2/3 Box Break, '09 Ginter

I had a little walkin' around money a while back, so I got a box of 2009 Ginter. I have ripped an '07 and '08 box and I have the '10 set, so I figured why not fill the gap. Plus I could get some minis for my amalgamated ginter mini set.

Except all the minis I pulled kind of sucked. Geronimo is pretty cool, as is Negro Leaguer Frank Evans. He will find a spot in my set for sure. Probably. You never know. The fairy is cool, and a creature I don't have.

I ripped strategically so I could have 1/3 of the box for my son and guarantee a hit. The hit in the first column was third from the bottom. So was the hit from the second column. So I put the third column away. As I was finishing off the second column, out pops a printing plate.

Poop. Was that hit three, or a bonus? Will my son pull a relic/auto/rip in 10 years when we rip the rest of the box together? I hope so.

Relics of Carlos Quinten and Matt Holliday didn't really light my fire, but the Edison Volquez printing plate is pretty cool, I guess. It is the printing plate for a short print, which is kind of funny. It is only the second plate I have ever pulled. It is the black plate, complete with schmegma.

Anyway, I like the design of '09 Ginter, especially the minis. I will probably eventually see how close I am to the set sooner or later.

All of the above are for trade, except whatever fits in my Amalgamated Allen and Ginter Miniature Card Set.

Ginter wrappers

Allen and Ginter was one of the things that got me back into the hobby. I loved, and still love, the idea of historical figures and weird things mixed in with my baseball cards. And minis. Man, I love minis. Especially parallels.

Some people hate Ginter. Differn't strokes fer differn't folks. I don't really the undercurrent of "I don't like it, so your stupid" going on, but perhaps that is a sign of the times.

The premier edition of A&G is my favorite design, and the first year packaging is pretty good too. The Old Planter is featured prominently, as is some fancy 1920s typeface action across the top.

2007, my second favorite design (probably because it is so damn similar to the 2006) and the packaging has some good Currier and Ives type action going on.

I think 2008 has the best minis, but the cards sort of fall off a bit. Some of the pictures are really weird, like super oversharpened in Photoshop. The packaging has started to look less old-timey to me. So long, Old Planter.

The 2009 packaging has the old time cheese going on, with a mustachioed Minty Beans making his first appearance. 6 cards though, you cheap bastards?

2010 is a very sort of mature design. A bit too much verbage, I feel, and that stupid exclusive trading card logo ruins any old timeyness left. If you slapped a picture of Albert Pujols in Minty Beans place, it would be 2011 Topps, essentially. Sort of.

So in terms of actually telling you what is inside, I would say that 2007 and 2009 do it best. The best overall design, I think, is probably 2009. 2010 is the sell out design, a bit slicked up for a fringey, but popular, product. Kind of like the design of the cards, come to think of it.

Since we have seen almost every aspect of 2011 Ginter months and months before it will appear on the shelves, the last thing we will see are the wrappers.

No one cares, but I always find the packaging and presentation of a product to be interesting.

Goodwin vs. Ginter

After suddenly getting back into cards at the end of last year, I bought a Beckett Baseball. One of the reviews was of Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions. In the sidebar they mention the entomology cards; I had to have one. Sight unseen, I ordered a box, then a second when I didn't get one. I can't really afford to order two boxes in a month, but I did, because damn it, I needed a bug card.

But I also liked the cards. They are well done, classy, and have interesting other sport subjects, surfers, marathoners, and Buffalo Bill. ( I got an entomology card in the first or second pack of the second box, too. I just hope UD isn't bankrupt by the time they get around to thinking of filling my redemption.)

But it seems the hot set of '09, as far as I can tell, is Topps' Allen and Ginter. Until last week, I had never seen one in real life either. After picking up some blasters at Target, I got a look.

At first, as I mentioned in a previous post (well, the only other post at this point) I wasn't all that hooked. But as I pulled a card house builder, Native American leaders, and they guy who invented the Gatling Gun (named Gatling, interestingly enough) I began to warm to them. And since I was sitting in a cold car in the middle of nowhere waiting for my photo subject to show up, I gave them a second chance in the comfort of my living room later.

And I must admit, I kind of like them. I think the Goodwin is a nicer card, but the A&Gs are definately classy, and the way UD is heading, it seems doubtful there will be a '10 Goodwin.

I just hope this year's A&G has cool mini subsets. It is going to be hard to beat creatures of myth and hoaxes.

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?