This is my first personal review you may have read me in other reviews such as SCF’s 2008 Bowman review. I bought this box myself and might be putting together at least one set out of the many mini sets, especially if I can buy another box. Anyway, on with the review!

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball

24 Packs per box/8 Cards per pack

Hobby box contents on average are:

• Two Autographed, Relic, Printing Plate or Allen & Ginter Original Cards Per Box!
• One Hobby Exclusive N43 or Cabinet Card per Box!
• One HOBBY EXCLUSIVE Rip Card per Case!
• *NEW! The Ginter Code - Collectors Must Crack the code for a chance to win! You’ll get your very own card in next years release!
• *NEW! Allen & Ginter Ancient Icon Cards!
• *NEW! Baseball Icons Cards, featuring all-time greats such as Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson!

You can buy of box of these for anywhere between $80 and $90 on most sites.

The Breakdown

Base Set:
Contains 350 subjects(20 new horizontal & action shots in 08′)
-274 Baseball Veterans
-32 Baseball Rookies
-24 Historic Figures
-20 World Champions

Box Topper: 1 per box
15 Allen & Ginter N43s
10 Allen & Ginter N43 Relics - numbered to 25
10 Allen & Ginter N43 Autographs - numbered to 15
5 Allen & Ginter N43 Autograph Relic - numbered to 5
10 2007 Cabinet Box Loader

The Mini’s and odds of finding them:
350 Allen & Ginter Wood Card Parallel - Hobby Exclusive - numbered to 1
350 Allen & Ginter Framed Cloth Card Hobby Exclusive - numbered to 10
350 Bazooka Back Parallel - numbered to 25
350 Allen & Ginter No Number - limited to 50
350 Allen & Ginter Black-Bordered Parallel ~1:12
350 Allen & Ginter Back Parallel ~1:5
350 Allen & Ginter Parallel ~1:2
5 Pioneer’s of Aviation ~ 1:25
Dangerous Sharks N/A

HOBBY EXCLUSIVE RIP CARDS: 1 per case
100 Collectible Rip Card Exteriors - numbered to no higher than 99
- 160 Rip Card Interiors
30 - Dick Perez Original Sketches - numbered to 1
30 Allen & Ginter Red Autographs - numbered to 10
50 Allen & Ginter Mini Exclusives
50 Allen & Ginter Mini Wood Exclusives - numbered to 1

Inserts:
60+ Allen & Ginter Autographs
60+ Allen & Ginter Relics
8 Allen & Ginter DNA Relics - numbered to 1
100 Allen & Ginter Originals
350 Allen & Ginter Mini Parallel Printing Plates - 4 different colors - 1400 cards total - each is a 1-of-1
50 Allen & Ginter Extra Minis Printing Plates - 4 different colors - 200 cards total - each is a 1-of-1
50 Allen & Ginter World Leaders 1:12
50 Allen & Ginter U.S. States 1:1
20 Allen & Ginter Ancient Icons 1:48
17 Baseball Icons 1:48
20 Cut Signatures - numbered to 1
20 The Ginter Code

I am going to steal my coworker’s pictures showing you the size of the regular base cards and the mini’s.

And here is what I pulled!

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibtL8LKIdM

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjplgJGjnaM
 
(With Mary Riley bonus!)

Box Topper:
N43 David Ortiz

Base set:
143/350 with no duplicatesMini parallels:
Regular: 13
SPs: 1 (Manny Ramirez A&G Back)
A&G backs: 5 (Pierre, Victorino, Zimmerman, Manny, Rowand)
Black border: 2 (Niemann RC, Garrett Anderson)
World Icons: 1 (Achilles)
Team Orange: 1 (Thurgood Cartwright IV)
World Leaders: 2 (George W. Bush, Manmohan Singh of India)United States:
20 (No duplicates) World’s Greatest Victories:
1 (Don Larson)Game Used and/or Autographs:

Bobby Crosby GU Jersey

Rafael Furcal GU Bat

Brian Bannister Autograph

Carl Crawford GU Jersey

Ratings:

