2008 Allen & Ginter Cabinet

All right, one more Box topper pack to show off and then I'm back to boring old normal packs. This one is an Allen & Ginter Cabinet card from 2008. Cabinet cards were large sized photographs that were popular collectibles in the late 1800s. Baseball subjects were often produced, but Allen & Ginter didn't actually make any of them. A&G instead had trading card albums that could be acquired by collecting coupons that were inserted inside every pack of cigarettes. This set from Topps is sort of a cross between the Cabinet card concept and the actual A&G Album pages. Lets check this pack out.

Once again, you can see right through the wrapper. It's not a Bigfoot 'autograph' card that's for sure.

Woohoo! War! The battle of D-Day featuring Ike and Monty. I think this is the fourth or fifth Allen & Ginter card this year I've found where Topps swiped the photo for the subject off of Wikipedia. Are these two even in the regular A&G set? I sure haven't pulled either of them yet. Do I really need to talk about D-Day? You all went to middle school right? You showed up to at least one or two American History classes? Good, that means I can post a YouTube video of a different D-Day instead.



But wait, there's more...



And this...



Ok, that last one wasn't from Animal House. I couldn't find the scene where the horse keels over in the dean's office after Flounder shoots a blank in the air. Which totally sucks because that's probably my favorite scene from the whole movie. In any case, D-Day was in my pack with stinks because I had just bought the same card a week before from my local card shop. If anyone out there, wants, needs or obsessively craves this card shoot me an e-mail.

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter

My first post on APAD! Thanks to Ben for letting me in - I've been an on-and-off baseball card collector since the early 1990s (after the A's won the Series and the Rockies came to town), and now I'm back in again.

Generally, my tastes run toward the cheap and overproduced cards of the 1980s and early 1990s, since I like to try and build base sets. Unless they're really special, insert cards have never held much interest for me. This could possibly be because I have horrible luck in pulling them...

...but I digress. Let's move on to the topic at hand: New cards that look like old ones! I've been a fan of the concept since Topps and Bowman went crazy with their 2001 Heritage releases - I love the audacity of using black-and-white photos and rough brown card stock on a brand new set of cards. (Also, gum that isn't brittle is a bonus.) Not all "old-school" releases have worked quite as well - Fleer Tradition, I'm looking at you - but the idea is still sound.

Normally, I'm not a fan of any pack that costs $2.99, but I had to satisfy my curiosity about the new Topps Allen & Ginter set. Let's see what happens.

4 - Roy Halladay (Blue Jays). Well, the design of the cards is certainly clean - other than the typefaces and the nigh-unreadable obverse layout, however, it doesn't seem particularly vintage. (Then again, I guess printing such expensive cards on lower-quality stock wouldn't make much sense.) The back tells me that Roy is a resident of Arvada, Colorado - always nice to see a fellow Coloradan in the big leagues.

258 - Eric Chavez (Athletics). A quality A's player, something I appreciate. It would have been more appropriate to this set to put him in a Philly A's uniform, but that's asking too much.

152 - Lyle Overbay (Blue Jays). Two Jays in a pack of six cards. Meh. This one also came with its very own dented corner - nice quality control, fellas.

316 - Ervin Santana (Angels)

(mini) 16 - Hiroki Kuroda "Rookie Card" (Dodgers)

US38 - Ken Griffey Jr. "Pennsylvania" (Reds). Good for thickening up a three-buck pack, but not much else unless you're a big fan of the Pennsy state flag. Exactly the kind of lame insert card I despise. The back tells me, in regal tones, that Griff was born in Donora exactly 49 years to the day after Stan Musial. Also, now that Junior is playing in South Chicago, this card has become instantly outdated. (Adding insult to injury, this is another card from the pack with a dent on its lower edge.)

208 - Bruce Jenner (Olympian). Now this I like - the occasional non-baseball sports star in a pack of cards. If nothing else, I hope this concept gets more play in the future.

Final thoughts (after the obligatory David Wright promo card): Unless I find it cheaply at some point in the future, I probably won't be tempted to delve further into the set.

More to come - I also picked up one of Fairfield's boxes-o-randomness on the same trip to Target, so look out for that.

2008 Allen and Ginter (Yeah, me too)

Yes, I too fell victim to the hoopla over the Target blaster boxes of 2008 Topps A&G cards. Rather than list out what I got in each pack, though, I'll just list the cards and throw in a few pics...


