More Allen & Ginter Minis

Found a couple of these single cards on eBay last night while looking at some original 1888 Allen & Ginters. So I did a search to see how many were in the set and did anyone sell this as a set. Bingo! Kit Young has a couple left, so I picked one up right away.

It was a special 6 card set (including a very limited 6th card of Babe Ruth) produced by Topps for the 2008 National Sports Card Convention. They are styled after the 1888 Allen & Ginter cards and were only given out in special 5 card packs to just a few hundred VIP registrants (who paid about 120.00 for the ticket). These are very scarce—less than 2500 were made and perhaps 900 were given out at the show. 

All cards feature players from famous events at Yankee Stadium. The cards are: Card #2 Lou Gehrig July 4, 1939 His famous retirement speech I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, #3 Jackie Robinson September 28, 1955- his famous steal of home against the Yankees in the world series, #4 Don Larsen October 8, 1956 The Moment, famed shot of Larsen, with Yogi Berra jumping into arms after his perfect game, #5 Johnny Unitas famous 1958 NFL title game the greatest game ever played, #7 (of course) Mickey Mantle May 22, 1963-hits home run to beat the As the hardest ball I ever hit, almost hitting it out of Yankee Stadium. And #1 Babe Ruth a special extremely limited card (about half as many produced as others) of The Bambino April 18, 1923, with Babe hitting the first home run ever in the House that Ruth built. The backs are nice too, describing the famous event.

So any other Allen & Ginter collectors out there, do yourself a favor and go grab a set.

Looking ahead to Topps Heritage ...

So earlier this week I took a look over at Topps' 2011 base product, today, I will offer my thoughts on the 2011 Heritage offering.

The design, a classic, but design-wise, it probably came too late. The wood grain look would have been better served in 1958 –1960 (if not earlier) with the baseball moving to the left coast. In any case, it is a look that Topps repeated in 1987 with success.

Undoubtedly, this years version is sure to surpass last years '61 offering. I never minded the simplicity of the '61, but it's well known the look is not a favorite of many card bloggers.  I too like the nostalgia of the 1962, and will certainly try to pick up a couple of blasters and packs,  but not sure I will collect this years set.  While I like the '62, my favorite designs of the 1960's Topps were 1960, 1965, and 1967.  I just simply cannot collect everything and would rather put that money towards my 1972 and 1975 sets or this years 2011 Topps set (if it looks as great as we have seen in previews).

But, maybe my mind will change when I see the cards in person.  Looking at the original 1962 checklist and comparing to this years, there are a number of similarities in the checklist make up. For example, the Red Sox team cards both fall at #334, the ten Babe Ruth cards fall at 135–144, and the Rookie Parade cards have multiple players on them.  I looked a little deeper and noticed that the combo cards were slated for the same number slots in each set. Here is a look at the original versus the Heritage version:

Original 1962 ...
18 Manager's Dream (Mantle, Mays)
37 Tribe Hill Trio (Latman, Perry, Stigman)
72 Bob's Pupils (Boros, Scheffing, Wood)
127 Pride of the A's (Bauer, Lumpe, Siebern)
163 Hot Corner Guardians (Boyer, Gardner)
211 Midway Masters (Bolling, McMillan )
263 The Right Pitch (Jay, Purkey, Turner)
306 Redbird Rippers (Jackson, McDaniel)
351 Braves' Backstops (Crandall, Torre)
401 AL & NL Homer Kings (Maris, Cepeda)
423 Rival League Relief Aces (Face, Wilhelm)

and now my take on what the Heritage might offer...

18 Manager's Dream (Mantle, Mays)
37 Tribe Hill  (No offense to the Chief Wahoo fans out there, if there are any left, but Carmona, Masterson, Westbrook ...yikes!)
72 Bob's Pupils  (original had pitching coach, but no "Bob" with current Tigers staff, so ... Leyland or PC Rick Knapp ... Verlander and Max Scherzer)
127 Pride of the A's (Suzuki, Matsui, DeJesus?? Not gonna lie, but oooooffffffffff!)
163 Hot Corner Guardians (Arod/Wright ... Original had two Yankees)
211 Midway Masters (original was Milwaukee Braves ... Alex Gonzalez and Uggla? ... maybe Brewers to tie into Milwaukee theme but then Betancourt and Weeks)
263 The Right Pitch (Dusty Baker or PC Bryan Price with Arroyo and Cuetto ... Travis Wood?)
306 Redbird Rippers (Wainright and Carpenter or Pujols and Holiday? Both good options but think Topps will stay true and do the two pitchers)
351 Braves' Backstops (McCann and David Ross)
401 TBD Combo  (if Al/NL Homer Kings, Jose Bautista and Pujols)
423 Rival League Relief Aces  (how about Mariano and Brian Wilson ... Soriano led the AL last year, but right now he is a set up guy for the Yanks. Other thought was Wilson and Neftali Feliz)

As a whole, the set make up looks like this:

• 500 Total Cards
  425 Regular Player Cards
  6 World Series Highlights
  11 Combo Cards
  4 League Leaders
  24 Sporting News All-Stars
  18 Team Cards
  8 Rookie Parade
  9 In Action Cards
  Babe Ruth
• 75 Short Printed High Number Cards

So there you have my take on this years Heritage. Topps never seems to fail on this product line, and don't think they will start this year.  Right now, release date is tentatively March 17, 2011.

304 cards closer

So in between bouts of shoveling and snow blowing nearly two feet of snow this afternoon, I managed to win the above item earlier today.  With 304 more '72 Topps cards, I have reached just about the halfway point for this set.

Once I figure what cards are in this lot (there were also 18 high numbers to boot), I will update my list. I know I still need a number of stars. I have stars from other 70's sets, so feel free to send me your offers and hopefully I can fill some of your wants.