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The Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket: Seeding Vote #13 (2019)

Quick results from the 2018 vote:  Congrats to Baseball Superstitions which edged out a victory over the Indigenous Heroes mini set.  We have one more top seed to determine and then our bracket will finally be ready for the big show!

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Welcome to the thirteenth (and final!) of my Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket posts!

For the first part of the bracket creation, we need to seed the various mini insert sets.  I thought it'd be fun to first have a vote for the best mini set within each year and use each vote winner as a top seed.  From there, I'll fill in the rest of the bracket with some of the non-winning mini sets and then the entire bracket will be set and we can have our giant vote-off!

I also hope that each of these Seeding Vote posts give you a bit of information about each of the mini sets for a specific year.  That should help with your voting as we move forward into the heart of the Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket.  I laid out the rest of the ground rules in my introductory post so feel free to check that post out as well.  Now, we move on to the good stuff (and remember to vote at the bottom of the post)!


The Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket:  Seeding Vote #13 (2019)

This is it!  The final seeding post for my Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket.  Once this post is finished and the votes tallied, we will be able to construct our amazing Allen & Ginter bracket.  My plan is to leave voting open for at least 24 hours on this post and then start constructing the final bracket.  If I can figure out a somewhat easy way to do so, I may even be able to turn the bracket into a March Madness style contest...I'm still looking into how best to do that (so no promises quite yet)!  

We shouldn't be worrying about the bracket yet anyhow since we still have one more year's worth of sets to consider (and seed).  As usual, let's begin with a running tally of the total number of mini insert sets (and total number of mini cards) for each year including 2019!
  • 2006:  0 sets, 0 total cards
  • 2007:  3 sets, 65 total cards
  • 2008:  6 sets, 107 total cards
  • 2009:  5 sets, 90 total cards
  • 2010:  9 sets, 181 total cards
  • 2011:  8 sets, 95 total cards
  • 2012:  8 sets, 116 total cards
  • 2013:  8 sets, 116 total cards
  • 2014:  8 sets, 123 total cards
  • 2015:  8 sets, 116 total cards
  • 2016:  6 sets, 103 total cards
  • 2017:  7 sets, 129 total cards
  • 2018:  8 sets, 133 total cards
  • 2019:  9 sets, 132 total cards
Now, let's take a look at the mini sets for 2019!

Chugging Along:

I didn't do great collecting the 2018 Allen & Ginter set so last year I made a concerted effort to do a lot more trading (and card buying) in order to put a bigger dent in my 2019 A&G wants.  Overall, my efforts were successful as there are only two mini insert sets that I'm attempting to complete but haven't yet actually completed (and one of those will be completed when/if my COMC order from right before the Covid-19 shutdown ever arrives)!  

As for this particular insert set, I can say happily that I own all 15 of the train cards...or actually 14 train cards plus the one trolley card.  I don't really think of a Bullet Train as "Chugging Along" but I guess the title of the card set does fit most of the other subjects within the set.

Checklist:
CA-1 Monorail Train
CA-2 Steam Train
CA-3 Bullet Train
CA-4 Cable Car
CA-5 Electric Train
CA-6 Commuter Train
CA-7 Subway Train
CA-8 Trolley
CA-9 Combined Train
CA-10 Freight Train
CA-11 Mine Train
CA-12 Yard Goat Train
CA-13 Long-Distance Train
CA-14 Heritage Train
CA-15 Overland Train

Collectible Canines:

Another year of Ginter, another dog set!  This particular set is actually quite large (25 cards total) and features many different popular breeds of dog.  When I was in high school and college, my parents had a Bernese Mountain Dog (a great dog) and right now my wife and I have a Golden Retriever (also a great dog).  Selfishly, I'm happy to see both breeds represented within this set!

