Monday, March 23, 2009

Breaking Down the Initial 2009 Allen & Ginter Checklist

Here's the quick and dirty of the 2009 Allen & Ginter Baseball checklist as I look at it for the first time. (I've gone and edited to include insertion odds and info on parallel mini variations, which I found on the sell sheet.)

Base Set:
350 cards: 230 veterans, 30 rookies, 25 historical figures, 15 champions, 50 short prints.

Mini Parallels: 350 cards

Wood Grain: /1
Framed Cloth: /10
Bazooka Back: /25
No Number: limited to 50
Black Border: 1:10 packs
A&G Back: 1:5 packs

Mini and Wood Exclusives:
#'ed 351 - 400

Interesting. Topps knows we love our A&G Minis. So what do they do? Make some of the "parallels" exclusive to the parallel sets. Not only that, they're exclusive to "Rip Cards." It should be interesting as a lot of superstars and fan favourites are in with the Mini Exclusives. I wonder if some set collectors going after the regular set will chase these exclusives and include them in their base set.

Some of the highlights for me (outside of the usual suspects): The Milky Way, Charles Darwin, Freud, Richard Gatling and Dominique Wilkins. There's still lots of TBD under "rookies" and "champions."

The Ginter Code:
Break the code and be a hobby superstar (or target). 

World's Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks and Bamboozles: (1:12)

D.B. Cooper - Finally, a Prison Break card! Not that I've caught an episode in about two years. Others include Enron, Bernie Madoff and "The War of the Worlds." Nothing like reminding us when we're stupid.

Creatures of Legend, Myth & Terror: (1:48)

Bigfoot
The Loch Ness Monster
Grendel
Unicorn
The Invisible Man
Kraken
Medusa
Sphinx
Minotaur
Dragon
Leviathan
Cyclops
Vampire
Griffin
Chupacabra
Cerberus
Hydra
Werewolf
Fairy
Yeti

A&G always has crossover appeal. I could see these bringing some people into this set who might not of otherwise. I mean, unicorns, Yetis and Bigfoot. This is one set I'll be going after from top to bottom.

National Pride: (1:1)

It's like the retro version of the old Bowman International cards. Subjects have their national flag in the background. With 75 cards, the checklist is extensive for an insert.

National Heroes: (1:12)

This year's equivalent to the mini World Leaders set from 2008. William Wallace! Braveheart! Heck yeah. I wonder if Topps will get permissions to make a Mel Gibson variant. Which reminds me:

Back to the program.

Baseball Highlight Sketch Cards (1:6)
No indication as to whether or not they'll be actual sketch cards or mass produced cards done in a sketch design. Edit: Mass-produced it is.

Rip Cards (1 per case)
Who cares about who's on them? The big question is whether or not you'll be able to search them like year's past. Inside the Rip Cards you can find the Exclusive and Wood Minis (mentioned above), Dick Perez Sketch cards, Red Autographs and Mini Press Plates. The minis intrigue me the most, although there's a few solid names amongst the autographs. One Rip Card per case.

Autographs
Lots of familiar names from previous Topps autograph checkli--What the heck?--Billy the Marlin? I can see the dog show dog, I even think the Bigfoot tire print was cool, but Billy the Marlin? No offense, Mario.

Relics
More Billy the Marlin. Yawn.

DNA Relics
Hair cards are creepy. That said, here's the subjects:
Napoleon Bonaparte
Jefferson Davis
King George III
Dwight Eisenhower
Richard Nixon
Edgar Allen Poe
George Washington
Geronimo
Abraham Lincoln
Ludwig Van Beethoven

Cut Signatures
Ten total cards. You probably won't get one.

Box Topper
Cabinet cards with various versions mixing relics and autographs. The press pictures look nice but they're not selling me on a box like the unicorn and Braveheart are.

I'm exhausted.

3 comments:

paulsrandomstuff said...

The Legendary Creatures cards appeal to me, but not enough that I'll buy a box. It's easier (and cheaper) to pick up the cards I want.

bozemanbreaker said...

Thanks for laying it all out for me. Looks like I'll have to go after A&G again this year. Good stuff.

WAHJS123 said...

I just got my first two hobby boxes and I loved opening the packs and looking at my new cards. I did get one red signature card and I have 215 cards of the base 350 set. Going out tomorrow for more hobby boxes. Torturing my husband with baseball cards is fun. Thanks for the post!