Night Owl Sends Classics, Favorites, Icons, and Sensations

Got some return fire from the Night Owl camp today.

 

Started small with a '23 insert and a 2008 Baseball Icon from Allen & Ginter sets.

Then the penultimate 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Mattingly.  I'm down to just the Yastrzemski for the set now.

Always overjoyed to knock out another 2005 UD All-Star Classics insert.  These are elusive.  And there are a lot of them on my want list.

Greg sent the Dodger portion of the last few 2023 Stadium Club I'm still lacking.  Between this one and four more that I have coming in TCDB trades, I'm back down to the one I thought was last before I went back and checked and found the rest of them still missing.  (It's Alvarez from the Mets.)

One more chip off the SP list for the latest Heritage.  These haven't been nearly as hard to get as older years short prints.  Hope it lasts until I'm done.

And finishing out the batch, a second copy of the Palmer Sensations from the same Heritage.  Did this design actually show up in '75 somewhere?  I was just happy there was another group of retired players besides the box toppers.

Thanks to Greg for the list hits and the blog post material.

Carrying The Flag For My '65 Set Build

Got a shipment today from my man Marv in Michigan.  It was another round of fantastic 1965 Topps baseball stars.  I started this set with a bulk lot purchase at Chantilly back in October.  Since then, Marv has supplied the nicest specimens of the HOF'ers, and a lot of them.  I just was able to put names on every card in my want list.  I'm down to 70 out of 598!

Here's the latest batch that came today:

The '65 design is one of the quintessential Topps creations.  Solid colors and a simple pennant theme that doesn't need anything else.  And the color combos are spot on.  I'll give you a closer look at some of the more famous cards.

 

If you're into rookies, here's one of the more popular in the set, and his Detroit counterpart. 

Marv said this one was "Way off center".  It is, compared to most of what he finds for me.  But I'll take it - there's plenty of border all the way around.

This has got to be Casey's best card ever.  You can just see the personality from the photo.  

I kept seeing this card in dealer boxes, but never found one that was nice enough to take home.  Marv came through for me. 

You might recognize this guy if you follow vintage NBA.

On top of all those, there was another addition to the latest '65 lot:

Forgive the bad desk lighting.  This one is as sharp and bright as you hope it is.  (I'm paying for this one in later installments.)

The previous batch from November-ish starts with a Yankee as well.  Ford will be leaving this plastic prison at some point I believe.

Another great looking pink & yellow combo.  Ya gotta love those vest uniforms too.

Yaz seems to have lost one in the lights.  Oh wait, they probably didn't do that yet....

Another beautiful card from Eddie Mathews.  Does he have any cards that aren't textbook classic? 

Phil Niekro shows up on a two-headed RC for the second year in a row. 

And we'll end it on another HOF pitcher.  Again, the epitome of a vintage baseball card.

As a bonus for perusing this far, I present the penultimate card from my '62 set build that Marv practically did for me, and he lapped my '57 build in the process.  I'm down to one card to finish the original woodgrain set - Mantle/Mays #18.

This one was graded "Authentic".  It's been shaved a bit, but not enough to make it appear altered.  I'll take the discount!

I'll save the groveling about not posting in 3+ weeks for a future post.....maybe.

2024 A&G Box 3 of 3 - Measure Twice, Cut Once

Now for the third and final installment of my A&G breaks.  Hoping for at least a hit of someone I actually really like...

Box topper is an N43 this time.  I generally like these, but they're hard to complete - or at least expensive - so I've only done it once, in 2009.  Finally, an older player!

Feels like these are a slightly different size this time, but maybe it's me.  I put a regular silver card behind it for comparison.

First hit (about halfway through like the others) is Acuña.  (ñ = ALT-164).  Haven't pulled a bat relic in a while.  Nice that it says "game-used".  Again, I like this relic style better than the other full-size one.

Mini inserts include a World's Tallest Mountain.  It was the only one I got, so I assumed they were scarce, though mountains isn't a subject you would think would be so chase-able.  Not likely doing those either.

Some decent names in the player minis.  Is Skenes the guy I should put on top?  Had to check to see if the shiny Pereira was the same Yankee as the jersey I got in Box #1, but that was Peraza.  There's a repeated name here that I'll come back to as well.

Second hit is an auto from a player who appears in a different team than I expected.  (Are you getting annoyed with how clueless I am about current players yet?)  I would say this is the best hit of the break as far as regular hits go.  The third one may make you think differently, though.

I'd say a Bloodhound would more fittingly be named Trombone  than Trumpet, but OK.  X-Ray'd's are still really fascinating.  Top right is not an insect, it's an Armadillo.  Feels like one more box, and I'd have had all the regular inserts.  A&G collation (and my dealer's box selection) is always excellent.

What can beat a shiny Mickey Mantle?  (Well, a refractor, I guess, but I'm not complaining.  Not that I'll probably keep it for long.)  Might have to flip a coin to see if Night Owl or Fuji gets the Filigree Yamamoto...