Checklist:
CC-1 Beagle
CC-2 Boxer
CC-3 Vizsla
CC-4 German Shepherd
CC-5 Siberian Husky
CC-6 Golden Retriever
CC-7 Great Dane
CC-8 Borzoi
CC-9 Dachshund
CC-10 Black Labrador
CC-11 English Bulldog
CC-12 English Springer Spaniel
CC-13 Rhodesian Ridgeback
CC-14 Papillon
CC-15 Yellow Labrador
CC-16 Chihuahua
CC-17 French Bulldog
CC-18 Bernese Mountain Dog
CC-19 Corgi
CC-20 Bullmastiff
CC-21 Weimaraner
CC-22 Shih Tzu
CC-23 West Highland Terrier
CC-24 Boston Terrier
CC-25 Maltese

Dreams of Blue Ribbons:

This is the first of two mini sets that I'm working on but haven't yet completed.  That being said, I have already purchased the final two cards that I need from COMC...they just haven't been shipped out yet.  Thus, I'll be treating this set as if it were complete and you won't be finding any asterisks(*) here denoting set help that I need!

As for the set itself, it is basically a set celebrating a bunch of rather silly competitions that someone could enter (eating hot peppers, pig racing, etc.).  Truthfully, I'm not sure if there is a single competition in the set that I could realistically expect to contend for a blue ribbon!  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though.

Checklist:
DBR-1 Partner Carrying Contest
DBR-2 Chili Pepper Eating Contest
DBR-3 Pie Eating Contest
DBR-4 Marshmallow-Stuffing Contest
DBR-5 Toe Wrestling Contest
DBR-6 Sand Castle Building Contest
DBR-7 Potato Sack Racing Contest
DBR-8 Dizzy Bat Contest
DBR-9 Stocking Challenge Contest
DBR-10 Pig Racing Contest
DBR-11 Frog Jumping Contest
DBR-12 Wheelbarrow Racing Contest
DBR-13 Giant Pumpkin Contest
DBR-14 Hot Dog Eating Contest
DBR-15 Three-legged Race Contest

In Bloom:

Easily the most colorful of the mini inserts from 2019 - In Bloom celebrates 25 different species of flowers.  I'll be honest, I'm a vegetable gardener not a flower gardener so I'm way out of my area of expertise here.  That being said, I do like the vibrant colors - certainly fitting for a theme of flowers!

Checklist:
IB-1 Black-Eyed Susan
IB-2 Spurred Snapdragon
IB-3 Shirley Poppy
IB-4 Mexican Hat
IB-5 Sweet Alyssum
IB-6 Lily of the Valley
IB-7 Begonia
IB-8 Moth Orchid
IB-9 Skaapbos
IB-10 Flowering Crassula
IB-11 Crown of Thorns
IB-12 White Candles
IB-13 Golden Shrimp
IB-14 Brazilian Plume
IB-15 Butterfly Bush
IB-16 Camellia
IB-17 Chinese Rain Bell
IB-18 Natal Lily
IB-19 Bird of Paradise
IB-20 Caricature Plant
IB-21 Tulip
IB-22 Rose
IB-23 Johnny Jump Up
IB-24 Marigold
IB-25 Oriental Poppy

In Bloom Plant Me Variation:
Note:  No image since I don't own any of these.

Topps brought back the idea of baseball cards that could be planted in the soil to grow flowers once again for 2019.  However, unlike the last time (2011) this time around the cards were nearly impossible to actually find.  Thus, this is one of the sets that I didn't bother trying to collect for myself.

Checklist:
IBPM-BES Black-Eyed Susan
IBPM-MH Mexican Hat
IBPM-OP Oriental Poppy
IBPM-SA Sweet Alyssum
IBPM-SP Shirley Poppy
IBPM-SS Spurred Snapdragon

Look Out Below:

Look Out Below is a kind of strange name for a set all about waterfalls but I guess I get what Topps was going for here.  There was also a box loader set of Look Out Below cards in 2019 - and being truthful I think the larger sized cardboard was better for waterfall pictures!  That being said, this is still a kind of neat set and certainly fits within the classic Ginter style of insert sets without being a rehash of things that have been done to death already (such as Natural Wonders).

