Complete Set Chronicles: 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter: Dick Perez Sketch Cards

In 2006, Topps introduced the world to it's newest offering:  Allen & Ginter.  While the Ginter brand would become known for having a plethora of inserts (both regular-sized and mini-sized) in the near future, the 2006 set had only one main insert set for collectors to chase:  The Dick Perez Sketch Card set.

Yes, the same Dick Perez of Donruss Diamond King fame in the 90s!  

The Sketch Card set also served as a "pack searcher foil" seeing as how the sketch cards are roughly the same thickness as a relic card.  Furthermore, at only 30 cards total, the full insert set wasn't particularly difficult to complete (again, a total departure from most of today's Ginter insert sets)!

Cards 1 - 9:

Since there are only 30 cards in the set, I decided to scan the entire thing.  As you can probably see from the first page of the set, each of the 30 MLB teams got exactly one player featured in the insert set.  As someone who collects a team (the Reds) who is often left out, I appreciate that move on Topps' part even if it means you get a few guys in the set who might be less desirable to most collectors *ahem* Shawn Green *ahem*.

Cards 10 - 18:  

The players in the set were featured in alphabetical order by their team's home city or state (so we began with the Arizona Diamondbacks and we'll end with Washington Nationals).  

Cards 19 - 27:  

This page is interesting in that it's a case of the "haves" (Bonds, Pujols, A-Rod, Ichiro) and the "have nots" (Huff, Bay, Street).  Not that the latter three were bad players or anything but I don't think their careers can hold a candle to the first group of players.  Then again, one could argue performance enhancing substances may have played a role for some of those bigger name players.

Cards 28 - 30:

We end with the final three cards in the set.  I'll forever wish that card companies kept set collectors in mind and made insert sets to nicely fill 9-pocket pages.  While an insert set of size 10 will always be the bane of my card collecting existence, a 30-card set still leaves six card slots unused on a page.  That being said, this particular set gets a pass from me since it features one card per team and there are only 30 MLB teams (as of 2006, at least).

And that does it for the 2006 Dick Perez Sketch Cards set.  In a word, it's perfectly adequate.  I don't have any particular dislike of the set but it's also a set that doesn't much excite me.  

The Bottom Line:

6/10

Perfectly fine but not likely to move the collecting needle so to speak.

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Full Set Checklist:

1. Shawn Green
2. Andruw Jones
3. Miguel Tejada
4. David Ortiz
5. Derrek Lee
6. Paul Konerko
7. Ken Griffey, Jr.
8. Travis Hafner
9. Todd Helton
10. Ivan Rodriguez
11. Miguel Cabrera
12. Lance Berkman
13. Mike Sweeney
14. Vladimir Guerrero
15. Rafael Furcal
16. Carlos Lee
17. Johan Santana
18. David Wright
19. Alex Rodriguez
20. Huston Street
21. Bobby Abreu
22. Jason Bay
23. Jake Peavy
24. Ichiro Suzuki
25. Barry Bonds
26. Albert Pujols
27. Aubrey Huff
28. Mark Teixeira
29. Vernon Wells
30. Alfonso Soriano