2026 Allen & Ginter: Skeletons Are Timely Around Halloween

Did ya miss me again?  I managed to go through the entire month of September only starting one post and that wasn't until the 21st.  I didn't finish it.  Then the next time I came back in to write was exactly a month after that - yesterday.  I guess the upside is, I have two or three posts in the works now. 

Anyway, I got two boxes of the current flavor of Allen & Ginter from eBay a couple weeks ago.  I usually order from Charm City Cards, but he and all of the dealers at that time were asking around $225 per box.  eBay prices were under $200 each.  I put an offer in for less than $19o, but was rejected.  That listing sold out, so I jumped on a couple for just over 190.  

For the sake of comparison, here are the current rates for A&G boxes on Blowout, and the basic contents.  Every year, a box is 24 packs of eight cards, and the hits are auto's, relics, rip cards, etc.  350 card base set with 50 short(ish) prints.  (2020 was sold out.  Avg. eBay price listed).

2020  $349.95  3 hits   6 insert sets / 6 minis / Boxloaders & N43s
2021   319.95    3 hits   7 insert sets / 6 minis / Boxloaders & N43s
2022  269.95   3 hits   6 insert sets / 6 minis / Boxloaders & N43s
2023  294.95   3 hits   4 inserts, action var.'s / 6 minis / Boxloaders & N43s
2024  ($300 avg.)  3 hits   4 insert sets / 5 minis / Boxloaders
2025  229.95   2 hits   2 insert sets / 4 minis / no Boxloaders or N43s
2026  199.95  2 hits   3 insert sets (incl. N43) / 2 minis + N34s

Each set also had regular, A&G back, black, and shiny minis, along with Rookie [previous] Design variations, and starting in 2023, a low numbered Uniform Countdown series.

So you can see the decreasing amount of hits, inserts, etc. over the years.  I'm not sure if the price difference for the last couple years is from Topps & Co. lowering the price of the new boxes, or if the older ones are selling for more because they're old now. 

I don't really buy Ginter for the hits, but I do look forward to the inserts, which are typically far more creative than in flagship or any other set really.  Less insert sets means less non-current baseball player content, which drives me away.  I know they repeat topics - I have a whole chart of the entire insert history of A&G - but they're still consistently better, even when it's a group of just baseball players.  

A&G is the one case where I don't mind the short prints.  They're only like 1:3 packs, so you get a bunch in a box, and can generally trade for the rest. And they're cheaper than Heritage SP's.  Well, this year they don't exist.  They cut them out.  I'm shocked Topps/Fanatics did that! 

If you've survived this far, let's dive into the first box.  I'll put the second one in the next post with a reveal on one of the hits you'll see.

Thankfully, still 24 packs of 8.  I kept seeing ads that said there were only 144 regular size cards in a box.  I guess they just meant base cards, not inserts.
 

First card was this guy from a band called the Maine.  Like many current players, I don't know who it is.  There are members of Linkin Park in the checklist, though.

Technically, the first card I saw was the Career 250 of Greg Maddux.  He has a few in this set.

First complete pack.  Nobody notable to me besides the Maddux.  Silver portrait of another music dude.

I think this was the first hit.  Pinstripe adorned swatch of Captain Cheeseburger.  I've already put all my hits, minis, and tradeable stuff on the TCDB, so they probably won't last.  Carlton Fisk is my only PC guy this year ~ usually I have around five guys to chase parallels etc.  Another reduction of the things I like about A&G...

The rest of the silvers that I pulled from this box.  I won't bore you with pack-by-pack commentary.  See which one looks familiar in the other shiny flavors....

Yep, got ol' Hank in both shiny varieties.  I put the rainbow in my TCDB wants.  We'll see if I get any of the others at all.  The Reggie is the coolest retired player card in the set this year.  And I think Griffin is the Refractor.  My Pirate collector guy stopped in 2025, so Griffin's available too.

The Chromes and Silvers are a bit difficult to tell apart unless you hold them side by side.  I tried to take a picture showing the difference, but none of them came out.  The way I explain it is that Chromes are shiny all over, out to the border.  The silvers seem to be shiny in the background, but the border and elements are duller than the background. 

Single Filigree was The Other Bo.

My regular minis.  Reggie again, Yogi, CC, the Linkin Park singer, Nelly, Lindor and the rest.

