Featured Post

A TCDB Surprise Card from mpdillard25!

2017 Topps Allen & Ginter: Box 1 - Part 1

I managed to scrape together enough cash to buy five boxes of 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter this year.  For a few years running, I was able to buy a case - last year I think I bought six boxes...and this year, well, funds were even tighter so I went down to five boxes.  That's too bad in many ways because my initial impressions of the '17 set were much more positive than the past couple of years.  All that said, the real test is having the cards in hand...and now I'm pleased to report that the UPS man finally delivered my boxes today so the cards truly are in hand!

I'm going to split the posts up for the box into three parts - one part for each "stack" of packs in the box.  That should make the number of scans reasonable for a single post...and hopefully keep everyone's interest without making people suffer from Ginter overload!

Box 1:  

Box loader:

The box loaders used to be one of my favorite parts of Allen & Ginter - but that was back when they were decidedly non-baseball focused (sets like Roller Coasters and Natural Wonders interested me quite a bit).  This year, the box loaders are apparently all from the same set of baseball players.  For posterity, here's the full checklist:

  • BL-AB Alex Bregman - Houston Astros
  • BL-AR Anthony Rizzo - Chicago Cubs
  • BL-BH Bryce Harper - Washington Nationals
  • BL-BP Buster Posey - San Francisco Giants
  • BL-CK Clayton Kershaw - Los Angeles Dodgers
  • BL-CS Corey Seager - Los Angeles Dodgers
  • BL-DJ Derek Jeter - New York Yankees
  • BL-DS Dansby Swanson - Atlanta Braves
  • BL-GSA Gary Sanchez - New York Yankees
  • BL-GST Giancarlo Stanton - Miami Marlins
  • BL-JD Josh Donaldson - Toronto Blue Jays
  • BL-KB Kris Bryant - Chicago Cubs
  • BL-MM Manny Machado - Baltimore Orioles
  • BL-MT Mike Trout - Los Angeles Angels
  • BL-NS Noah Syndergaard - New York Mets

A quick glance through the list shows me that there are no Reds in the set...and while I like guys like Trout and Kershaw as much as the next guy, I don't think I need to struggle to try and collect the full set this year.  Nope, my box loaders are destined to be either trade bait or eBay fodder (after all, I DO plan to collect all the regular and mini insert sets so I should draw the line somewhere).

Packs 1 - 8:

Each box of Allen & Ginter comes with 24 packs with 8 cards per pack.  Rather than typing up all of the base cards and their card numbers, I'm only going to show off what I consider to be the highlights.

As usual, cards 301 - 350 are short printed (though at least with Allen & Ginter the short prints are seeded 1:2 packs so they aren't that difficult to track down).  My first eight packs yielded four such short prints which is exactly what is expected.

Moving on to the minis, I found four regular minis (including a short print of Hanley Ramirez), two A&G back minis, and one black bordered mini.  Other than trying to track down all of the versions of the Barry Larkin card (including all the minis versions I can find), I have no plans to keep any of the base minis.

Speaking of cards I don't have any need to keep - Topps decided to do more of the Rediscover Topps stamped buyback nonsense in Ginter.

I ended up this 1991 Neal Heaton card.  I don't know of anyone who wants these, do you?

Alright, now that the dregs are out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!

First up, my first four "What a Day!" insert cards.  You basically get either a What a Day card or a short print in every pack.  The What a Day set is huge (100 cards in total) so I'm positive that I'll need quite a few when I'm done busting all my boxes.

Another set that I'm going to chase after is the World's Fair set.  I found two in this set of packs including a pretty cool Sunsphere card from the Knoxville 1982 World's Fair.

Finishing off the regular sized insert sets - the set that interests me the most of all:  Sport Fish & Fishing Lures.  You may be aware that I'm currently working on the original 1889 Allen & Ginter Fish from American Waters set.  The new Sport Fish set seems to be a direct cousin of the original...and I approve!  My two cards from the set featured a bluegill and a tarpon.

The mini inserts are always challenging to complete - and this year will be no different (so keep me in mind if you pull any minis that you don't want)!  I only found a single mini insert in my first eight packs and it is from the 15 card Bust a Move set (seeded 1:20 packs).  In essence, the Bust a Move cards are almost a box hit (boxes contain 24 packs so there should be some boxes with two Bust a Move cards).

One thing that is cool about the Bust a Move cards is that the back of the card gives you the dance steps for the dance in question.  In my case, I can learn to do the Bavarian Polka Dance...not sure when I'd ever have the chance to bust that out in a social setting but hey, you never know!

And finally, my first of three promised hits in the box:

The framed relics are quite rare once again (seeded 1:105 packs).  That's too bad only because I think the framed relics are so much nicer than the full-sized relics that A&G uses most often these days.

That does it for the first third of the first box.  Nothing earth shattering in there, but the framed relic was a nice way to start the hit parade!

Comments

  1. OMG - I NEED TO BUILD THAT BUST A MOVE SET!!! I usually don't go nuts for the low ratio mini sets, but that one is the bomb!

    Disappointing to see non A&G buybacks in the packs, though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't worry, the full sized relics are at least slightly better this year. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Little disappointed in the Ginter design this year but I'll have to see it in person to confirm. I do like some of the insert topics. The Bust a Move set is great, but why do they have to make those great ones so difficult get get?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sure Shoebox Legends would be happy to get the buyback for his Frankenset.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Box Loader looks nice. Not a bad start

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Bust a Move set is definitely a winner. Adding the dance steps to the back of the card was genius!
    My favorite so far, like you, are the fish minis. They definitely seem right up your alley!

    ReplyDelete
  7. i dont care for the base card design this year. What A Day inserts tho, I do like. I won't put the set together but will pick up the old-timers for certain! Every year, I try to understand the excitement of Ginter. It may be for set builders. Personally when I spend the money, I want ballplayers. The Rediscover crap needs to stop. Folks actually buy these in lots on ebay. Is this telling Topps we like them??? We are cheated with fewer cards per box because of this rubbish. That said - have fun Nachos!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment