Hot Box Hits: Part 1 - Boxtoppers

Time to show off the shinies from the Obak box. First up is the cabinet cards. These are supposed to be one per box, but I got two somehow. I'm not sure if I'm just exceedingly lucky of if that is a hallmark of a hot box.

These cards are based on the T4 Cabinet premiums from Obak. It took 50 coupons form Obak cigarettes to get one of these The original Obak T212s aren't all that common to begin with, so these are extremely scarce. The newfangled cabinets differ from the originals in that there was no logo or text on the fronts and the back was blank. These are some of the better looking retro style cards put out recently.

T4-28 Calvin Griffith - Minnesota

I'm assuming the kid on the card is Calvin Griffith, Owner of the Washington Senators when they moved to Minnesota to become the Twins. He was the nephew of long time player, owner and manager Clark Griffith, and Calvin did work as a bat boy for his uncle.

Even though the card is for the Minnesota Franchise, the back of the card shows the Senators' first park in Washington. I guess a picture of the old Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis did fit the theme of the set. The old timey pictures on these cabinets are fantastic.

T4-29 Charles Comiskey - Chicago

Good 'ol Chuck Comiskey, the real ringleader behind the Black Sox Scandal. Pay your players properly and they won't have to throw games to afford your laundry fees! A stadium is named after him and he's in the original Allen & Ginter N28 set so I'll give him a pass for now. I can't stay mad at a man with such a mighty fine hat, can I?

The two cabinets are a slightly different color on the front. I don't know if this is normal design of the set or if there is some sort of parallel going on. Neither are serial numbered or marked differently at all so I'll assume they are just part of the base set.

Man, check out the cigar ads on the wall at South Side park! I wonder if I got out a magnifying glass I could figure out who some of those players were.  I was originally thinking about flipping these cards for the Atlanta T4, but they look so damn good I might just try to chase the set.

Here's the checklist - these are one per box.

One nice thing about the checklist is that unlike some companies, TriStar actually notes which cards have variations. One star for a slogan variation on the back and two stars for an image variation. If I counted right, there are 13 slogan variations and 3 image variations. Here's the checklist of variations so you don't have to squint.

Slogan Variations:
4 Starlin Castro
6 Austin Jackson
17 Roger Clemens
19 Hank Greenberg
20 Dale Murphy
21 Cal Ripken Jr.
40 Johnny Bench
41 Jose Canseco
44 Jason Heyward
52 Jim Abbott
89 Luthor "Dummy" Taylor
108 Tinker to Evers To Chance
109 Sherry Magee

Image Variations:
19 Hank Greenberg
44 Jason Heyward
52 Jim Abbott

Minis have variations too, 8 slogan variations and 1 image variation.

Mini Slogan Variations:

3 Starlin Castro

4 Austin Jackson

9 Roger Clemens

10 Hank Greenberg

11 Dale Murphy

12 Cal Ripken Jr.

18 Jason Heyward

37 Sherry Magee

Mini Image Variation:

18 Jason Heyward

The T4 also has an image variation on the Washington cabinet.  If anyone is trying to build a master set including the variations, you'll be looking at 136 cards (27 short prints and variations) for the base set and 54 cards (9 variations) for the mini set. That's actually a very obtainable goal. If you want a complete master set with all the parallels, variations and autographs, well, that's insane. Someone will try it though.

Next up: Veteran autographs.

2010 Allen & Ginter Box Break Part 1: Packaging, Box Topper and the Very First Pack

Ok, I have my box, it is all ripped up, I know exactly what is and is not in the box and it's time to show it off to the world. The first thing I have to show is all the various ephemera and assorted detritus contained there in, AKA the packaging. Don't give me that look, I always do this. The box top is nice. Old Timey player (Night Owl calls him Minty Beans and I believe I shall as well) pivots for the double play while surrounded by two cards you likely won't get and one you sure as hell won't get.

The inner flap is a tad disappointing as it is merely a reordering of the box top. The inside flap has slowly devolved in originality since I broke my first box in 2007 and next year it will likely be the exact same as the front image. 2012 will have a plain blank cardboard inside flap and in 2013, There will be no packaging at all, Topps will just throw a handful of packs into a used Wal-Mart shopping bag and twist tie the top.

Here are the interesting bits from the side panels. They are mostly the typical ad stuff, but there's a different image on each side for once. Might they be a part of the Code?

