don’t usually grade well. So either buy that with measured expectations or intending not to grade at all. 

As far as the checklist goes, the set features a 147-card base checklist, comprising 50 veterans, 50 Rated Rookies, and 47 Clearly Rated Rookies Autographs.

Collectors can chase various parallels, including Gold (#/50), Blue (#/25), Holo Silver (#/10), and Black (1/1) versions.

But what of the price? While the 2024 rookie class is certainly a deep and exciting one, the $250 price tag for this box feels very high.

Sure, you could hit a really nice parallel or even a clear Downtown of Jayden Daniels, but I’d be more of a willing buyer at $200 than $250.

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Autographs and inserts

The autograph lineup includes:

• Clearly Rated Rookie Autographs
• Clearly The Rookies Autographs
• Clearly Captains In Charge Autographs
• Clearly Retro Autographs

Inserts to look out for:

• Downtown
• Night Moves
• Gridiron Marvels
• Uptowns
  

Parallels

For a clear set, Clearly Donruss has a surprising amount of colorful parallels. Here’s a breakdown::

• Gold Foil (non-numbered):
• Purple (#/199)
• Blue (#/99)
• Red (#/49)
• Green (#/25)
• Orange (#/10)
• Holo Silver (#/5)
• Clear One-of-One (Black) (1/1)

A few red flags of 2024 Clearly Donruss Football

As with other 2024 Panini football products, some top draft picks have exclusive autograph agreements with Fanatics, including:

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• Caleb Williams
• Jayden Daniels
• Marvin Harrison Jr.
• Drake Maye
• Malik Nabers
• Rome Odunze
• Xavier Worthy
• Brian Thomas Jr.
• Brenden Rice

This limits the availability of autographs from these players in Clearly Donruss, potentially affecting the product’s appeal to autograph-focused collectors.

Final verdict: Should you rip, hold or pass on 2024 Clearly Donruss Football?

Rip: If you’re a fan of acetate cards and enjoy chasing unique inserts and parallels, this product offers a fun break.Just don’t expect to hit a monster card: there’s not enough cards per box to say this rip has a decent floor. 

Hold: Sealed boxes could appreciate over time, especially if the acetate format remains popular and the rookie class performs well. But this could be the last licensed Clearly Donruss release, so the brand “legacy” appeal is no more. 

Pass: If your primary focus is securing autographs from top rookies, the limitations due to exclusive deals may make this product less appealing.

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