2015 Topps Allen & Ginter: Box #1 - Box Topper & Pack 1 (The Fun Begins!)

It's time to begin the Ginter onslaught here at Nachos Grande!  I have a full case for myself this year thanks to a bunch of eBay sales over past twelve months!  Here's hoping I pull some good stuff in order to pre-pay for next year's case of Ginter!  For now though, let's get ripping!

For the first box, I actually began filming a video but I was interrupted by the doorbell after opening up a single pack!   Therefore, I decided to simply show off the first pack (plus the box topper) in today's post and then I'll open each pack and post the contents on the blog as I go along (using the beauty of Blogger's scheduling feature of course).  

Finally, since this is basically a one pack post, I'll use this as my entry for Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits contest!

Before I get to the pack though, let's take a peek at the box topper.

That's a Cabinet-Size base card boxloader of Mike Trout if I'm reading the box odds correctly (and those are seeded at a relatively common 1:4 hobby boxes).  

Box 1 - Pack 1:

18.  Adam Eaton

The first real card of the case is Adam Eaton of the White Sox.  It's a nice action shot (somewhat rare for Ginter).  

161.  Bartolo Colon

Woah, I haven't even thought about Colon the pitcher in quite some time (or, to be fair, any other type of colon).  I'm not entirely sure why it looks like Colon has measles in the photo though...that's some sort of weird filtering that Topps did!

315.  Steve Cishek

Boom!  Our first short print occurs in pack #1!  As a set collector, I'm happy to land the short prints - though Ginter's short prints are much, much more reasonably seeded as compared to other brands.  Here, you get a short print every other pack which means you should get 12 of the 50 short prints per box.  Not great for someone who buys a single box, but a lot better than sets like this year's Archives (short prints there were seeded 1:70 packs)!

134.  Joc Pederson

Speaking of boom!  Here's one of the latest and greatest rookies - in beautiful Allen & Ginter form!  I have no doubt eBay is about to be inundated with Pederson rookies...but not by me as this one will soon be nestled comfortably in my 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter binder!  Notice that Pederson got the same Measles-filter that Colon was treated with.  

Regular back mini:

86.  Rick Porcello

The minis are a staple of Allen & Ginter - and this year is certainly no different.  I plan on collecting ALL of the mini insert sets, but I think I'll sit out collecting the mini base card parallel sets this year.  Thus, the Porcello is the first bit of trade bait from my case!

Menagerie of the Mind:

MM-18.  Mermaid

How often do you pull a card depicting a Mermaid from a pack of baseball cards?  I'm guessing the answer used to be never...and that's the beauty of Ginter!  According to the back of the card, Mermaids got their start 3,000 years ago from a Syrian legend.  Not only do you get a bunch of interesting stuff in Ginter, you get to learn something while you open cards!

And finally, the first pack held a framed card.  At first, I thought I found the first hit right off the bat - but I didn't.  Instead...

Framed Mini 10th Anniversary Buyback:

World's Biggest:  WB4 General Sherman (Biggest Tree)

The World's Biggest set was a mini set from the 2010 edition of Allen & Ginter.  I actually am still working on collecting that World's Biggest set - but luckily I already own the Tree card.  If I hadn't, I would have had a moral dilemma in terms of "freeing" the card from the frame and sticking it in my 2010 binder (all the while ignoring the foil "10th Anniversary Issue" stamp).

For what it is worth, here's what I still need from 2010 Ginter - you never know who might have some of these cards tucked away unwanted and unloved!

World's Biggest:  6, 7, 9, 14, 15, 16, 19, 25Celestial Stars:  CS 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11Regular back minis:  6, 8, 20, 34, 54, 58, 106, 109,  114, 170, 178, 184, 212, 228, 230, 231, 235, 246, 254, 274, 280, 294

That does it for the first pack out of the first box of my case of Ginter.  One pack is definitely not enough to adequately judge a set, but let's do it anyway!

The base card design is extremely simple - and while I like it I have a feeling it isn't unique enough to be memorable five years from now.  In fact, I wish the year 2015 was somewhere on the front of the card simply to make future card sorting easier!  I also like that the banner color is different on some of the cards (Eaton and Pederson are both green while Colon was blue and Cishek gray).  The backs of the cards are classic Ginter - something that I like in terms of continuity of the brand!  Finally, I love the idea of most of the inserts - and that definitely includes the Menagerie of the Mind cards.  Heck, even the little set name banner for the Menagerie cards is cool - there's both a dragon and a unicorn there!  

In fact, the only thing that I would say that I don't particularly like so far is the measles filter that Topps used and the 10th Anniversary buyback of common cards seems silly.  I don't need a buyback of a card that is less than 10 years old...and I definitely don't need it stamped with gold foil...imagine if you pull a buyback of a card you need from an older set.  That would be annoying to say the least!

I hope you enjoyed my first pack as much as I did...I'll have plenty more from Ginter in the upcoming days so stay tuned (and remember, I WANT ALL YOUR MINI INSERTS)!