Base: 5/5
Fun: 5/5
Design: 5/5
Value: 4.5/5
Rebuy: 4/5

Total: 23.5/25 (94%)

spoodini’s Final Review:Allen & Ginter has been a favorite of mine since Topps brought it back in 2006. Although I have never bought the product, I have always wanted to and decided to purchase it this year. The card’s designs are flawless, bright and colorful, and beautifully drawn. The game used and autograph designs are beautiful inside the plastic holders with the frame looking stunning.There are a number of “Chase Cards” in this product from the DNA relics, printing plates, rip cards, the list continues. You are bound to pull something halfway decent from these boxes. My hit was actually pulling an autograph which is fairly tough to do, although it is Brian Bannister.I enjoyed the insert sets like the United States, World Leaders, and some of the non baseball people. It is a little different but this is the way the product was originally made back in the late 1800s. I don’t mind it as it’s not as bad as other products but I knew what I was in for when I bought it.Would I buy this product again? Absolutely. It’s a blast to open. Looking for hit cards, special SPs, the plethora of inserts, and even learning about historical figures or today’s pop culture stars. This set has everything you need in it. Whether you are a set collector and want to get this huge set or you want to just buy some extremely nice looking cards, this set is for you.I recommend purchasing a box from http://www.cardsbythebox.com/ as this is where I got mine.

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Topps announces it inadvertently inserted a Bowman Chrome Kosuke Fukudome Autographed Rookie Card (which is not autographed) into packs of the recently-released 2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball.  A total of 1900 copies were issued.  Fukudome is not a subject on the Autographed Rookie Card checklist nor was he ever solicited as one.

Fukudome’s Rookie Card is featured on a Bowman Chrome Base Card and the following parallels: Refractor, X-Fractor (#’d to 250), Blue Refractor (#’d to 150), Gold Refractor (#’d to 50), Orange Refractor (#’d to 25), Red Refractor (#’d to 5) and Superfractor (1 of 1).

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By Karine Hains,  Editor-in-Chief 

Isn’t it great to live in the 21^st century and to be able to use all the technology which is at our fingertips in our collecting endeavors? You want to know the value of a card? There’s no need to go out and get a magazine. You want to buy a box? There’s no need to go to a hobby shop. You want to trade cards? Well I suppose you could meet up with friends and try to work out some trades but what if your friends don’t collect? That’s right you can do all these things by using the internet!

Yes, the internet is not only the solution to our instant communication issues but it’s also an invaluable tool for us collectors. Personally, living in England and collecting hockey cards, I can assure you that I have no trading partners in the neighborhood. This makes the internet all the more valuable! Of late however I have been slightly worried about a few things on the web…

First of all, eBay! The amazing online marketplace we have all used at one point or another. It could be likened to the biggest hobby shop in the world but it can also be a dreadful pitfall for collectors. Have you ever spotted an amazing patch card on there which looked too good to be true? Well, you should realize that it may well be. Unfortunately, not everyone is honest and when you are looking at a listing it could be hard to spot little details which would give away the fact that the card has been modified. Before you buy, take a look around. See what the other patches of the same numbering look like, search the completed auctions; you could find that this exact card was sold a couple of weeks ago for not much and with a bland patch. If you do not find anything on eBay, try Google and make sure to check the cached results. Finally, have a look on http://www.fakepatchreport.com/. It’s a time consuming process but it’s truly worth doing to avoid being taken for a ride.

The second issue on my mind is the online trading aspect. Currently, most trading sites let their members interact and trade on the message boards they host for free. However, in the last month, one site has announced that its members will soon have to pay to trade. Now, will this be an isolated attempt or will it spread to other sites? I sincerely hope it doesn’t! Trading online is brilliant but whenever you trade, you have to post your cards to your trading partner and this costs money. Personally, 99.7% of my trades are done with people based overseas so the sending costs are quite high if you put all my trades together. Should I also have to pay to be able to negotiate and trade with my American and Canadian counterparts? Judging by the online community’s reaction to the pay to trade concept, chances are; trades will remain free on most sites. Fingers crossed this is the case for many, many years.

