Top 20 Intermission - Checkin' Lists Allen & Ginter

After completing the 2007 and 2008 editions of Allen & Ginter, 2009 remained unfinished due to financial concerns and 2010 remains unfinished due to sheer laziness. The morning of the card show I hurriedly scribbled out wantlists and vowed to knock out some of these sets. I must say that I was triumphant in this regard. I did the best on 2006 Allen & Ginter. This stuff got real expensive real quick when it first came out and I couldn't find enough packs to get close to completion. Five years later and piles of it including SPs show up in dime boxes. Patience is a virtue in this hobby, and I'm not just saying that for the benefit of all the people I owe cards to.

I knocked out either 17 or 18 out of this set depending on whether I need the Tony LaRussa I picked up. It was on the list but I could swear I had it already. No I haven't put them in my binder yet, I'm equal parts lazy and busy. Here's 9 notables from the dime pile.

If this was a vintage card set, this would be the 'key' card of the set. A short printed GoDaddy.com rookie card. I found many of these costing 8 dollars and up during my travels. I got it for a dime and got with it my most triumphant memory of the card show. When I showed up I slowly looked down the first aisle, scoping out the dealers so I could make a game plan. At the very back corner of the show were a couple of tables stacked two deep with dime boxes. Lo and behold, there was Chris Harris of Stale Gum plugging away at the boxes. He had attacked the boxes the day before and already had a pile of '90s stuff picked out again today. I commented that it looks like he had already wiped out the boxes and Chris replied "You snooze you lose". My tastes in cards are substantially different than Chris so I starting picking through his sloppy seconds and found a few goodies for myself. Both of us were meticulously avoiding the massive stash of  Bowman and Chrome (full Pringle effect evident even in the monster box) that were infesting the boxes. On box two or three I found a cache of 2006 A&G. Brilliant! My list writing did not go for naught! After gleefully picking out a dozen needed cards I came across the Danica. I showed it to Chris. "Look here, a Danica Patrick short print in a dime box!" Chris replies, "Hey, I need that card!" You snooze you lose, Chris, you snooze you lose...

YOGI! I think this might be a short print too. A rule of thumb with the 2006 A&G set is that if the card number ends in 5 there's a good chance that it's a short print. I haven't done the math, but it's about a 90% chance. There's also a run of short prints in the 50's and 150's. Skip numbered short prints are quite ridiculous and the fact that they kiboshed that in 2007 probably helped the brand become so popular with set collectors.  Topps still does that skip numbered crap for other sets though, most recently Magic Football.

Topps must hate Bobby Cox. Almost off of the Topps cards of Bobby from the past 10 years make him look like a decrepit old geezer. Upper Deck's cards of Bobby looked good. Topps' later year cards of Casey Stengel and Earl Weaver made them look good. Bobby's look like someone who escaped from the nursing home for the criminally aged. That's just plain wrong, the man is still running around Spring Training doing some work for the braves before going off on a cruise this April. Probably a wild tropical sex cruise, 'cause Bobby is still a fightin' pimp. Booooo Topps! Your photo selection sucks! Why U hate Bobby?

Also I'm pretty certain I have this card already, just not in the binder.

I'm so mad about Topps giving Bobby crummy pictures that I'm ready to fight! You! Skinny wuss! I'mma beat you up now! POW POW POW! Ouch! Shouldn't have gotten in a fight with champion pugilist Bob Fitzsimmons. This is a pain that shall linger.

Hey! Da pope! You all realize that one day I shall MSPaint Father Guido Sarducci's head into this card, right? Maybe not today... maybe not tomorrow... But it will happen, just you wait.

THIS is the shit I'm talking about Topps. Bobby's card looks like grampa pooped himself at the family reunion while Joe Torre looks like a motherflubbing mafia ninja gunfighter emerging from fog and shadows ready to murder you with your own spleen. Yeah, no bias showing there, Topps.

I pulled a David Wright relic card in the second pack of A&G I ever opened and am now only getting his base card five years later. Cards are funny like that.

Here's one of those short prints, number 145 of Jorge Cantu. Who the hell wants a Jorge Cantu card? Set collectors, team collectors and his mom, most likely. But I dare you to find this card anywhere other than the internet...

Finally, here's a card of Douchey McSnoogens. I don't know what that means but I'm not calling Popcorn McMunchybutt by his official nickname anymore because it's stupid. Ya hear me Weenie McDuckiedrawers! I shall no longer submit to the tyranny of your dumb nickname! J-Hey is fine though.

This is card #50. I'm not sure if that's a short print or not.

When I first wrote up my recap of the card show I stated that I was unable to find any cards off my 2009 list. This was an inaccurate statement. There was a box of 2009 short print cards ready for the picking. Unfortunately there were only about 20-25 of the short prints in the box with about 15 copies of each. I was able to pick out three I needed: Jeff Francis, John Baker and Wladimir Balentien (Did anyone do a Happy Balentien's day joke this year?). I tried to post the Francis, but Google images choked.

Just as well, no one cares about a Jeff Francis SP anyway.

The 2010 wantlist resulted in half joy, half heartbreak. First the heartbreak. I did find a large box of 2007-2010 Allen & Ginter commons for sale. However, the box was not priced. And there were short prints peppered throughout the box. And the cards were not in numerical order. I picked out ten off my list including two short prints before I got fed up and quit. When I decided I was ready to check out I discovered the proprietor had buggered off and left the table in the hands of someone who had no clue or interest in the price of these cards. I got 'em all for 2 bucks. Not terrible, but with a little organization or even a freaking price I might have really cut down that list. I got the Braun at least:

Inside the same quarter box as that 1952 reprint card was this:

Aw yeah, Chippah! I didn't know if I needed this for my history set or not but who cares. Turns out I didn't have it in the binder. I probably have it in a package or a Chipper box but hey, got one for the binder now.