Marie Currie (Nobel Prize winner for discovering Radium and Polonium, then won another for chemistry ten years later)
Carlos Zambrano Game-Used (nice BRIGHT blue)
Thabo Mbeki Mini World Leader (South Africa)
Jake Peavy (Padres)
Brian Roberts (Orioles)
Hideki Matsui (Yankees)
David DeJesus (Royals)
Brad Penny Black Mini (Dodgers)
Brad Asmus State Flag (Astros/Connecticut)
Joe Blanton (A's)
AJ Burnett (Blue Jays)
Jeremy Bonderman Black Mini (Tigers)


Harriet Tubman (Led hundreds of slaves along the 'Underground Railroad' - "The Moses of Her People")
The Gateway Arch (St. Louis)
Greg Maddux (Padres)
A&G "Crack the Code" commercial card (no actual code on card)
Brian Scheinder (Mets)
Yovani Gallardo (Brewers)
Daric Barton (A's)
Ivan Rodriguez (Tigers)
Coco Crisp (Red Sox)
A&G Checklist 1/4
Gary Sheffield (Tigers)
Adam LaRoche (Pirates)
Rich Hill (Cubs)
Yuniesky Betancourt Mini (Mariners)
Houston Street (A's)
Nick Swisher (White Sox)
Dmitri Young (Nationals)
Scott Rolen Mini (Blue Jays)
Jeremy Hermida Mini (Marlins)
Dmitiri Young State Flag (Nationals/Mississippi)
Luke Scott (Orioles)
Nyjer Morgan (Pirates)


Bram Stoker ("Dracula" author!)
Chipper Jones (Braves)
A&G "Crack the Code" American Revolution - KF1THITDEAN, VBWNFI4LAW (See Scan)
Brendan Harris (Twins)
Moises Alou (Mets)
Aaron Rowand (Giants)
Geovany Soto (Cubs)
JJ Putz Mini (Mariners)
Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers)
Javier Vazquez (White Sox)
Ryan Church (Mets)
Hideki Matsui Black Mini (Yankees)
Lastings Milledge State Flag (Nationals/Florida)
A&G Checklist 2/4
Jesse Carlson Rookie (Blue Jays)
Jay Bruce Rookie (Reds)
Johnny Damon (Yankees)
Mike Lowell (Red Sox)
Tim Hudson (Braves)
Matt Cain (Giants)
Chien-Ming Wang Mini (Yankees)
A&G "Crack the code" commercial card
Fredrich Neitzsche (Famous Existentialist)

2008 Allen & Ginter: Quick & Dirty Version

This is probably the 785th pack you've seen of this stuff lately, so I know you're probably on the edge of your seats. The story is, I just can't afford to try and collect another set this year, at least one that isn't entirely or at least mostly comprised of Cardinals. But all the cool kids are doing it, I told myself. So in a desperate attempt to fit in with the crowd, I picked up a pack of this stuff at W**-Mart last weekend to see what the buzz was all about. And like smoking, man, is it ever addictive! So unhealthy, yet so smooth looking...

248 - Lastings Milledge (he's smooth for sure. he's finally starting to produce lately.)

206 - Jeff Francoeur (well, Frenchy's picture is smooth, at least.)

311 - B.J. Ryan SP (even the card backs have a certain allure to them)

220 - Erik Bedard (mini cards are certainly addictive, even of players that can't seem to stay on the field)

US6 - State of Colorado - Roy Halladay (should be the Cy Young winner this year, even though his team is lousy)
- Checklist 3 of 4
128 - Golden Gate Bridge (I like the way the edges of the bridge fade into the foggy background)
147 - James Fenimore Cooper (sorry, no pic for Coop)

Well, great. Now I'm going to have the shakes all week, thinking about how I want to buy a blaster of this stuff. For my sake, maybe they will be sold out by Saturday.

2008 Allen & Ginter Blaster and Contest

Just getting set up for the festivities... If you haven't made your guess, you have about 15 more minutes to do so. The prizes are 30 Allen & ginter cards (10 each from '06, '07 and '08) and your choice of one of these original Allen & Ginter cards:

or

They're beat up, but they're OLD.

At 10:00pm I'll start Ripping. I'll post each pack one at a time so hit F5 every few minutes to see the latest pack. I'll also ask three trivia questions. The first person who answers correctly in the comments wins a prize of their choosing. The prizes for the trivia questions are:

A relic card
An autographed card
5 cards of your favorite player (If I have them)
25 cards from your favorite team
All the cards from this box that I already have.

Ok, we're almost to the break, in the meantime check out some amazing photos from the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Bejing.

OKAY - We're ready to go!