Another issue which can affect you and others when trading online is your trading etiquette. If you’re a stranger to internet trading, this expression probably doesn’t mean much to you. Allow me to elaborate; by trading etiquette I mean ways of interacting with people, tools used to facilitate trading and shipping practices.

A word of advice, to be a successful online trader you may want to think about the way you “talk” to people. Keep your exchanges courteous and make sure that you reply when a fellow trader takes the time to make an offer or enquire about some of your cards. If you plan on trading online a lot, a good reputation will make it a lot easier for you to do so. Also, if you can; help other traders. If you know that someone is looking for a particular card and you see that card in another person’s collection, take the time to drop them a line and let them know! It will only take you a few minutes and chances are they will be grateful and keep what you did in mind, especially if they manage to acquire the card. One final word on your interaction with others; be patient! Do not send two messages about one trade offer in the space of a few hours, let them think about it…If the trade is meant to be, they will come back to you.

To enter the online trading community, come prepared. Know what you want and what you have and let other people know as well. Taking the time to make yourself a “want list” will enable other people to know exactly what you are looking for and if they are interested in one of your items, they will be able to offer something they know you want. It will also greatly increase your efficiency as you will keep an updated record of your needs and wants and there will be no need to tell potential traders: “I will have to check if I have that one and get back to you”. Speaking from experience, once I created a spreadsheet of the cards I had and all the ones I needed, it scarily sped up my trading. You may also want to have a “photobucket” to display your trade bait. While some traders will be happy to just ask you what you have and negotiate on that basis, others will prefer to be able to browse your collection and see what they could trade for. To me, this is like trading with an open book; it shows you are not trying to get someone’s card by offering as little as possible as they get to tell you what they would like.

When you make a trade, please ensure that the goods are packed safely when you send them. A bubble mailer is a must and sometimes supplementary protection may be required. If you are sending a card in a hard case, you may want to put further bubble wrap around it, they can easily break. Make sure the person you traded with gets the cards you send them in as good a condition as possible.

These were my main concerns about online collecting, hopefully as time goes by, more and more people will become familiar with online trading and develop good etiquette. As for the eBay issue and the pay to trade one, I’m afraid that as long as people are online to make a profit, these will remain major concerns of mine…

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  Guest article by gosens151911

  Six months ago, I started collecting cards, hockey cards to be exact as an actual hobby. However, I first got interested many years ago. As young six year old kids we all had our own small collection of cards, several dozen base cards with a few inserts. Then, the value of the cards meant nothing to us it was all about the player and team. Living in Ottawa, the most popular cards at the time were any Ottawa Senators closely followed by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (hey their logo was extremely cool to kids!) and any goaltender cards (they looked cool in those giant pads). Looking at those cards now, they consisted mostly of the ever popular Pro Set (a pretty much worthless hockey card set to those who don’t know) and a surprising few inserts from various sets worth several dollars. Too bad the corners of most were dinged, as we did not have all those penny sleeves and toploaders that we use now. Eventually as we aged most of us slowly lost interest in this hobby, as those popular trends such as Pokemon/Digimon cards came out.

At age fifteen, I still purchased the odd Senator base cards for much more than book value at various locations, hoping to get them autographed (and I successfully did for a few of them). Eventually a comic book store opened near my home. Surprisingly, they carried around two dozen hockey card singles. They even had a game used Patrick Eaves rookie SPX jersey card for $30 at the time. However, as interested as I was in then, their $1 comics were a much more affordable option for me. However, that card haunted me every time I visited the store; my inner Sens fan always wanted me to purchase it. Unfortunately, one year later the store closed down, taking that hockey card away with it.

Fast forward to age seventeen, after finishing my driver’s test, on the way home I passed a card shop I’d never seen before! Definitely had to check it out, my first ever visit to a card store. Plus, now that I had a job, I could afford those Senator jersey cards I’d wanted when I was fifteen! After browsing the store for probably over an hour, shocked at the selection of cards that existed, I settled on a framed 6 jersey cards Senators set. It included three 2005-06 SPGU base and jersey cards (each one a different colour) of Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson. It ended up costing me $60, more than the actual BV. I do not regret purchasing it as it’s what led me into this very exciting hobby and it’s probably still one of my favorite display pieces.