Grand Sailing Ship

Flaming Vuvuzela/World's Largest Spliff

Wild Turkey

Old Timey Astronomer/Prevert looking in the Girl's Dorm Window

These might actually be representations of some of the cards in the set. There's a Ship insert set... and I think something about astrology... and turkeys? Oh heck with it. Vuvuzela activate! BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The box bottom has typical legalese. the left side is boring so no scan. Here's the box odds:

I have no idea how an N43 can be 1:3 boxes, a cabinet can be 1:2 boxes and you still get something in every box. All that autorelic crap does not land 1:6 boxes which is what you would need to make the math add up. Topps couldn't even answer their own Canadian skill test question with that mathematical shoddiness.

Now this is interesting. No more group A and B and C D E F G relic and autos. All of 'em are mushed up in a big lump o' autorelics. You can read all that mess yourself, here are only ones I care about:

Autos:
Tommy Hanson
Yunel Escobar
Jason Heyward

Relics:
Brian McCann
Yunel Escobar
Melky Cabrera

This list subject to change.

Oh, look. A serial number underneath the packs. I shall scan it and post it, for I am insane. These numbers are getting complicated. A&G never had letters in their serial number before unless they have always used Base 24 and just not told anyone.


Ok, just because I love you all and I have no idea how close I am to filling up my free Picasa photo storage here's the checklist in 400DPI.

Enjoy quickly, the nanosecond Google wants me to pay I'm deleting the suckers.

Ok! Actual cardage! I GOTS A CABINET CARD!

Topps does not in any Manner, make any representations as to whether its cards will attain any future value.

AIN'T IT DA TRUTH.

Did all you Strasburg Psychotics read that? Do you need CPR now? Ok, here's the card:

A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA

Looking over the checklist, this is the absolute best I could have possibly done for a Cabinet card. Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite president so I can dig this one. Better than a cabinet card of Andrew McCutcheon and only Andrew McCutcheon.

All right. this is what you've all been waiting for. THE FIRST PACK:

But first, the odds:

Here are the odds and the number of said inserts you can reasonable expect in any given box:

Short Print - 1:2 (12 per box)
Mini Short print - 1:13 (2 per box, 1 if you're unlucky)
Mini A&G Ad back - 1:5 (6 per box)
Mini A&G Ad back SP - 1:65 (I suppose you could get one)
Mini Black border - 1:10 (2 per box, three if you're lucky)
Mini Black border SP - 1:130 (not likely)
Mini No number - 1:140 (still not likely)
Mini Bazooka back (not bloody likely)
Mini Wood - (fughettaboudit)
National Animals - 1:8 (3 per box)
Lords Of Olympus - 1:12 (2 per box)
Monsters of the Mesozoic - 1:12 (2 per box)
Worlds Greatest Wordsmiths - 1:24 (1 per box)
Sailors of the Seven Seas - 1:24 (1 per box)
Creatures of Legend, Myth and Joy 1:288 (The hell? These aren't on the checklist! Dammit Topps)
Baseball Highlight Sketch insert - 1:10 (2 per box, three if you're lucky)
Rip card 1:285 (5 other bloggers you know will pull one, but you won't)
Framed Printing plates - 1:799
Framed Cloth cards - 1:365 (Printing plates and Silks only come when you aren't expecting them. Are you expecting one? Then forget it.)
Framed Mini Autographs - 1:40 (Oh you're really hoping to pull one of these...)
Framed Relics - 1:11 (But you'll get three of these instead.)
Cut Signatures - 1:110,000 (Only if you buy one of those awful TriStar packs along with your box of A&G)
Monsters of the Mesozoic redemption card - 1:174,000 (It's a redemption, don't sweat it)
Book Cards - 1:127,875 (Why would you want this anyway?)
Frames  DNA relic - 1:200,000 (Is your name Beckett? then no)

Ok cards now for reals. TEH FURST CARDE INN THEE PAKC:

(note to Gint-A-Cuff Nazis - it is 12:15 right now and I need to post this quickly so I can go to sleep. I'll add up points tomorrow sometime)

73 - Avery Jenkins

Champion Disc Golfer. That's the way to set the tone for the entire break. Any sport that requires the competitors to grab a large phallus in order to play the sport is all right with me.

63 Matt Carson

After being mostly unobtrusive in their other releases, Topps now throws that Rookie Card logo RIGHT IN YOUR FACE for their most design sensitive set of the year. Graphic design genius, I say.

