Friday Twofer: 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter

First off, I'm sorry about the hot mess that my Goudey blaster break became last week. I'd pre-scheduled all eight packs before I realized how tedious pack-by-pack box breaks can be. But then of course I remembered to delete some - but not all - of the posts. Ugh.

Anyway, I found myself in Target on Sunday, and who am I to ignore the card aisle? The result is my first two packs of Allen & Ginter. And heeeere they are!

Pack the First

79 Jose Guillen - This one appears to be an ode to pointillism.

66 Joe Mauer - Pictured with that awesome tri-color throwback helmet.

210 Carlos Lee - The second-best Panamanian hitter of all-time. #1 being Rod Carew, of course.

245 Carlos Guillen - A two-Guillen pack!

WL15 World Leaders: Angela Merkel - Well, it's a leader I've heard of, at least. Not a flattering photo. There's a partial checklist of this insert set on the back, including the Pope. (Hey! It's-a the Pope-a! Any fans of The State? No?)

293 Pedro Feliz - As has been noted elsewhere, his name translates to Peter Happy.

Pack the Second

150 Johan Santana - Such a lovely smile! This photo must have been taken before he found out how unreliable the Mets bullpen would be.
120 Derek Jeter - Boooo, hisssss.

243 Gil Meche - Otherwise known as Gil (ga) Meche.

169 Howie Kendrick - One of those bizarre angles from the ground-up.

147 James Fenimore Cooper - A miniature card of the pride of Cooperstown, NY. The town was actually founded by his father, William Cooper. You might also be familiar with Cooperstown as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, making this card much more relevant than most of the non-athletes in the set.
102 Ray Durham - Believe it or not, he's not one of the retired players Topps and Upper Deck are so fond of peppering their sets with.

Eh, they're pretty enough, but I still think I prefer Goudey. Your mileage may vary, of course.

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter

This is part of a $19.99 blaster box break [seven packs plus one extra] from Target - I love these cards, but on a 'budget,' I'll probably be looking for random base cards in bargain bins, common boxes, et al, while busting the occasional pack [if they don't dry up and also remain 'reasonably priced.'].

Pack seven [Six cards listed per pack/six actual]
#223 Roy Oswalt
#38 Andruw Jones
#54 Takashi Saito
#132 Gary Matthews Jr. - simply a horrible signing by the LA Angels of Anaheim
#40 Justin Upton - mini
#109 Joey Chestnut - U.S. hot dog eating champion; USA! USA! USA!

Pack eight [Six cards listed per pack/seven actual]
#129 Joey Votto
#70 Matt Holliday

#313 Harriet Beecher Stowe - short print / Uncle Tom's Cabin
#108 Alex Romero - mini
#US 5 Chase Utley - California State Flags insert
#16 Hiroki Kuroda

#284 Daisuke Matsuzaka - the much hyped Japanese import is having a stellar sophomore season in the U.S.

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter

This is part of a $19.99 blaster box break [seven packs plus one extra] from Target - these cards are nice and one thing I like is you never know what you are going to pull. It is possible to find something of value, even if it isn't a game-used/autograph/rookie card/rookie-year parallel card.

Pack five [Six cards listed per pack/seven actual]
#264 Adam Jones
#185 Carlos Pena
#318 Andre Ethier - short print
#WDS 5 Mako shark - mini / World's Deadliest Sharks insert
#US 12 Jason Schmidt - Idaho State Flags insert
Checklist - 4/4

#297 Max Scherzer
#37 Pedro Martinez

Pack six [Six cards listed per pack/six actual]
#255 Cole Hamels
#201 Tim Lincecum
#160 Alfonso Soriano
#281 Joe Nathan
#206 Jeff Francoeur - mini
Crack the Ginter Code - info card
#294 Torii Hunter

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter

This is part of a $19.99 blaster box break [seven packs plus one extra] from Target - I like the cards to get signed randomly in-person/through the mail, but it is such a set builder's product, sometimes it gets boring going through the base cards, inserts, et al.

Pack three [Six cards listed per pack/six actual]
#135 Robinson Cano
#200 David Ortiz
#240 Magglio Ordonez
#31 Ryan Zimmerman
#285 Brandon Phillips
#238 Todd Clever - mini / rugby

Pack four [Six cards listed per pack/six actual]
#65 Victor Martinez
#12 Ian Snell
#2 Juan Pierre
#91 Scott Rolen
#TO 10 Sir Wagonwheel Stevens - mini / Team Orange insert
#8 Brian Bass

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter

This is part of a $19.99 blaster box break [seven packs plus one extra] from Target - I like the cards to get signed randomly in-person/through the mail, but it is such a set builder's product, sometimes it gets boring going through the base cards, inserts, et al.