Final hit ~ not a Double Rip Card, but I got double Rips in the break!  

And remember the same name minis?  Call it a Slade Cecconi hot box!  Or even a Diamondback hot box.  Wouldn't be my first choice.  (No offense, D-Back fans).

Before I reveal the contents, I'm happy to say I got at least one Jayden Daniels.  He's not a short print in the set, but only getting one makes it feel like he's one of those Scarce Pulls but not SP's - like Jeter used to be.  This base card is about the only one beside the Trick-Or-Treat Score that's not $5-$100 right now.  I'm not going to have an easy time collecting this guy.  I didn't actually get a Palmer base card at all, which was also surprising.

But anyway, back to the Rip card.  I cut this one correctly this time.  You can see here the relative depth of the chamber and the pull tab on the back.  What was in here?

Extended number Ohtani!

Woo Hoo!  Paid for the boxes, right?  Not quite.  EBay auctions are around $20-30.  Which is still nice.  Will definitely trade for an upper level mini or something of my player collections.  Daniels, Palmer, Bo Jackson, etc.

I have since received all but the Palmer (x2) and a second Daniels for the base set, the remaining SPs and full size inserts except for three X-Ray'd's (15, 17 & 19).  I also want three of the Cycle Successions (are these retail inserts?) Torre, Fisk, and Keith Hernandez, as well as the Uniform Countdown of Dusty Baker.  I hope to finish the Got the Itch minis before they're all sold out too, but will probably have to count on trades.  Hope they're not too scarce.

Still have a lot of my player minis to trade, except the A&G backs.  And all the mojo hits are available as well.  Got a few insert dupes, and about 40 base extras and most of the Chromes.  Let me know what you need!

2024 A&G Box 2 of 3 - Welcome Back, Carter

So on to Box 2 of my 2024 Ginter break.  Now I'll at least get a start on the regular base set.

Box Topper is Vlad Jr.  I tend to pull something of his out of every few boxes of new stuff I open - which means Ginter at this point.  As well as Blue Jays.  My toppers are spoken for already, though.

First pack and there's that Carter guy again, as well as the #1 drafted quarterback last year.  I'm looking for the guy that was called next.  Shiny Adley is cool - I got a couple different ones of his in this break.  I'm tempted to go for the rainbow.  Has his superstardom hype settled down yet?  I tend to pull the big names just after they are hot sellers, as you'll see in a bit.

First hit was former National (and relevant star?) Anthony Rendon.  This one is very flowery.  I don't dislike it, but the other relic style looks cooler this year.  Sample is pending....

Player/people minis....got both the regular and A&G back of the top guys in the middle.  Also take note of the second dude named Carter in the blacks.  Shiny Austin Riley might be what I mentioned earlier - was he a hot commodity last year?  I don't pay attention any more....

Here's why I brought up Evan Carter.  Nice looking mini auto, but I don't know him from Gary, Joe, Jimmy the former president, or Sergeant Carter on Gomer Pyle.  

Mini inserts include another sniffy one - this time it's peppermint!  I think they made up the Swamp Creatures lineup - never heard of this bird, but he's more likely to live in a swamp than the previously pulled one - a shark?  Anyone else who doesn't live near there default to the quote from Hunt For Red October when Sam Neill gets shot and says "I would have liked to have seen Montana..."?  Couldn't find the clip online.

More X-Ray'd's.  A couple new ones and a couple dupes.

Dogs and bees and sister cities.  Gotta love the service dog inclusion.

Last hit.  Like I said, I think these look the best, though they appear to be player portraits against a cork board, while the whole thing sits on a pile of unwound cassette tape (or poodle clippings for those of you too young for cassettes).  Sorry if I've now made you unable to unsee those things.

And finally, the shiny.  Carroll refractor would have been good last year, right?  

Glad to get regular base cards this time.  I have found another lot of the silver hot box ones, so I'll probably go ahead and try to make that set.  I'll have to be quick though, I'm sure they will fade from existence by the end of the year or so.  Don't have a lot of trade bait from these at this point.  Two people are sending me the remainder of my base, SP, and full size insert needs already.  One of them wants my minis.  Doubling up wasn't my plan, but it's what's happening.

Stay tuned for the third rip.  That's a hint....

2024 A&G Box 1 of 3 - I Can See How This Will End

Welcome to my only annual new product opening!  Now and then I might jump into Heritage or Stadium Club, but Allen & Ginter is by far the most consistent purchase that I'll make year to year.  Of course, that no longer includes flagship.

Took me a bit to decide how many boxes I wanted.  I like the design this year, but it's not my favorite, and the inserts were decent, but not quite as exciting as some previous years. I settled on three boxes, and sent for them the day after they came out.  Consequently, I think I paid an extra $10 a box.  But anyway, let me know if you think I got my money's worth.

We'll start with the box topper, and then open the top pack on each stack from left to right.  