A&G back minis - Nellie Fox, two Tigers, and a Mariner.  Not big on the back logo

Black borders look great with the "book and ribbon".  If it wasn't so hard, and I liked current players, I might go after a set of these.  Maybe I'll find a starter lot for cheap...

And they call these "Mini N34s".  Not bad, but now you're going to confuse them with the N43's which I'll show in a minute...  I'll keep Gunnar with my set.

Chrome minis look pretty good too.  Wouldn't try for a set though.  Give me five per box, maybe. 

N43's used to be oversized box toppers.  Now they're a regular insert.  Again, cutbacks.  I've sent Skenes away already.  There are only 30, so these are doable, but no retired guys, so I'll pass.

Second hit to keep your attention.  I pull a lot of Cubs and Red Sox it seems.  Wasn't he a Brave a couple years ago?  Anyway... 

Missed these two guys when I took the pics of everything.  Tris is an A&G back....?

All my Career 250's.  Not sure why they called them 250 except of course - 'Murica.  These are nice looking.  This is the big insert set, but it's only 50 total.  Some of the previous sets used to go to 100.  But 50 is good.

Follow up to last year's set that was apparently designed by a Boston native, Wicked Power compliments Wicked Curves with the same design.  I predict Wicked Speed for next year.  "Wicked Powah" would have been awkward...

A big plus on the regular inserts - I didn't get any duplicates across both boxes.  A little less trade bait, but a little more progress.  Most of the time, I'll buy the last several needs anyway.

50 ways to say "Hello".  Might need 50 boxes to pull them all.  Luckily, I've already traded for three more.  Was hoping I wouldn't pull those three from my boxes.

And rounding out the inserts for 2026, Musical Methods.  There isn't any blurb on the back about how the "methods" work.  It just says "Musical Methods card from A&G".  Kind of a one note tune.  Cutbacks....

             front                                           back         

And now, the Bonus Hit.  
A Double Braves Double Rip card.  
And yes, I will get what's inside.  But it won't damage the front or back surface.  
Stay tuned....

So that's if for Box #1.  The bones are still there, but they've been stripped of a lot of the body that made A&G fun.  Maybe that's why they issued it in October and not December like before.   

Sneaking One In

Well, I feel like a liar again.  Or at least a cheesy salesman.  And sales is the last thing I ever want to do.  I've gone another month without a single post, and I was hyping up how all my collecting functions would be taking off in August since I am no longer burdened with full time work.

  

The major causes of my absence were - I sold my previous residence (finally!) - settled on the 20th.  I ordered a backyard shed - 10x12 barn style with loft storage, two windows, and a 5' double door - which also lead to ordering another contractor to come build a base for it.  Also multiple doctor appointments (everything is fine - following up from last year and getting new glasses lenses.)  And I went three different places to cut down trees or weeds for people.

I did add another year or two to my football trade stock on TCDB.  That took a few days.

TCDB trading has resumed, and was very steady all month.  It has trailed off a bit, so I ran a report and initiated a couple large trades myself.  (Typically I have all I can handle in incoming propositions.)  I passed 625 trades in August, and still have about 10 going on right now.

The slew of recent trades replenished my recycled painter's tape stock...

I've managed to put away a lot of the football set singles I've gathered over the last year or so.  The baseball stacks (2) are still on the desk.  As are a lot of the new player collection additions.  

Here's the back part of my sorting desk.  (Angela has the front for two rows of stacks of her four football player guys.)  The blue section is my PC guys.  The main ones have a stack and the others with smaller quantities are in the piles by the discs.  The pink section is baseball sets - the middle pile is about six inches high (hard to tell from overhead).  The yellow is JD5's and Jordan Addisons and the few football I just got.  And the green is all extras/dupes.  Mostly recent Allen & Ginter and 2023 Heritage.

Today, I took a major step forward that should help trading and clearing space.  The red section above is where the four stacks of Washington football used to be.  They are now on the other desk in piles by year.

