2011 a&g relic set

Ok, some things accompany this post:

One, I know A&G has been out seemingly forever but I had an idea to finish up a "set".

Two, it's not a full set, as it is only one team,

and
Three, I know it's almost 'the thing to do' around here but hate on the Yankees is something I don't do. I'm a Jays fan first and a Yankee fan second.

Now, with all that out of the way, I'll get on to what I'm talking about. I admittedly picked up too much Ginter this year. I said I wouldn't but I did. I did finish off the set last week, all 350 cards. No extended minis for me. No insert cards either. Out of all the Ginter I did pick up, I managed to get four Yankee relics. Yes, horrific pulls for some (not you AJ or BA Benny) but not for me. I then decided to see how many Yankees there were in the set, saw that there were 12 and figured I could pretty easily get the rest. I pulled arguably the most pricey one (Jeter) along with three others I'll point out below. Oh and how much I paid for them too.

Burnett- pulled / Cano- $3 / Cervelli- pulled
Chamberlain- pulled / Gardner- $2 / Hughes- $1

Jeter- pulled / Martin- $1 / Posada- $2.30
Rodriguez- $3.25 / Swisher- $2.25 / Teixeira- $2.77

So as you can see, the most expensive one was Alex Rodriguez at a whopping three bucks and change. If you can finish off the Yankee portion of this set so cheap, every other team should be pure cake. I was also very thankful there wasn't a Mantle relic. I really didn't want to have to shell out for that. Some of these come in two variations, those being either a bat or jersey. I would prefer jerseys but I took bats where I did to get them on the cheap.

some luck

Well, I know that I hadn't intended on buying much Allen & Ginter but I picked up a few packs at my local Target today and was impressed with what I saw. The cards look way better than online. So I headed to my lcs to pick up a box. The Soriano above came out of it. Yep, thats the wood mini, numbered 1/1. A 1:3436 odds pull. The three relics I got were pretty pedestrian but this made up for it. Its on eBay right now, so if you come across it, that's me.

Back to the break, I still need Benny's pick and I can start the third round but no rush, it's going quite smoothly.

allen & gintaaaarrrrrggghh!!

Ginter's will not be something I buy regularly. I just always get disappointed with each pack I open. Its expensive, kinda blah and overall just plain weird sometimes. I know I bought a box, but I purchased two packs today from my local card shop (at 7 bucks per pack, but I'll get into that in a minute). I won't bore you with what I got in each of them, but my minis were of a dinosaur and a Greek God. With the lone exception of that rip card I pulled (more on that card in a future post), I end up with nothing but, well, nothing in my packs of A&G. Its definitely not a fun set for me to collect. As for the card shops prices, seven bucks is steep. His boxes are $120. Too much? Yes. In his defense though, he is the only shop around, and his prices on things that aren't hot (ie; anything without Strasburg) are always great. I fully understand and get behind him raising prices on hot products. If the fools want to speculate and shell out tons just to maybe pull a card they may never see in their lives, then so be it. While it may hurt the casual buyers, like myself, I would be more than willing to possibly collect some more when this set is forgotten and the next one is on fire. Prices will go down, and I'm more than willing to wait. This is a perfect reason as to why prices are as they are: Right here. Anyone willing to shell out that much for that card deserves to be taken advantage of. Many dealers are opening up those hobby factory sets and finding yet ANOTHER parallel set from Topps, this time in the form of red bordered numbered to 299 cards. Not a horrible idea and they do look nice (I'm in the process of finding a Vernon), but I wouldn't be opening up factory set after factory set chasing Strasburgs. Silliness. I'm glad that Topps is seemingly seeing a raise in interest in their products, as its good for the hobby as a whole. I just don't like seeing it in the form of overinflated prices and underwhelming product.

sailors

I recently won the 10 card Sailors of the Seven Seas set on eBay, and now have the one I got out of my box (number SSS10, Juan Ponce de Leon) is for trade. This is the insert set I liked best from Ginters and I don't really plan on buying much (if any) more. Its an alright product, just not something I plan on collecting seriously. I do have many base cards, and a couple of short prints, so if you have a want list, send it my way and I'll see what I have and we can work on a trade from there.

ginter tomfoolery

I have a love/hate feeling towards Ginters as a whole. While I'm a big fan of the retro themed sets (this is about as retro as it gets) and I love mini cards, I can't stand short printed cards on the checklist. Makes for infuriating set building. Anywho, the box was in my house for all of 5 minutes before it was torn up. Here is what I got:

The red bordered relics are kind of neat, and a little weird that the pieces of the relic move around if you want them to. In the middle is the previously mentioned rip card. I'm split on what to do with it, I got 8 responses yesterday, 4 for ripping, 4 for not. If I don't rip it, it has to leave my house. I'll be too tempted otherwise. On the other hand, I've never ripped one before, and it is very unlikely that I will ever have the chance to again as I don't buy much A&G. The Monsters and Lords sets are kind of neat. The Celestial stars are a little weird, but they are a mini.

This set is great, I think if I were to collect any subset from this year, it would be these. If anyone has some for trade, let me know.

Here is the N43, its ARod, I know, lucky me. Along with the three black border minis I got. I won't even bother showing the short prints, as they are just regular cards. I did get two short print minis (regular backs), 3 of the National Animals, and one wordsmith (Confucius). I may pick up another box, but I haven't fully decided yet.

Oh and if someone gets the Vernon Wells short print, I'll gladly trade for it.