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The Ultimate Allen & Ginter Mini Set Bracket: Time to Finish Voting in the Elite Eight!

We've made it to the Elite Eight in our Ultimate Allen & Ginter Mini Set Bracket!  

We now turn our attention to the bottom half of the bracket.  We have two more match-ups in our Elite Eight so it's time to determine the winner of the last two regions!

#31 seed 2015 First Ladies vs. #7 seed 2016 Ferocious Felines

The 2015 First Ladies are coming off a pair of 8-6 wins in the previous two rounds (including a win over the #2 seed in the bracket).  Perhaps more impressively, the First Ladies set is one of the few sets that Topps has made featuring only women and it's made it all the way to the top eight.  Maybe Topps is paying attention to this bracket vote and will give deserving women more of a chance to shine in their sets in the future!

The full checklist for the First Ladies set has no surprises in it, it's simply the spouses (mostly) of all of our past presidents as of the year 2015.

FIRST-1 Eleanor Roosevelt
FIRST-2 Martha Washington
FIRST-3 Abigail Adams
FIRST-4 Dolley Madison
FIRST-5 Elizabeth Monroe
FIRST-6 Louisa Adams
FIRST-7 Anna Harrison
FIRST-8 Letitia Tyler
FIRST-9 Julia Tyler
FIRST-10 Sarah Polk
FIRST-11 Margaret Taylor
FIRST-12 Abigail Fillmore
FIRST-13 Jane Pierce
FIRST-14 Harriet Lane
FIRST-15 Mary Lincoln
FIRST-16 Eliza Johnson
FIRST-17 Julia Grant
FIRST-18 Lucy Hayes
FIRST-19 Lucretia Garfield
FIRST-20 Frances Cleveland
FIRST-21 Caroline Harrison
FIRST-22 Ida McKinley
FIRST-23 Edith Roosevelt
FIRST-24 Helen Taft
FIRST-25 Ellen Wilson
FIRST-26 Edith Wilson
FIRST-27 Florence Harding
FIRST-28 Grace Coolidge
FIRST-29 Lou Hoover
FIRST-30 Bess Truman
FIRST-31 Mamie Eisenhower
FIRST-32 Jacqueline Kennedy
FIRST-33 Lady Bird Johnson
FIRST-34 Pat Nixon
FIRST-35 Betty Ford
FIRST-36 Rosalynn Carter
FIRST-37 Nancy Reagan
FIRST-38 Barbara Bush
FIRST-39 Hillary Clinton
FIRST-40 Laura Bush
FIRST-41 Michelle Obama


The 2016 Ferocious Felines set is our third set in the Elite Eight which focuses entirely on one species of animal (the others being the two dog themed sets in the top half of the bracket).  The Felines have been rolling throughout the entire bracket with only one close match-up in their name so far (against the National Animals set that I personally find to be much superior than the cat set).  

Here's the full checklist for the Felines (with the asterisks indicating cards that I still happen to need for my personal set).  Perhaps some of my animosity towards this set can be explained by the fact that I'm still missing so many cards all these years later!
FF-1 Bengal Tiger*
FF-2 Clouded Leopard
FF-3 Canadian Lynx
FF-4 Jaguar
FF-5 African Lion*
FF-6 North American Cougar*
FF-7 South African Cheetah
FF-8 Cheetah
FF-9 Classic Tabby
FF-10 Sand Cat
FF-11 Manx Cat
FF-12 Serval
FF-13 Ocelot
FF-14 Caracal
FF-15 Siberian Tiger


In our final region of the bracket, we have one last pairing to vote on:

#3 seed 2007 Flags of All Nations vs. #6 seed 2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

This is the second of two match-ups in the Elite Eight featuring Top 8 seeds.  If you are wondering how the seeds fared, the #1, #3, #4, #6, #7, and #8 seeds all made it through to the Elite Eight.  The #2 seed (2009 Creatures of Legend, Myth, and Terror) and the #5 seed (2017 Constellations) both fell well short of the Elite Eight.  