Still have to do the 90's, but here are all the 2000's.  The first five stacks (2000 - 2004) have been checked off in my binder, so they're ready to file.  The binder covers up to 2008, then I have to type the rest into a Word document.  As you can see, there are a lot more from the last few years.  2024 so much so that I had to split it into two piles.  But at least now I'll know what I have and what I don't and won't have to sift through half of this to figure out if I need a card in trade.  I don't put these on the Database, except what gets there automagically through trade.  It's easy enough to consult my lists to fill out trades as I go.  They just haven't been updated in a couple years.  And you can see I've been bringing in a lot despite this.

So anyway, at some point I have a SportLots order to show.  And I'm sure I've mentioned or commented elsewhere on other post ideas that I've since forgotten (again).  I'll try to gather a few of those and put them out in September.  I'm open to suggestion if you remember one that I have lost.  Maybe another poll?  Let me know in the comments.  Thanks for stopping by.  

Retro Box Break: 1999 Collector's Edge Triumph Football

This box was the last unopened package from the basketball (storage) hoard.  Everything else was already opened when I got it all, except for that hideous box of 1999 UD hoops.  I figured there wasn't much of anything that could come out of it to make it worth selling, so I opened it and started the set myself.

They did that dumb thing that Topps likes to do - offer BONUS packs that are no different than the rest of the box.  Just say 11 packs please.  And it gets even dumber....

So when you actually open the box, there are eight packs stacked in pairs.  Not ten ~ eight.

So when you pull them out, there is a cardboard cover that says your bonus pack is underneath.

Well, which one is the bonus pack?  There are three of them.  It does make 10+1=11.  Dumb.

First card ripped - Robert Smith of the Vikings.

And the rest of the first pack.  Deion, Shannon Sharpe, and the ever-present Tim Couch in this year's stuff.  First insert - Heir Supply Kevin Faulk.

One of the later ones was a Vikings Hot Pack.  Three in one shot.  Randle was a total nut.  Love that guy.

After all is said and done, I got two of the Heir Supply inserts.  (I had a couple more of most of these in my extras, so got a little farther along on a lot of them.).

Some nice names on the Future Fantasy Teams.  All these inserts are very shiny in real life, but the rainbow effect is enhanced by the photos.

Only one regular Fantasy Team.  Mr. Smith.

These Pack Warriors are cool, and it's always nice to get Rice.

And don't you know, I got lucky enough to pull and autograph from the last pack or so.  I'm pretty sure ol' Brock is doing better at announcing than he did as a starter.  But very decent signature, and just cool to pull something of a hit at all.

Collation was pretty decent.  I think the handful of dupes I ended up with were all from my previous stock.   Had two extra Deions, but nothing else excessive.  Even had a double of at least one insert.  Let me know if you have any for trade.

I have yet to put this list on my wants page, but they are in the TCDB (under LoQtus).  Thanks for tuning in!  (Update: Needs are on my site now too)

Retro Blog Bat Around: Who Do You Think Of First? - NFL Edition

Was just perusing my old posts (as I did quite often...at work.  LOL) and realized that I had done the Bat Around for the MLB on which player comes to mind when each team is mentioned.  I said I would do the NFL version soon, but apparently never did.

Well, here goes.... 

Of course, most of the time, I think of the great quarterbacks and HOF'ers by default - unless I have a major player collection from the same team.  I'll try to go beyond the QB's for this (survey).  And even though I still watch NFL football (and UFL) and know the current players well, I think there's a good argument to add a vintage or all-time player too, though that may put the choices right back to the classic QB's, which are the boring answers.  I'm probably overthinking all of this.  I guess the number one thing to keep in mind is that this is not "who's the greatest player of that team", but just "Who do you think of first?"

Now, what order do I go in? 😜  Since I had to cut each one from the group shot above, they appear in alphabetic order, so let's go with that:

Arizona Cardinals
default answer: Kyler Murray or Jim Hart
all-time answer: Larry Fitzgerald
quirky answer: Dan Dierdorf

Atlanta Falcons
default answer: Bijan Robinson or Matt Ryan
all-time answer: Michael Vick
quirky answer: Tommy Nobis

 

Baltimore Ravens
default answer: Lamar Jackson or Joe Flacco
all-time answer: Ray Lewis
quirky answer: Obafemi (Femi) Ayanbadejo

Buffalo Bills
default answer: Josh Allen or Damar Hamlin
all-time answer: OJ Simpson or Jim Kelly
quirky answer: Marshawn Lynch

Carolina Panthers
default answer: Cam Newton
all-time answer: Steve Smith, Jr.
quirky answer: Stephen Davis