As the school year progressed, I visited the store several more times, picking up a larger lots of cards, some rookies, some autos, and a few more game used still for more than book value . I also learned that there were so many options to protect your cards, from penny sleeves with toploaders, to screwdowns and one touch protectors. One of my greatest “discoveries” was when I attended my first local card sale and realized cards could actually be bought for around 50% of their book value or less! Luckily, I had brought a fair amount of cash with me and was able to pick up a lot of items for my personal collection, including several hundred Senators base cards at five cents each and more GU, rookies, and autos (including that Patrick Eaves SPX rookie jersey I had not purchased at the comic shop for only $5).Following the card show, I decided to buy a Beckett hockey magazine at my local Chapters book store (ironically enough, I remember looking at that magazine several years ago wondering who in the world would waste money on it). This introduced me to the idea of book value and got me to understand the prices of all the cards I owned, and wanted. It was also around this time that I started picking up packs in hope of pulling some rare valuable card for my Senators collection. How far fetched of an idea! All I ended up pulling was a few rookies and the occasional jersey card. Still, I have yet to pull anything big, but I know my time will come. Eventually, thanks to the internet, I was able to locate the Beckett message boards where I was quickly able to learn some of the pros/cons of the various hockey card sets available from reading the box breaks section. However, after failing to join the Beckett message boards, I gave up and discovered the SCF website which I still enjoy to this day.

It was from this website that I learned many lessons about hockey card collecting in general. I gained more knowledge on what the different types of hockey card packs could provide to a collector from the low end to the high end, eventually gaining enough to provide my own input to other new members. Another important aspect I learned was that you were allowed to bargain with card stores to lower their prices, most expect you to! Nevertheless, I was also introduced to probably the biggest and best part of the hobby: trading! Thanks to SCF’s amazingly reliable trade manager, I was able to confidently execute trades to expand my Senators card collection, by trading cards I broke from my pack breaks that were pretty worthless to me. It has become my favorite part of the hobby, viewing other people’s cards and possibly obtaining the ones I’m interested in.

However, I have also learned how expensive a hobby this is, and how impossible it would be for me, having only a minimum wage job, to afford any higher end packs/singles or even a low end box in my case. Nevertheless, this has become a hobby I thoroughly enjoy, no matter how small my budget is. It has brought me back to my youth, collecting all those Senators cards I could for fun. As good as it would feel to own a 500$ BV Sens card, I still personally like quantity over quality. For example, two autographs of the same played valued at $10 and $50 are worth the same to me. Likewise I find those old 97-98 BAP autograph cards that are fairly worthless according to the book value to be just as valuable to my collection as the newer ones which are worth far more. After all, when showing my collection to fellow hockey fans who know nothing about book value and such, it probably looks better having 30 $10 autos compared to one $300 auto.

Nevertheless, in only six months (when I actually began this hobby seriously) I have probably spent well over $1000 (a lot for me) on singles/packs/supplies, leading me to own a collection of almost 1000 Senators cards! Not for a second do I regret this decision, even though people around me think I am crazy for paying $50 for a single card (think how shocked they were when I told them about that $12,000 The Cup Crosby rookie card). This one hobby has brought me closer to the team I cheer; allowing me to collect their game used jerseys and autographs along with base, rookies, and inserts cards. There is a never ending supply of low end to high end cards to collect. Thank you to all those at SCF who have helped me learn all there is to this magnificent hobby!

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By Karine Hains, Editor in Chief 

The hockey off season is not a walk in the park for us hockey freaks…Yes the weather is nice, the sun is shinning and the birds are singing but where are the spectacular goal, the fantastic saves and the bone-crushing hits? Thankfully, even though the NHL is having a few months off, Upper Deck is still bringing out new products for us cardboard addicts. The most anticipated and talked about summer release is without a doubt the 2007-2008 edition of The Cup.

Amongst the numerous different sets of insert included in the line up, you will find the ever popular Signature Patches. With a print run of 75, 25 for the short printed ones and only 10 for the super short printed these are some rather valuable cards!