Pack one [Six cards listed per pack/seven actual]
#164 Jorge Posada
#85 Curtis Granderson
#344 Matt Diaz - short print
#298 Greg Smith - mini
# US 1 Alex Rios - Alabama State Flags insert
#288 Pete Weber - bowler
#293 Pedro Feliz

Pack two [Six cards listed per pack/seven actual]
#100 David Wright
#163 Jeremy Hermida
#348 Justin Masterson - short print
#207 Yuniesky Betancourt - mini
#US 38 Ken Griffey Jr. - Pennsylvania State Flags insert

#144 Grand Canyon - a steep sided gorge

#219 Charles Dickens - novelist

2008 Allen & Ginter Blaster Contest

It's heeeeeeerrrreee....

To celebrate this blessed event, I'm holding a contest. The contest will be held during a live rip tomorrow night, Friday at 10:00pm Eastern. Like all my contests, it's needlessly obscure and convoluted.

2008 Allen & Ginter Electoral Vote Contest

In retail Allen & Ginter, every other pack has an insert card with a state flag.

In 2008, the United States of America elects a new president.

Each state has a number of Electoral votes that go to the candidate for President that wins the popular vote of that state.

See where I'm going with this?

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

Click on the link to go to www.Electoral-Vote.com.

See the big map? Red states are being won by McCain, Blue states by Obama.

The cards of four states will be pulled out of the blaster. I will look at the map, and total up the number of electoral votes for each state to see which candidate "wins" the blaster.

What You Have To Do:

Guess which candidate will win the blaster and by how much. The closest guess wins the contest.

Here's an example - Say I pull the following four cards:

Florida
Texas
New Jersey
Illinois

McCain is winning Texas and Florida according to today's map, so that's 61 Electoral votes for him. Obama is winning Illinois and New Jersey, so that's 36 votes. Therefore, Mcain would win 61 to 36, which is a 25 vote victory. So the person who picks "McCain - 25" wins. If no one gets it on the nose, closest guess wins.

WHY DO YOU MAKE THESE CONTESTS SO DIFFICULT?? I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THAT!

Ok, simplified version:

STEP 1 - Pick Obama or McCain.

STEP 2 - Pick a number between 1 and 100.

STEP 2 1/2 - Post your guess in the comments of this post.

STEP 3 - The magical pack goblin will tell you if you won after the box break.

OK THEN! WHAT CAN I WIN?

The Grand Prize is:

• 10 cards from 2006 Allen & Ginter
• 10 cards from 2007 Allen & Ginter
• 10 cards from 2008 Allen & Ginter
• 1 card from 1887 Allen & Ginter

That's right, an original Allen & Ginter card can be yours!

CONTEST IS AT 10PM EASTERN, 7PM PACIFIC FRIDAY NIGHT!!!

There will also be trivia for additional prizes, for those who show up to the box break!

See you there!

'08 Allen & Ginter box break

Relax. No worries. I will not subject you to 24 packs of A&G overdose. Pretty much everyone is busting these now while they're "hot".
What I will do is give you a breakdown of what I found in my box. Knowledge is power people.
For pretty pictures of the box, check out dayf at Cardboard Junkie. No point in repetition.

So after the cling wrap came off, my wife and I each reached in and took a pack. 8 cards per pack, including a one per pack "Flag" card, and a one per pack "mini version". The mini in my pack?

Randy Winn.

What did my wife find???


That's right. A mini Mako Shark. A one per CASE insert. This is my life friends. My wife, a super rare insert. Me, Randy freakin' Winn. 'nuff said.

Up later was a mini World Leaders card of Nguyen Tan Dung. I can't make up stuff like this. See for yourself. (Does the World Leader subset come full size? If it does, I didn't get any.)


Box "hits"

Stephen Drew Jersey (with a stripe!!! Possible 1 of 1!!!!!!).... whatever.

Bobby Crosby Jersey.

You get 12 SP's in each box. I am showing Jason Giambi because I only found two doubles in this box. This Jason Giambi SP is one of them.

The other double you ask? You're just dying to know? Joe Mauer Flag of Minnesota insert.

No base card doubles. Sweet.

Overall

131 / 300 cards ( no SP's included)

142 / 350 cards ( SP's included)

1 black border mini ( Rich Thompson)

6 A&G back mini's

1 SP double

1 Flag double

22 Flags. (wait a minute... I know you're scoring at home... 22 Flags plus 1 double equals 23 Falgs in a 24 pack box. Shenanigans! 1 pack in the box had 6 cards, not 8. Missing a mini and a Flag. I got jobbed.)

Now. Why did I post these particular cards? A post without Braves? Well it's because all of these are now official trade bait.

Let me know people... my second box is almost here via sled dog....