Chicago Bears
default answer: Caleb Williams
all-time answer: Walter Payton or Dick Butkus
quirky answer: Peanut Tillman

Cincinnati Bengals
default answer: Joe Burrow or Jamar Chase
all-time answer: Anthony Muñoz or Ken Anderson
quirky answer: Ickey Woods

Cleveland Browns
default answer: Shadeur Sanders or Deshaun Watson
all-time answer: Jim Brown
quirky answer: Ozzie Newsome

Dallas Cowboys
default answer: Dak Prescott or CeeDee Lamb
all-time answer: Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman
quirky answer: Ed "Too Tall" Jones

 

Denver Broncos
default answer: Bo Nix
all-time answer: Peyton Manning or Shannon Sharpe
quirky answer: Tom Jackson (from? Looivul)

Detroit Lions
default answer: Matthew Stafford or Calvin Johnson
all-time answer: Barry Sanders
quirky answer: Charlie Batch or Rodney Peete

Green Bay Packers
default answer: Aaron Rodgers
all-time answer: Brett Favre or Reggie White
quirky answer: Bubba Franks

Houston Texans
default answer: CJ Stroud
all-time answer: J.J. Watt
quirky answer: Demeco Ryans

Indianapolis Colts
default answer: Peyton Manning
all-time answer: Johnny Unitas
quirky answer: Bert Jones

Jacksonville Jaguars
default answer: Trevor Lawrence
all-time answer: Tony Boselli or Mark Brunell
quirky answer: David Garrard

Chiefs
default answer: Patrick Mahomes
all-time answer: Derrick Thomas or Tony Gonzalez
quirky answer: Priest Holmes or Emmitt Thomas

 

Chargers
default answer: Justin Herbert
all-time answer: Junior Seau or Dan Fouts
quirky answer: Charlie Joiner

Rams
default answer: Puka Nacua or Aaron Donald
all-time answer: Torry Holt or Isaac Bruce
quirky answer: James Harris

Raiders
default answer: Maxx Crosby
all-time answer: Ken Stabler or Jack Tatum
quirky answer: Lyle Alzado

Dolphins
default answer: Tua Tagovailoa
all-time answer: Larry Csonka or Dan Marino
quirky answer: Louis Oliver

Vikings
default answer: Justin Jefferson
all-time answer: Randy Moss or Fran Tarkenton
quirky answer: Tommy Kramer

Patriots
default answer: Drake Maye
all-time answer: Tom Brady
quirky answer: Sam "Bam" Cunningham

Saints
default answer: Alvin Kamara or Chris Olave
all-time answer: Archie Manning
quirky answer: Sam Mills

Giants
default answer: Cam Skattebo or Jaxson Dart
all-time answer: Lawrence Taylor or Eli Manning
quirky answer: Plaxico Burress or Amani Toomer

Jets
default answer: Garrett Wilson
all-time answer: Joe Namath or Curtis Martin
quirky answer: Richard Todd

Eagles
default answer: Jalen Hurts or Saquon Barkley
all-time answer: Donovan McNabb or Randall Cunningham
quirky answer: Wilbert Montgomery

Steelers
default answer: T.J. Watt or Aaron Rodgers
all-time answer: Terry Bradshaw or Ben Roethlisberger
quirky answer: Willie Parker

Seahawks
default answer: Jaxon Smith-Njigba
all-time answer: Steve Largent or Russell Wilson
quirky answer: Marshawn Lynch

 

49ers
default answer: Christian McCaffrey
all-time answer: Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, or Steve Young
quirky answer: Colin Kaepernick or Terrell Owens

Buccaneers
default answer: Mike Evans or Jameis Winston
all-time answer: Derrick Brooks or Tom Brady
quirky answer: Cadillac Williams

Titans
default answer: Cam Ward (and not many others)
all-time answer: Steve McNair or Eddie George
quirky answer: Jevon Kearse

Commanders
default answer: Jayden Daniels
all-time answer: John Riggins or Darrell Green
quirky answer: Billy Kilmer or Taylor Heinicke

That was pretty much right off the top of my head, so I'm not sure how much it made you think of players you haven't heard about in a long time.  Let me know in the comments if there were glaring omissions, or more ridiculous players to consider.