Pack 1:
129Joey Votto RC
1 A-Rod
5 Crack the Cod e Jon Lester
114 Trevor Hoffman mini
294 Torii Hunter
16 Hiroki Kuroda RC

Pack 2:

UT OH

RELIC

201 Tim Lincecum
215 Aaron Harang
256 Garret Anderson
309 Ryan Church SP
WL8 Mirek Topolanek Czech republic
ABR-JS John Smoltz Jersey
Checklist 3
37 Pedro Martines

Trivia Question 1: lets be topical...
What was the name of the "sports psychologist" that fixed Smoltzie's head back in the '90s?


Pack 3:
65 Victor MArtinez
12 Ian Snell
265 Brian Roberts
329 JAck Cust SP
278 Kevin Van Dan mini
STATE - MICHIGAN
284 Dice-K

Early lead for Obama,,,

Pack 4:
100 David Wright
135 Robinson Cano
179 Hidecki Matsui
253 Nick Blackburn mni
8 Brian Bass
144Grand Canyon

Sorry McCain fans Grand canyon doesn't count as Arizona

Trivia Question 2:
Topps issued eTopps cards of Barack Obama and John McCain earlier this year. What two teams' logos were also featured on the cards?

Pack 5:
200 David Ortiz
214 Greg Maddux
78 Ivan Rodriguez
341 Ty Wigginton SP
55 Josh Beckett mini A&G
STATE - PENNSYLVANIA
219 Charles Dickens

Another blue state... McCain's in trouble...

Pack 6:
237 Zack Greinke
26 Corey Hart
28 Adam Larocha
226 Rich Hill
197 Bigfoot mini
285 Brandon Phillips


Trivia Question 3:
Name 5 players featured in the 1985 Topps Olympic subset.

Pack 7:
162 Austin KEarns
87 Aaron Rowand
118 Geovany Soto
22 Chin Lung HU RC mini
133Wild Bill Hiccock
212 Pyort ili The dude who wrote swan lake



Pack 8:
104 Orlando Husdon
33 Nick Swisher
312 Brandon wood SP
NO MINI GYP


OH SNAP

LANDSLIDE



BARACK IS TEH WIN


StATE - CALIFORNIA
299 Rafael Furcal
262 MArk Spitz

ptui

Ok, the box is ripped. Whew! give me a few minutes to get settled and I'll check the trivia answers, add up the Electoral votes of Obama's landslide and announce the winners.

THE WINNERS:

Electoral Vote Contest -

Let's check the map.

Michigan - Obama 17 Votes
Pennsylvania - Obama 21 votes
California - Obama 55 Votes

TOTAL - Obama 93 McCain 0

The winner -

cbware said... Obama with 88 electoral votes

Congrats cbware, e-mail me with your choice of vintage A&G card and address and I'll get them out to you ASAP.

Trivia Questions:

Trivia Question 1: lets be topical...
What was the name of the "sports psychologist" that fixed Smoltzie's head back in the '90s?

TheJaw said... Jack Llewelyn

TheJaw, a Cubs fan (but we won't hold that against him) has chosen an autograph card.

Trivia Question 2:
Topps issued eTopps cards of Barack Obama and John McCain earlier this year. What two teams' logos were also featured on the cards?

Captain Canuck said... d backs and white sox

I have a pretty good handle on what Captain Canuck wants.

Trivia Question 3:
Name 5 players featured in the 1985 Topps Olympic subset.

zman40 said... snyder, mcgire, august, hoover, mcdowell

Zman40 has indicated a preference for Royals cards. What is it with all the Royals collectors out there?

Ok guys, pick your prize and shoot me an e-mail. Thanks for playing!

2008 Allen & Ginter

Here it is... Enjoy.

211 Josh Hamilton

43 Rickie Weeks

95 Garrett Atkins

310 Michael Bourn

216 Brett Myers mini black border (1:10)

US26 Montana - Taylor Tankersley

291 Rich Thompson RC

290 Ken Griffey Jr.

How sweet it is...

2007 Allen & Ginter Blaster Packs 5 and 6

Wow, I might have actually beat dayf to the first post of 2008. That man is prolific like a mug.
Packs 5 and 6 will now try to top pack 4. Can it be done?

Let's tear in.

Pack 5:
315 Corey Patterson

224 Josh Bard
A-Rod Road to 500 #269
Mini E1 Roman Emperors Julius Caesar

Checklist Two of Two
170 Gary Sheffield
72 Bruce Lee

Not too shabby. I'm still trying to put the Emperors set together and the Julius Caesar is one I didn't have. Bruce Lee is always cool.

