2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Two Box Break

Although this year's Allen & Ginter has been out for about a month, I wanted to post my own review and add to the plethora of opinions about one of Topps' most popular sets each year.

Product: 2008 Bowman Chrome - Hobby Box
Packs/Cards: 24 packs/8 cards a pack
Price: $95 per box

Overview: I already know what I was getting when I bought these two boxes... and if you have bought any Allen & Ginter from past years... you probably know what you are getting when in this product. The Allen & Ginter set is a tribute to the original tobacco cards from the late 19th century. Although the majority of subjects are all baseball related, the set also features cards of champions from other sports and historic figures, places and events.

Allen & Ginter is not a set I am looking to complete. While many people love building the A & G set, I decline mostly because, as a baseball card collector, I want to build a set about baseball. Currently, the set is about 80% baseball and 20% everything else. Despite this view, I would like to see an A & G set that is a greater mix of atheletes across all sports, as well as historical figures and events. Topps was pretty successful with the American Heritage and I don't see why they wouldn't be successful with a real tribute to the Allen & Ginter legacy.

With that being written, it was the hits that drew me in to this product. Three guaranteed hits per box and with the wide variety of hits... not just baseball, but other venues... I just had to give it a try.

Results: Box #1
- 131 Base Cards (out of 350)
--- 11 Short Prints (out of 50)

- 3 Code Variations

- 23 National Pride (out of 75) - plus 1 double
- 4 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches (out of 25)

- 24 Minis

--- 12 Base

--- 2 Black Border
--- Heinrich Hertz (Scientist)
--- Cat Osterman (Softball)

--- 5 Allen & Ginter Back
--- Diasuke Matsuzaka
--- Loren Opstedahl (Sculpting)
--- Kazuo Matsui
--- Brett Myers
--- Kenshin Kawakami

--- 2 Hoaxes, Hoodwinks & Bamboozles
--- The Bathtub Hoax
--- The Cottingley Fairies

--- 2 National Heroes
--- Switzerland - William Tell
--- Albania - Skanderbeg

--- 1 Inventions of the Future
--- Mental Movies

- 3 Relics
--- Ryan Doumit - Jersey
--- Mark Mulder - Pants
--- Jered Weaver - Jersey

- Box Topper
--- N43 Josh Hamilton

- TWINS
--- Delmon Young
--- Francisco Liriano - National Pride



I will admit that the first box left a very bad taste in my mouth. Still, was I a glutton for punishment or did I figure I couldn't do any worse that this first box? Here's the second one.

Results: Box #1
- 130 Base Cards (out of 350)
--- 12 Short Prints (out of 50)

- 2 Code Variations

- 24 National Pride (out of 75)
- 4 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches (out of 25)

- 24 Minis

--- 12 Base

--- 2 Black Border
--- Dexter Fowler
--- Evereth Cabrera

--- 4 Allen & Ginter Back
--- Jason Jaramillo
--- Johnny Damon
--- Todd Wellemeyer
--- Vincent Van Gogh (Artist)

--- 1 Bazooka Back
--- John Danks #02/25

--- 2 Hoaxes, Hoodwinks & Bamboozles
--- The Turk
--- Victor Lustig

--- 2 National Heroes
--- Iceland - Jon Sigurosson
--- Jamaica - Marcus Garvey

--- 1 Legend, Myth & Terror
--- Kraken

- 2 Relics
--- Mike Cameron - Bat
--- Ryan Doumit - Jersey

- 1 Autograph
--- Joba Chamberlain (Short printed to 49 copies according to Topps)

- 1 Printing Plate
--- Simpson/Bunker Magenta Plate

- Box Topper
--- N43 Albert Pujols

- TWINS
--- Francisco Liriano - Mini
--- Francisco Liriano - National Pride



This second box total redeemed any sour feelings I had about the first box.

Joba Chamberlain is probably the most overrated player in the Major Leagues today, but I know this auto will pay for the box. This card is now sold on eBay. I will put it this way: if Nick Blackburn played for the Yankees, he would have an autographed card short printed to 49 copies.

I also pulled my first printing plate ever from a box. Perhaps there is an equestrian fan would will want this. This card is also now sold on eBay.

The Bazooka Back is also a bonus. Too bad it's a White Sox pitcher.

(Honestly, I was hoping for either an autograph, printing plate or Bazooka back and I got all three! (Honestly, I wanted a rip card, but I can't always get what I want.)

