Ginter

I had been reading about the 2009 Allen and Ginter set on various blogs, and vowed if I ever saw some, I would pick some up. So on a recent trip to a distant Target (the closest is 40+ miles) I was pleased to find a couple of blaster boxes. I picked up 3, two for me, one for the boy (I evened the score on a subsequent trip).

At first, I must admit, I was underwhelmed. But as I examined them, they grew on me. They are printed on nice stock, and whatever Photoshop filter they used on the photos, it works. The "Allen and Ginter" across the bottom is classy, and of course, they had minis.

As I opened the packs (I can't just leave them alone, I have to rip them all, pretty much, in the space of minutes) I was at first thinking "A card house builder?" and then later, "a card house builder. that is pretty cool." I also got some Native American leaders and the winner of a beard contest.

So then I started to weigh the possibilities of building the set...


I was very pleased to pull one of the hoaxes, the Cardiff Giant. Definitely a very cool subset. That is one of the attractions of A&G, the cool mini subsets. In an adjacent pack was a black bordered Freud.

I also pulled a Micky Mantle, one of five I pulled this week, all from modern sets. The "regular" card highlight was a Pujols, the modern answer to The Mick.

The only artifact/auto I pulled was a framed Evan Longoria auto. Normally I would be thrilled, but as soon as I pulled it I saw that it had a great big ding in the corner. Almost a crease it was so bad. Thanks Topps. I love pre-damaged cards.

So I am still kind of torn. I would like to build the set, but one fellow who's blog I read had ripped four boxes, and still didn't have the set. And with cards still needed for '07 Masterpieces, '09 Goudy, '09 Goodwin and '10 Topps, do I really need to build another set?