Pack 6:
31 Kenji Johjima

95 Hanley Ramirez
Belgium Flag

Perez Sketch 27 Delmon Young
202 Shea Hillenbrand
180 Alfonso Soriano
62 Dwight D. Eisenhower

Plenty of good, young talent in this pack. Who doesn't love the flags? If you don't, you should be drug out into the street and sodomized with a wooden pickle. Although, this Belgium card is uninspiring. A map? Seriously? Couldn't someone have gotten a picture of a dark, rich, hand-crafted ale to slap on the front of this? Or maybe a sketch of Jean-Calude Van Damme? Sheesh.

2007 Allen & Ginter Blaster Packs 3 and 4

Time to post another couple of packs from my Allen & Ginter blaster.

Let's tear in.

Pack 3:
21 Adam Wainwright
Perez Sketch 23 Greg Maddux

Mini 49 J.J. Putz (A&G Back)
93 Chad Tracey
54 Juan Rivera
56 Chien-Ming Wang
282 Josh Johnson

Again, nothing special. I'm sure the sketch cards have suffered a million insults already, but I must say that the picture makes Maddux look like Lon Chaney a little bit.

Pack 4:
46 Cole Hamels (Great start.)
Mini 212 B.J. Upton
Black Mini (No #) Prince Fielder (YES!)

Perez Sketch 3 Nick Markakis
240 Miguel Tejada
151 Bob Wickman
216 Rickie Weeks

236 Yoel Hernandez

I'll be surprised if this doesn't turn out to be the pack of the box. After opening two hobby boxes, a couple blasters, and several random packs, I've never gotten two minis in a pack before. The fact that there's a black bordered one, and the fact that it's Prince make opening this box worth it. Screw the $20 I would have made on eBay, I got a somewhat-hard-to-get Prince Fielder card. Now if only there's something even better in the next few packs...
I'll keep you posted.

Check out my Top Five Pulls of 2007 Countdown. It starts slow, but builds to a climax!

2007 Allen & Ginter Blaster CONTEST!

Alright, I've exercised self-control for long enough, and now's the time to act on the spur of the moment. Back in summer I bought a couple of blasters of 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter with the intention of setting one aside to sell a few years down the road on eBay. While the market for these isn't great right now, and because these things were available at basically any store that sold anything, the supply is probably on the high side. That being said, I also need to reveal that baseball cards are a gift that my family is not apt to give. We keep Christmas smaller than it has been in the past, which I actually like. Therefore, I am going to rip the blaster that's been sitting in the back bedroom where my cards are kept (a glimpse of which can be seen here):


Since I have already completed this set, I'll run a little contest here. If you can identify the purpose of this part of the image (seen below), I'll send the first person to respond correctly the card of their choice from either of the first two packs I rip.

With that out of the way, it's time to get started. I have a good feeling about this box.

Let's tear in.

First pack, top to bottom:
(I should note that this top pack is filled with an unusually large amount of air. I should actually go out to my car to get my tire pressure gauge, but it's gotten a little nippy out.)
100 David Ortiz
306 Morgan Ensberg
Mini 176 Bronson Arroyo
Checklist One of Two
305 Jeremy Bonderman
197 Greg Lougainis
174 Jamie Fischer

Second pack, no air, hopefully some great pulls:
179 Matt Cain
222 Rocco Baldelli (SP)
Mini 213 Lou Pinella
Checklist One of Two
268 Washington Monument
188 Josh Willingham
260 Andruw Jones

Okay, the first pack was better. Nothing to write home about on either of them. First dibs on any card to the first correct commenter!

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter

Hello, everyone. I am new here. I am no stranger to card collecting having collected since 1981 and having a father who owned a shop back in the late 80s into the middle 90s. I am getting back into the collecting game and my posts will certainly follow that them.

My first hurrah back into card collecting. Three packs of 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter. It’s been over a decade since I analyzed a pack of cards, let alone three at one time so bare with me.

Pack #1
Fyodor Dostoevsky (parallel)
Lastings Milledge
Dan Uggla
Checklist
Carlos Guillen
Milton Bradley
Greg Louganis

Pack #2
Gary Matthews (black parallel)
Jarrod Saltalamacchia
Grady Sizemore
Adrian Beltre
Noah Lowry
Lance Berkman

Pack #3
Morocco (mini flag)
Aramis Ramirez
Frank Catalanotto
Josh Bard
Checklist
Andre Ethier
Phil Hughes

Well, that was pretty uneventful. Even pulling Ethier, the lone Dodger (my favorite team), was quite underwhelming. All potentially exciting players for years to come, Matthews, Uggla, Bard, Sizemore, I believe are all short prints. What that means, I am not so sure. I have Beckett’s and oversized Tuff Stuffs but they are wickedly out of date. I saw Hughes at my first ever Yankee game at Yankee Stadium back in August. I was unimpressed, but hey, the Yankees are in the playoffs and the Dodgers are not. Saltalamacchia has the longest last name is baseball and Bradley’s ACL tore after an ump swore at him.