267 Martin Prado

MARTEEEEEEEEEN! Your Starting National League All Star second baseman. If you don't know who Martin is by now, you just don't know baseball.

64 Josh Beckett

I can't remember - is Beckett incredible or a bum this year? It's so hard to keep track of these things.

91 Carlos Zambrano -1

BOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm playing hearts and I just took the queen of spades. Stupid Cubbie hothead.

AGHS5 Ichiro Sketch card

Screw you haters, I like the sketch cards. Not enough to rescan it when it got cut off at the bottom, but I like them. Ichiro's probably the best of a sparse checklist this year.

206 JD Drew A&G mini +2

Bluh. My first two minis of the year are Teixeira and Drew. Oh well, does this card make the FrankenSet? the answer is....

YES

A&G Drew bumps a 2007 Mike Napoli out of the binder.

TDH51 Gordon Beckham +1

Cool, a Bulldog for my first This Date in history. I think this will be my favorite of all the one-per-pack insert sets from A&G (No offense Dick Perez - your sketches are cool too)

Packs 2-4 will be up tomorrow. I hope.

Still Lazy

You ever have so much stuff that you absolutely have to do right now that you freeze up and just don't do anything? Yeah, me too.

Enjoy this cabinet of Rajah in the meantime while I sit back and watch my life spiral into oblivion.

More A&G box toppers from the 50 cent bin

Aw crumbs. It just occurred to me that Atlanta Sports Cards is now completely out of my way once again. No worries, I'm broke as hail anyways. Last time I was there I hit the 50 cent box pretty hard and found more A&G box toppers. These things must not be that popular anymore because I keep seeing 'em cheap.

Shady Grady

Grady Sizemore had kind of a crummy season, but he was hurt all year so we'll cut him some slack. Maybe his elbow problems came from swinging all those bats at the same time. Look at him eying that fourth bat. Man, he wants to swing that bat. Stop it Grady! You need to rest up for the '10 season!Am I the only one referring to next year as oh-10? It actually fits, but seems weird to me.

BJ's Bro

Justin officially passed his brother as the best Upton in the bigs this year. Hitting .300 with 26 homers and 20 swipes will do that. He's only 21 years old too... All you rotisserie geeks out there are just droooling to take him in the first round next year aren't ya. Don't play it off like you're going after Pujols or A-Rod, you are all hoping and praying to get a low pick in the first round so you can grab Justin and show off your baseball genius.

What the Halladay are the Blue Jays thinking?

Seriously, why would anyone want to trade this guy... If I were the Jays I'd kidnap his family and threaten to feed them all to a rabid moose unless he signed a 90-year extension. Zach Greinke, King Felix and Capn' Cheezburger all pitched like they were possessed with the Ghost of Christy Mathewson this year and Halladay is still a legit Cy Young candiate even after all the mess he had to put up with all season. Man, if he played in New York, he's be the biggest pitcher synce Ryan. Of course if he played in New York we'd all hate him like cancer, but that's not the point.


I also got an unopened cabinet card. Why haven't I opened it yet? Well, the wrapper is see-through for one thing. Just been too lazy for another. Here's a hint on which one it is: This one would make a few of my neighbors weep bitter tears. If there's an outcry for me to open it, I might post on one of the Pack rip sites, but I might just stay lazy. I mean... busy with other stuff. 'Cause I'm working on other important stuff right now really I am. This post notwithstanding.

What I got for five bucks

All righty then! I finally got my act together and scanned the cards. Here's what i got at Atlanta Sports Cards:

Cabinet card of G-Dub and that dude on the ten dollar bill. Oh, but that's not all...

A couple more cabinets from the WBC. Cuba bashing homers and Japan making the finals. There's three out of the ten card set. Here's the checklists for reference:

Five WBC cards (just click on 'em to get a full size view)

And the historical subjects. Oh but wait there's more...

I also got an unopened cabinet pack. Can anyone tell what's inside? The wrapper is practically transparent as you can see from the scan. This is why you should be careful when buying these boxtoppers on the bay.

That's not a bad haul right? Four cabinets for five bucks? Well, I also picked up these:

A few N43's for good measure. The fifty cent box is grand, isn't it? Here's the checklist of the N43's because why not.

After some prodding and two guesses, Matt finally came around to the correctish answer and thus wins the contest. He was the only one to mention A&G at all if I'm not mistaken. I guess I have to go back to ASC now to get his prize. I'm willing to make that sacrifice for the good of my readers...