Need some examples? Just take a look at these auctions on eBay:

Alexander Ovechkin 15/75 auction

Sidney Crosby 43/75 auction

Now which collector in their right mind would not want to get one? Well, not many…The best thing is; you could get one of these for free! We have a card like these up for grabs in the hockey pre season contest on http://www.sportscardforum.com/

I think this little gem is well worthy of the title of “Card of the Month”, a nice clear autograph, a 3 colors patch and part of the most anticipated set of the year, what more could we ask for? Thanks to the owner of the site for his generous contribution towards this awesome prize!

To make the run up to the season more exciting, the hockey team has devised a contest which consists of predicting the outcome of some pre season match-ups. Once the pre season is over, the lucky member who predicted the most results accurately will take this beauty home.

I should probably also say that this contest is open to everyone who is a member of SCF and completes at least three trades with positive feedback from registration to the end of the pre season. Interested? Well here is the link you need to click to get more information on yet another excellent Sportscardforum’s contest:

http://www.sportscardforum.com/showthread.php?t=555820

See you on the site!

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Break and review by Enigma

First and foremost, I’d like to thank our sponsor Topps for providing us with the opportunity to review this product.

Contents:
20 packs per box
5 stickers per pack
MSRP - 2 packs for $19.99 (Only place I’ve seen these for sale is at mlb.com)

Topps Big Stix is a box of 5×7 stickers. The stickers are removable and meant to be moved around. Each “card” comes with an action sticker of a particular player, a sticker that contains the team logo of the jersey the player is pictured in and a sticker with the player’s name inside a baseball.

Each pack also contains a checklist. I have to assume the purpose of the checklist in each pack is because this product is not meant to be sold by the box, but by the pack.

As you can see, some teams are more represented than others.

Box Breakdown:
Set - 87/100 (87% complete)
Dupes - 16

I know the idea is to get people to keep buying the product and trading, but how hard would it be for a product such as this to just put all 100 stickers in the box? Of the 16 duplicate stickers, two of them were actually triplicate stickers (David Ortiz and Victor Martinez).

All you get in these packs are the stickers. There’s nothing else to chase after. There’s no variations, no possible auto, etc. And yes, we did have three packs that yielded six stickers. The pictures used for this product are great and the colors standout. However, those are the only good things about it.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but should someone be expected to spend $10 a pack for a bunch of stickers? Most of Topps’ brand card packs do not cost this much. It might be different if there were actually statistics on the back of the stickers, but there isn’t any. It’s a blank white backing. As collectors, no one is going to try to complete the set of these. The occasional player may appeal to player collectors, but overall, stickers are for kids. That being said, how many kids can afford to pay $10 for a pack of stickers?

Now, for another kicker, four of these “cards” actually have the Rookie Card Logo on them. How ridiculous is that?! These are not even really cards. They are stickers, so now I guess we have rookie stickers. The Rookie Stickers were Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Hiroki Kuroda and Evan Longoria.

Final Ratings (Out of 5):
Base - 2.5
Fun - 3.0
Overall Design - 3.5
Value - 0
Rebuy - 0

Final Grade - 9/25 (36%)

I know that Topps is working hard to create new products to appeal to the masses, but this one fails miserably. The people (kids) that this should appeal to cannot afford it while those who can will want nothing to do with it. As a collector, I view this as a slap in the face, to assume I will want to spend this amount of money on a bunch of stickers. If we are going to see stickers again, then let’s just go back to the 1980s where there was a sticker album and you could buy packs of stickers for $0.25 and then you tried to complete a booklet. At least it would be affordable to those that have an interest in the stickers!

I am very disappointed to see “high-end” stickers on the market. Is that where we are going? How can it be justified to see that one player sticker costs more to purchase than a full pack of your base line product? I really hope this is not a trend that will carry over into other sports. If these had been actual cards with a sticker you could peel off, it would have been totally different. But no, it’s just three stickers, a player, a ball and a logo! I’m just left with nothing else to do but shake my head in disbelief!

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