A Diamondback to start.  Not encouraging, though I do recognize this guy from Heritage.  Can't tell you much after that.

First pack - A "scratch rub-and-sniff" mini (these really work!), a Star of the (Westminster Dog) Show, and four base cards.  A mix of non-sport and baseball players that is a big part of the appeal of this set.

You may have noticed something different about these base cards.  

Yep, they're the shiny Silver Hot Box Parallels.  This whole first box is this flavor of semi-shiny.  I'm glad the design has some color and structure.  It contrasts with the frame well, so these are pretty decent looking.  But it gets me thinking - this is part of a trend that I'm not a big fan of.  The Shiny is taking over.

More on that in a bit.  First hit now - Nice Johan Rojas mini framed auto.  These are really distinguished looking.  The border is a bit ornate, but it goes well with the card design.  I won't be going for the whole run, however.  There are a couple of my player collection guys in the checklist, though not as many as previous years.  The biggest chase of this year's A&G for me is the new quarterback phenom in Washington, Jayden Daniels.  

Next hit! (All three hits came side by side by side in all three boxes.  About halfway down the stacks.)  Numbered out of 199.  Do I rip it or keep it?  Pffft.  As if I could ever go very long without finding out what is inside.  I developed a method of opening these neatly without shredding the outer card a few years ago - see it here.  Let's see if I can execute it well again. 

High number Cubs guy.  Hmph, OK.   But there is one slight problem....

Hacked it a little deep on the extraction.  Split the lower ¼ of the mini.  Sealed it with a bit of glue, but it'll be a throw-in to whoever wants it.  So much for my fancy technique.

A few slip-throughs, but the outer card is reasonably intact.  Will look OK in a top loader or binder page.  Will alter my technique the next time I get an opportunity.

The mini inserts for this box.  Rather basic, really, except for the Got The Itch's, which are really cool and do provide the sensory experience of the smells depicted.  Those are probably the only ones I'll pursue.  

I did some research on every A&G insert so far, to see how many times they repeated topics.  Flags have now been done three times - Mini Flags, Flags Of The World, and Flags of Lost Nations.  One of seven categories that has been used thrice.  Dogs are another (which I'll excuse).  The whole list is huge, and I'm not sure how to present it in a meaningful but not massively verbose way.  Let me know below your thoughts and level of interest.

The player minis - first two columns are regulars, the third is the A&G backs, with two black borders and a Chrome.  Again, more shiny creeping into the main components of this set.  I will say they do look nice, but a modern shiny finish on an antique themed set is really contradictory in my opinion.  Doing it in Heritage is bad enough, and those are just from 50's and forward, as opposed to the 1800's.

These are the bulk of the trade bait that I use from Ginter....they are all available.  Once I get close to finishing the 2012 Gypsy Queen black minis, I may jump into an A&G design at some point.  It will have to be a new design - trying to go back and start an old one would be futile, I'm sure.

I like the full-sized inserts, especially the doggies.  The Sister cities is cool, but I'd love to find out what makes two cities decide to bond like this.  Guess I could Google it.  I expected the Buzzin's to be minis, but they're nice full size.  Collation was great on all these throughout the three box breaks.

These are the coolest inserts in the set this year and maybe in the last several, if not of all time.  "X-Ray'd" images of Oregon Zoo animals are printed on high-gloss stock like real X-rays.  My pictures don't do these justice.  And the brand labeling is very subtle.  The back text is a little small for my taste - at first glance I thought the bullfrog (lower right) said Bulldog.  Image made sense for either one. 😄

The extra-shiny base from this all-shiny package.  Each box had three regular Chromes and one refractor.  Some good names here, though I defaulted to Boomer Wells the pitcher from '87 to '07 and not this dude.

You might be wondering how to distinguish the Hot Box silvers from the Chromes.  I got Clayton in both, so he can show us the difference:

The silver Hot Box ones give more of a rainbow reflection, but don't have much of a mirror finish.

The Chromes are not as prismic, but you can see yourself in the borders.  There are no Chrome logos on the front or back of the cards.

The fourth flavor of shininess is the Silver Filigree.  I got lucky and got one of my main PC guys in that and a mini as well.  You can see the ornate decoration in the border of these.

In what turns out to be the third hit in this box, I also got an Orange refractor numbered to 25 of the "other" Bo.  The color blends very nicely with the frame and interior.

So we're a third of the way through.  Thanks for slogging through until the end, I know it's a lot of images.

In closing, I'll sum up by saying I don't regret collecting this set.  But I can see the end of the road if things keep trending the way they seem to be going.  If A&G creativity wanes and is replaced by multiple forms of shiny parallels, I'll drop Ginter like I did flagship.  It feels like that will take a long time to happen, so I'm not worried yet, but this hobby caters to the easier things rather than the creative and innovative that take more work to produce. 

Do you prefer shiny baseball players, or more variety of subjects and inserts to make Allen & Ginter the set that it is?