What to Buy: Part 3 - Topps Allen and Ginter

Third up, the massive hit for Topps this year, Allen and Ginter. Based on a card design from the 1800s, this set not only recongises baseball players, but other prominent sportspeople, politicians and actors etc. It also has an insert set of Flags of the World. This product has apparently been huge in the states, and heaps of people are way into it. These boxes go for about $100 to $120 US. This is perhaps attributable to the huge demand for these cards.




I have to say I am not all that fussed by the base set. While they are obviously going for the traditional Allen and Ginter look, I am not a huge fan. It doesnt have the same appeal as a beat up old raggedy 1887 card:


Part of Allen & Ginter's big deal is that they produced cards across a whole range of things and people. These honoured famous military figures, sportsmen, and 'American Editors'! This is kind of cute I guess, but not really what I want in a set, I'm in it for the baseballers, not the history lesson.


So in the 2007 Allen and Ginter, rather than getting a card in a tobacco packet, you get a box of 24 packs of 6 cards. The breakdown includes:

• 2 Autos, Relics, Printing Plates, A&G Originals or Rip Cards per box
• there are 274 veterans and 31 rookies in the set
• there are also 25 'Historic Figures' and 20 'World Champions'
• Dick Perez original 1/1s - 30 in all, available in the Rip Cards
• 30 Allen & Ginter autos hand numbered to 10 in red pen
• 40 mini cards that can only be found in Rip Cards
• Parallel Mini cards printed on Wood - only found in rip cards, all 1/1
• inserts: one per pack out of 'Mini Flags' (50 flags of the world, 1 in 12 packs); 30 Dick Perez sketches reproduced (1 per pack); Cut Signatures featuring ten world leaders, all 1/1; framed auto cards (at least 60 competitors from the base set, including 30 non-baseball players, on mini cards framed to the standard size); framed relic cards including 15 non-baseball players; bought back original A&G cards framed to the standard size; box loader (1 per box) can be 1 of 15 original style N43 cards, a relic N43 numbered to 25, a N43 auto numbered to 10
• a whole heap of other crazy mini inserts and others I cant be bothered with.

Therein lies my problem with this set. Too much. Too much in the way of crazy inserts. Too much in terms of non-baseball. Too much to make it possible to collect them all. Too much of a gimmick. I dont care about a Bruce Lee card, or a George Washington DNA card. Sure they may be great rips because they will pick up a ton on ebay, but it is just boring to me. Is it just over-hyped? I think so, and I think it is a bit artificial in terms of collectability.

This is something that irks me about cards at the moment. Companies trying to make things collectable. To me things should have an attraction based on some personal connection to the card. Popularity should be related to a personal feeling towards the subject of the card, not simply liking something because it is popular, or because it is a short print. I am more of a set collector I think, and even if I dont end up collecting a whole set, I like to be able to do so if I want to. And I want the cards to be related to baseball. Not to politics, or acting, or flags! Allen and Ginter seems to way out for me I think.

So, I think I have made a decision.

NO!!! to Topps Allen and Ginter. Certainly not at more than a hundred bux a box.

What to Buy Part 2: UD Elements

Next up for consideration is Upper Deck's Elements:

These boxes are going for about US$75 at the moment, and you get 15 packs of 3 cards. So looking at about $1.70 per card. They are bloody great looking cards, I already have a couple of singles I picked up off ebay.

According to the release notes, each box contains 3 mini-boxes of 5 packs. Each box will contain 1 autographed game used, 1 autograph and 1 memorabilia card. They have some crazy different card technologies. Each mini-box features a different technology.

The first is 'foil board', which contains 42 cards on foil board, 42 rookies, 'Essential Elements' Memorabilia cards (1 per mini-box), dual, triple and quad elements cards falling 1 per case on average. There are also Elemental Autographs featuring 2, 3 or 4 signatures. And of course there is the 'snowball's chance in hell card' the 1/1 printing plates.

The auto cards look pretty sweet, and if lucky enough to hit one of the multi signed ones, you'd be cheering. There some awesome looking cards, with top players signed on them. There are 'multis' with Hanley Ramirez, Tulowitzki and others, Jeter, Ramirez and Tejada, and Cal Ripken and Jeter. Representing the Padres are Kouzmanoff and Peavy.

Mini-Box 2 is called 'Lt Fx Technology' and features 42 base cards, 42 rookies, and elemental autos falling one per mini-box. Despite wasting about half an hour on google, I have been unable to find out exactly what the heck 'Lt Fx Technology' is. Anyways, I shall move on.

Mini-Box 3 is PETG technology (google tells me this is something to do with polyethylene-terephthalate). It is pleasing to know that if the cards are shit, they will make excellent use in many shop fitting and display applications, including industrial guarding and machine covers! Awesome! Topps is still using chrome, but UD are leading the way in cutting-edge, useless card material. I want to see someone come out with some titanium cards, or maybe even kryptonite! But I digress. The mini-box 3 contains 42 base cards on PETG, 42 rookies as well, some 'clear-cut elements' and parallels, PETG auto/memorabilia cards numbered to 350 or less and rare 'elements patches' foil numbered patch cards falling 2 per case on average.

This all sounds pretty good to me. By this time i am really liking the look and the sound of them. The whole 3 mini-box thing is a bit of a gimmick I think, but it sounds kinda cool. I havent been able to find too many reviews though, so I dont know what the deal with that is. There are a few mixed reviews on the Beckett forums, but the negative reviews seem to be mostly from Topps lovers, or UD haters - however you want to class them. I am not a Topps lover, and am open minded about UD. While I didnt really love the UD Series 1 cards this year, UD Goudey was pretty awesome.

I like the look of these cards a lot more than the co-signers. The checklist seems a bit more favourable to my tastes too. Hmmm, food for thought.

What to buy?

I am trying to figure out how I should spend some extra cash I have come into. I have about $200 and want to buy some box(es). I'm going to look at a few that seem ok, and compare them on a number of factors here, then I will decide what to buy and start breaking.

So, the criteria will be

• price
• number of cards/price per card
  likelihood of good hits
• look of set.

First up, 2007 Topps Co-Signers:

This box goes for $69.95 at Dave & Adam's Cardworld. Recent ebay purchases have been for between $50 and $80. Each box has 12 packs of 6 cards. So at $70 a box, it works out to be about a buck per card.

There are 3 autos per box, including 1 co-signer auto, and you get 9 parallel cards numbered to 275 or less per box. So you get 5 base cards per pack, and then 1 parallel/auto each pack. The set is 100 including veterans and rookies, and 18 additional young stars appear in some parallels too.

The commons look a bit boring:

The checklist for the base set has all the regular stars you would expect. 200 to collect, so would need a few boxes to get there.

The list of autos is not too bad, could possibly hit some dodgy autos, but there are plenty of stars on there too. Lots of crappy autos up on ebay going for less than 5 bux. Plenty of good reviews on the net though, and with the numbered cards being one per pack, and the guaranteed autos, they seem to be a pretty good, fun product.

Might keep an eye out for some cheap prices, just to make it really worth it.