The 2007 Flags of All Nations is one of the original mini sets put out by Topps.  The 2007 A&G set was the first set to have mini insert sets and, amazingly enough, I think that this early effort by Topps is still one of their all-time best mini set designs.  I do question the set title of "All Nations" when the set is only 50 cards but otherwise this is a solid set and definitely deserving of its #3 seed.  I haven't ever tried to rank all of the mini sets by my personal preference but if I did I think the 2007 Flags would be in my Top 10 for sure and most likely in my Top 5.

Full checklist for the set (where once again the asterisks are for cards that I still need for my personal set):
1 Algeria
2 Argentina
3 Australia
4 Austria
5 Belgium
6 Brazil
7 Bulgaria
8 Canada
9 Chile
10 China
11 Colombia
12 Costa Rica
13 Denmark
14 Dominican Republic
15 Ecuador
16 Egypt
17 Ryan France
18 Germany
19 Greece
20 Greenland
21 Honduras
22 Iceland*
23 India
24 Indonesia
25 Ireland*
26 Israel
27 Italy
28 Ivory Coast
29 Jamaica
30 Japan
31 Kenya
32 Mexico
33 Morocco
34 Netherlands
35 Nigeria
36 Norway
37 Panama
38 Peru
39 Philippines
40 Portugal
41 Puerto Rico
42 Russian Federation
43 Spain
44 Switzerland
45 Taiwan
46 Thailand
47 Turkey
48 United Arab Emirates
49 United Kingdom
50 United States of America

The 2014 Outlaws, Bandits, and All-Around Ne'er Do Wells set, on the other hand, is a much smaller insert set (and quite a bit more recent).  That being said, this is definitely a set with a fun checklist - I mean, where else can you get cards of Bonnie & Clyde, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy to name but a few?  For me, the main downside to the set is that the checklist is too small (only 11 cards)...and well, I hate sets with weird number of cards in the checklist - what a waste of binder page space!  Otherwise, I can see why this set has earned its #6 seed!

Full checklist:
OBA-01 Robin Hood
OBA-02 Jesse James
OBA-03 Billy the Kid
OBA-04 Butch Cassidy
OBA-05 Juro Janosik
OBA-06 Bonnie and Clyde
OBA-07 William Kidd
OBA-08 Edward "Blackbeard" Teach
OBA-09 Jean Lafitte
OBA-10 Ishikawa Goemon
OBA-11 Ned Kelly

To vote, please copy the text below and then delete the set you don't want to win.  This will make it a lot easier for me to quickly tally the winners of each match-up.  I also encourage you to stump for your favorite sets (remember, there is a bracket prediction contest going on here as well).
  • 2015 First Ladies vs. 2016 Ferocious Felines
  • 2007 Flags of All Nations vs. 2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.
Copy and paste the above text into the comment section and then simply delete the set you don't want to win each of the match-ups.  That should make voting quick and easy for both you and me!  Remember that comments, votes, and general contest participation will potentially earn you chances to win additional prizes in the contest (along with the bracket challenge of course)!  Vote now!

Want more information about a specific insert set including the full checklist?  Here are my yearly breakdowns all in one spot for you.

Comments

  1. 2015 First Ladies
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2015 First Ladies

    2007 Flags of All Nations

    Betsy Ross and Old Glory. Perfect match up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 2015 First Ladies
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  5. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells

    ReplyDelete
  6. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

    At this point, Ferocious Felines is my pick to win (or at least the one I'll stump for). That said, I do like a set that focuses on women. Definitely like the comment from Bret above.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 2015 First Ladies
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  9. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  10. 2015 First Ladies
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  11. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 2015 First Ladies
    2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  14. 2015 First Ladies
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete
  15. 01. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    02. 2014 Outlaws, Bandits, & All-Around Ne'er Do Wells.

    ReplyDelete
  16. 2016 Ferocious Felines
    2007 Flags of All Nations

    ReplyDelete

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