2009 Allen & Ginter Box Break Part 1: Packaging, Box Topper and the Very First Pack

Yep, I got you all hyped up over the release of Allen & Ginter, teased my box and the first thing I'm going to do is scan all the packaging. That's just how I roll. The box top has a very familiar looking 19th century gentleman featured but I can't quite place him. I'll figure it out sooner or later. There's also a Mantle relic, Howard auto and Napoleon pube card on there as well. It's all very Allen & Gintery indeed (except the pube).

Here's the inside flap of the box top. Disappointingly, the preview cards are the same, but Old Planter makes up for the lack of originality. Both the inside and outside of the box top has a large warning about choking hazards. There must be an excessive amount of New York Mets cards in the checklist.

The front side of the box has a sheep on it for some inexplicable reason. Maybe the sheep is food for all the mythological monster inserts inside the box. At any rate it's making me want to play a round or two of Worms on the Gameboy. Yes, I still play my Gameboy, mainly because I have the Worms: Armageddon cartridge. As you can see, I got a little rambunctious opening the box up and trashed it a little. I guess I have to buy another box!

The sides of the box have familiar looking guy and the logo. All sides look just about the same excet for the picture on the left.

The back of the box hasplaying cards on it. You never know, this could have to do with the code. Just in case:

9D JC 9S
8C AS 8H

If this is a clue and it holps someone solve the code, please send a Dominique Wilkins auto my way.

Ok, the box bottom is one half legalese and I'm not even going to bother with that. The stuff you want is right here: Relic and Auto group listings. There's also the odds for pulling an N43 auto/relic card. Here's yer chances:

N43 Relic - 1:162 boxes
N43 Autograph - 1:270 boxes
N43 AutoRelic - 1:1,621 boxes

It sure ain't easy, but someone has to pull 'em. I scanned this bit at 300 dpi so if you want a good look, just click on the image. Let's look at the autograph groupings first.

There's only two groups: Group A (1:2,730 packs) and Group B (1:51 packs). You're looking at an autograph in about every other box there. Chris Olds wasn't kidding on that Beckett box break, there really are 8 different Michael Phelps autographs listed which is frankly quite ridiculous. There are only 8 other players in the group! Group B is sort of odd, as the usually short printed non-baseball autos are mixed in with the ones that people usually pull like Carlos Gomez and Alexi Casilla. I'm not sure what's going on there, but if there are short printed autographs it's a bit misleading to lump them in with the 1:51 list. The one card on that list that really messed with my mind was the Will Simpson/Archie Bunker one. First, I had no clue how a fictional character could possibly sign an autograph. I also didn't know who the heck Will Simpson was. Then I Googled it and found this.

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THERE ISN'T A HORSE AUTOGRAPH IN THIS PRODUCT.

ON A MINI CARD NO LESS.

AAAAAAH MIND SNAPPED

Ok, enough of autographs, let's move on to the relics. Four groups here:
Group A: 1:100 Packs
Group B: 1:215 Packs
Group C: 1:39 Packs
Group D: 1:17 Packs

Group A appears to be the toughy one. That group has all the oddball subjects (horses and mascots and Phelps, oh my!) along with some high profile players (Pujols, Manny and Mantle) and finally a few low level names that no one will associate with being short printed at all. Tim Hudson and Casey Kotchman are in Group A, but I doubt they will go for a premium at all.

Group B looks like the Big Boy group with A-Rod Pujols and Ichiro with the stars and high odds (1 in about 9 or 10 boxes) but then you realize there's only eight subjects and one of them is Eric Gagne. Group C and D relics are the ones you'll end up pulling out of your box althought there's a good mix of superstars in there - Howard, Chipper, Lincecum, Vladdy, Prince, Wright, Longoria... There's a better than average chance of pulling a superstar relic out of an average box.

Oh, look. A serial number underneath the packs. I shall scan it and post it, for I am insane.

- the hell??

Dear lord, I got TWO serial numbers!

SERIAL NUMBER HOT BOX MOJO!!!

Here's the wrapper. You'll see plenty of these so let's not dwell on it.

Ah, this is what we want, the odds. The possibility of successfully pulling anything good if you're not a case breaker is approximately 3720 to 1. Never tell me the odds! Oh well, here they are anyway in order of "you'll have piles of 'em" to "fuggehtaboudit".