All in all, I love these cards. They are definitely over priced though. But they give that certain tingle of excitement like I got when I first started collecting. As you will soon find out, not all popular cards with collectors do that to me. But this set does. Perhaps it is the fact that it goes beyond baseball players. For instance, I want to try to find a Jason McElwain card. He lives in my area and his story is certainly remarkable.

I am guessing that my next pack will take me back into the 80s. There’s a couple card shops in my area and some have mid-80s rack and cello packs as well as mid-80s Topps, Fleer, and Donruss wax packs.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter

Timing is everything.

Despite having most of the set, I still have a hard time resisting grabbing one more pack of this stuff when I see out on the shelf. It's probably because since last year's packs dried up so quickly, my instinct is to get it while the getting's good. I yielded to temptation and picked up this pack recently. This pack is either a great pack or one of the worst, depending on your point of view.
76 Garret Anderson
203 Justin Verlander SP
ARHR263 Alex Rodriguez BS Waste of Space Home Run #263
ARHR256 Alex Rodriguez BS Waste of Space Home Run #256
Mini nno India Flags of all Nations
Checklist two of two
114 Homer Bailey RC
291 Trevor Hoffman
On the surface, this is a great pack. It's hard to beat a Verlander short print, a flag of India mini card and two A-Rod inserts without pulling an auto or relic. Garret Anderson is arguably the worst card in this pack. Think about that. One small problem: I have all these cards already. Well, not the A-Rods, but I didn't want them in the first place. I've got each of the base cards, the India flag I picked up in an auction a while back and I actually have four Verlanders. That's right, four. I think Justin's a hell of a pitcher, but I don't need four of this card.This is why it sucks to buy packs once you've hit the point of diminishing returns. It becomes a gamble for a relic at that point and it may as well be a scratch off lottery ticket. You hit a good one like this and still end up disappointed because it's a double pack. I actually feel bad for buying this pack away from someone who could appreciate it. At least I have more stuff to trade now.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Retail: Box #2 Pack #8

Alright, last pack of the last box. Do I continue to press my luck? Or should I pass this last spin, errr.... I mean, pack to The Cardboard Junkie knowing that he'll need something that comes with an additional spin just to stay in the game?

"Peter, I think I'm going to Press my Luck!"




"Alright, BIG BUCKS! BIG BUCKS! No Mirrors, AND......

......STOPPPP!!!!!!!!"

Base:
Ryan Shealy
Robinson Cano
B.J. Ryan
Ted Toles (SP)

Inserts:
Roman Emperors Caesar Augustus (stealth insert)

Mirrors:
Alex Rodriguez Road to 500 Bullshit Waste of Cardboard: #272 (1:24)

Yes, I pulled the cardboard equivalent of hitting the Whammy: another lousy A-Rod mirror card. The fact that I pulled one in a pack of Allen & Ginter, of all products, makes me despise the whole "mirror" concept that much more.

On the other hand I did get one of those Roman Emperor "stealth" inserts (and a pretty good one to boot: Augustus), and an SP of Negro Leaguer Ted Toles -- which like all the SPs in this Blaster, is one that I already had.

You know what would make a cool stealth insert for '08 TA&G? Vintage game show villains. There could be "The Whammy" from Press Your Luck, of course; "The Dragon" from Tic Tac Dough; the "Bankrupt" wedge from Wheel of Fortune; "The Big, Bad, Bob Eubanks Pez Dispenser" from Remote Control; and my personal favorite, "The Gauntlet of Villains" from the obscure late-70s game show Whew!

In the meantime, here's a new addition to my gallery of 2008 Allen & Ginter Fantasy cards: "The Whammy." And joining him is Michael Larson, the man who "hacked" Press Your Luck and ripped CBS off for over $110,000 in cash and prizes, then lost most of it in a real estate Ponzi scheme shortly thereafter.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Retail: Box #2 Pack #7

Base:

Howie Kendrick
Matt Kemp
Billy Butler
Hideki Matsui
Travis Hafner

Parallel:
Ervin Santana NNO (1:108)

Insert:
Daisuke Matsuzaka Dick Perez Sketch

For the record, I've ripped a grand total one Hobby box and three Blasters of 2007 TA&G. In those boxes I pulled two different NNO parallels, and exactly zero Torri Hunter base cards.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final pack of TA&G.