Set Builders Perspective:
Out of an average 8-card pack, there will be 6 base cards, 1 National Pride card and 1 mini. If a pack contains an Allen & Ginter highlight sketch, you have five base cards. If a pack contains an framed relic or autograph, there will be four base cards. The short prints are packaged one out of every two pack. Assuming you get minimal doubles, you could possibly complete the base set (with short prints) in three boxes.

Of course, the added inserts: National Pride and Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches, as well as the mini inserts, also adds lots of appeal for a set completist.

Although, from the two boxes I opened, the regular base and the National Pride were almost duplicates. If I were building the set, my progress would look like this.

Set Total:

- Total: 161/350 - 46% complete
--- Base: 138/300
--- Short Prints: 23/50

- National Pride: 26/75
- Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches: 5/25

Twins Perspective:
I have not had a lot of luck with Twins cards in any of this year's products. Out of these two cards, I only pulled three unique Twins cards, and none of them feature a player named Mauer or Morneau.

Grade: Major League Minnesota Twins

2009 Topps Finest Team Collectors Break

It's been a while since I've posted and I've been wanting to post this for a long time. Though now that I'm posting again, I have a lot of things on my mind I'd like to write. I'll take it as I can.

Last week, I received the cards from the Team Collectors May Case Break - 2009 Topps Finest. I will the Twins share with my Tier 2, Aaron. Here is what I have from my half of the break.

Standard Base:





Refractors:



Blue Refractor #/399:


Green Refractor #/99:


In general, I have never been a big fan of Finest. I don't dislike Finest, but I won't exactly go out of my way to get Finest. Some people absolutely love Finest and more power to you.

As a Twins collector, I will certainly go after any Twins cards in the set.

That being said, Topps must hate the Twins. Out of a base set of 200 cards, there are only 4 Twins. They didn't even include the best closer in the game today, Joe Nathan. Compare that to the 8 Red Sox or the 11 Yankees, who placed third in their division last season. Are Yankees fans even clammoring over Xavier Nady? At least we were given more than the poor Pirates who only got Nate McLouth. In addition, there were no Twins featured as Rookie Cards or Finest Moments cards.

Normally, in our Team Collectors case breaks, we split the costs evenly between all teams. However, the collation of cards among teams was so lopsided that, for the first time, we priced the shares on a sliding scale. The Twins share was $14, thus, my half was $7. Still, not bad for $7 spent.

2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History Player Collector Case Break

About once a month, I participate in a case break with the other team collectors. This case break, however, was the first I had participated in outside of the group. The case break of 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History was run from Markakis8 at the Freedom Card Board forums.

I had bought in on the following players and cards:
Joe Mauer (base, parallels and possible jersey)
Justin Morneau (base, parallels and possible jersey)
Jose Mijares (base, parallels and possible autograph)
Jason Pridie (base, parallels and possible autograph)
Francisco Liriano (possible jersey)
Justin Morneau/Adrian Gonzales - Cut From The Same Cloth

I received my share of the break last week and here are how they look.

The usual base:





Of course, I would have loved to see more Twins in the set, but we always seem to get shorted on our regular players. I'm glad Upper Deck is using Mijares and Pridie as Rookie Cards, because they are not found in any Topps products.

Jose Mijares does not quite look like himself on his A Piece of History card. He looks about 50 pounds lighter. Here is the Mijares that Twins fans know and love.



The parallels:



I was glad to get two parallels from the case. I would have liked to have seen the parallels distributed more evenly between cards. One collector received eight Vladimir Guerrero blue parallels and three green parallels.

The Cut From The Same Cloth insert:


There were also Joe Mauer/Russ Martin Cut From The Same Cloth insert, but those cards were reserved by someone else.

Now for the hits!





I felt I was pretty lucky with the three jersey cards. Liriano is only in the set as a jersey card. Upper Deck advertises one autograph and two MLB memorabilia cards per box on average. However, every box contained only one memorabilia card... hardly on par.

I do find it a little bit exciting when I see a picture in a card I recognize. If you look at the Joe Mauer Stadium Scenes card, it is a picture inside the Metrodome. The picture appears to have been taken from 1991.

A Piece of History also includes history moments base and parallel cards and one Piece of Hollywood card per each box. Not sure what the deal has been with the card companies, both Upper Deck and Topps, but I am really, really hating non-baseball cards in baseball card product. Those 50 cards of history moments could have been 50 additional players and the Piece of Hollywood cards are worthless to baseball cards collectors and Hollywood memorabilia collectors alike. This is the reason why I do not buy the product for myself.