Checklist:
LOB-1 Niagara Falls
LOB-2 Victoria Falls
LOB-3 Iguazu Falls
LOB-4 Kaieteur Falls
LOB-5 Gullfoss
LOB-6 Angel Falls
LOB-7 Yosemite Falls
LOB-8 Ban Gioc-Detian Falls
LOB-9 Horseshoe Falls
LOB-10 Devil's Throat
LOB-11 Huangguoshu Waterfall
LOB-12 Cuquenan Falls
LOB-13 Havasu Falls
LOB-14 Palouse Falls
LOB-15 Ruby Falls

Lost Languages:

Do you like languages?  If so, then perhaps the Lost Languages set will pique your interest since it's an insert set all about languages that no longer exist.

Checklist:
LL-1 Narragansett Language
LL-2 Tasmanian Language
LL-3 Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
LL-4 Upper Chinook Language
LL-5 Plains Apache Language
LL-6 Klallam Language
LL-7 Chiwere Language
LL-8 Shasta Language
LL-9 Jersey Dutch Language
LL-10 Carolina Algonquian Language

New to the Zoo:

This is the retail-only mini set for 2019 and it celebrates baby animals of all types!  This is the only mini insert set that I'm working on completing that I actually still am actively searching for cards for.  At the moment, I still need the Lion Cub, Gorilla Infant, Zebra Foal, and Polar Bear Cub.  Since these are still the most recent of Allen & Ginter releases, perhaps someone reading this has one (or more) of the needed cards available for trade?  If so, hit me up!

Checklist:
NTTZ-1 Elephant Calf
NTTZ-2 Hippo Calf
NTTZ-3 Giraffe Calf
NTTZ-4 Rhino Calf
NTTZ-5 Lion Cub*
NTTZ-6 Panda Cub
NTTZ-7 Fox Pup
NTTZ-8 Penguin Chick
NTTZ-9 Orangutan Baby
NTTZ-10 Baby Shark
NTTZ-11 Seal Pup
NTTZ-12 Gorilla Infant*
NTTZ-13 Kangaroo Joey
NTTZ-14 Tiger Cub
NTTZ-15 Zebra Foal*
NTTZ-16 Otter Pup
NTTZ-17 Polar Bear Cub*
NTTZ-18 Koala Joey
NTTZ-19 Goat Kid
NTTZ-20 Monkey Infant

Stealth Mini (Blowout Cards):
Note:  No image since I don't own this card.

The lone unannounced stealth mini for 2019 was a card of Thomas Fish, owner of Blowout Cards.  That definitely feels a little bit like pandering to Topps' base if you ask me but perhaps it will open the door for Topps to eventually include cards of baseball card bloggers?  Hint, hint Topps!  

Checklist:
MS-1 Thomas Fish - Blowout Cards

And that does it for 2019!  For one last time, be sure to cast your vote below to help finish up the seeding for our Ultimate Allen & Ginter mini set bracket!

Comments

  1. Chugging Along. I love trains.

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  2. I was a bit disappointed with the mini themes this year, after a couple of years of interesting ones, nothing peaked my interest. It felt like Topps was just repeating stuff. I'll go with the doggies.

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  3. Who doesn't love baby animals? New To The Zoo gets my vote!

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  4. I wasn't wild about this group of inserts. The plantable cards are a neat idea, but I think I'll vote for Lost Languages which is something really cool to put on cards, plus New Jersey is repped.

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  5. Choo Choo trains all the way!

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  6. I didn't collect any minis from 2019. I am tempted to chase those Baby Animals though!
    Gets my vote.

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  7. Love the colours and artwork on the flowers.... but trains are cool. End of story.
    Trains all the way.

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  8. Collectible Canines. Glad you showed off that Berner as your example. They're beautiful dogs... just like Golden Retrievers.

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  9. Flowers. The fact that Topps put out a tulip card in the middle of all this craziness and speculation is awesome. (Though New to the Zoo with Baby Shark and the Nationals winning was pretty awesoe too)

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  10. Voting is now closed for 2019! That will do it for the seeding votes, actual bracket coming soon!

    ReplyDelete

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