A&G Ad Back Mini Parallel - 1:5 packs
Baseball Highlights Sketches - 1:6 packs
Black Bordered Mini Parallel - 1:10 packs
Ginter Code Parallel card - 1:12 packs
National Heroes Mini - 1:12
Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, Bamboozles & Felonies That Destroyed The Lives Of Thousands Of People Mini - 1:12
Short Print Parallel - 1:13 packs
Creatures of Legend, Myth & Terror Mini - 1:48 packs
A&G Ad Back Mini Short Print Parallel - 1:65 packs
No Number Mini Parallel - 1:95 packs
Black Bordered Mini Short Print Parallel - 1:130 packs
Bazooka Ad Back Mini Parallel - 1:191 packs
Rip Card - 1:257 packs
Framed Mini Cloth Cards - 1: 278 packs
Framed Mini Printing Plates - 1:608 packs
Wood Mini Parallel - 1:2,780 packs
Cut Signature - 1:186,000 packs
Framed DNA Relic - 1:186,000 packs
Autos and Relics are detailed about and are overall 1:8 packs.

Or to put it another way:

A&G Ad Back Mini Parallel - about 6 per box
Baseball Highlights Sketches - 4 per box
Black Bordered Mini Parallel - about 3 or 4 per box
Ginter Code Parallel card - 2 per box
National Heroes Mini - 2 per box
Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, Bamboozles & Felonies That Destroyed The Lives Of Thousands Of People Mini - 2 per box
Short Print Parallel - 2 per box
Creatures of Legend, Myth & Terror Mini - 1 in 2 boxes
A&G Ad Back Mini Short Print Parallel -about 1 in 3 boxess
No Number Mini Parallel - about 1 in 4 boxes
Black Bordered Mini Short Print Parallel - about 1 in 4 or 5 boxes
Bazooka Ad Back Mini Parallel - 1 in 8 boxes
Rip Card - about 1 in 11 boxes
Framed Mini Cloth Cards - about 1 12 boxes
Framed Mini Printing Plates - 1 in 25 boxes
Wood Mini Parallel - 1 in 116 boxes
Cut Signature - 1 in 7,750 boxes or 1 in 146 cases
Framed DNA Relic - ditto

Overall, expect about 25 total inserts and parallels per box not counting normal minis, one per pack National Pride cards and short prints. Oddly enough there is no odds for short prints on the pack. I'm hoping they are still 1:2 packs, or the joy of building this set is going to be greatly diminished.

Here's the full checklist that is included as a box loader in every hobby box. If anyone has a spare checklist from 2006, I could use one. The print is tiny, and quite frankly my eyes are too tired to be staring at it tonight. I will be focusing on a couple of interesting things in it in a future post. The one thing that I was most interested to see was the replacement for the Bernie Madoff card. Card #2 is now "Alabama Changes Value of Pi". This made me smile broadly.

Ok, now for the goodies. Gentlemen, I introduce... THE BOX TOPPER:

(+8 Gint-a-Cuffs)

I got a Cabinet Card. Getting a cabinet card basically means you didn't get an autorelic, but I'd never get one of those anyway. The past three years I've gone back and forth Cabinet, N43, Cabinet. Looks like I'll be getting a 2010 N43 card next year. Let's see who I got:

Now this is a nice cabinet card! The Declaration of Independence featuring the autohor and most recognizable signer. This card would have come in handy for Fourth of July! I'm happy with this, here's the back featuring the Historical checkist:

The set also has the Constitution, NATO, the South surrendering and my favorite, the Space Race.

Ok, I promised it... Here's my very first pack of 2009 Allen & Ginter.



134 Jered Weaver
52 Aaron Hill
173 Francisco Rodriguez
57 Frank Evans +2
85 Jason Jaramillo RC
249 John Higby
15 Alfred Nobel mini

and one more...

NP7 Chipper Jones National Pride +6

Can't do better than Chipper in the first pack. One surprising thing - The National Pride cards are not thick like last year's states cards. They are like a normal card. Maybe they aren't decoys this year but are a one per pack insert? You'd still need over three boxes to complete the set. I'm loving the fact that Negro Leaguers are in the set. Frank Evens is shown in a Birmingham Black Barons uniform and also played with Chattanooga, Detroit, New Orleans and the Kansas City Monarchs. Alfred Nobel is a cool mini and the first 2009 card in my 06-09 A&G mini set, bumping Jeff Francoeur out of the binder and into my Braves team set. And say what you will about oddball characters in A&G sets, that John Higby yo-yo champion card kicks ass.

Damn, I love this set. Twenty three packs to go!