Day 6 - Recap

Good evening everybody! I'm so glad you could join us for another rousing pack break as part of our first 2011 Allen and Ginter Hobby Box Break! This pack is a little unusual in that it features 9 cards instead of the advertised 8 on the package. So, in the event that I get shorted a card, I've got the pack that makes up for it!

Here we go!

Pack #6:

Base Card #4 - Jhoulys Chacin

Base Card #57 - Derek Jeter

Base Card #79 - Aimee Mullins

Base Card #133 - Geno Auriemma

Base Card #135 - Kyle Petty

Base Card #216 - Jose Tabata

Base Card #222 - James Shields

Step Right Up #8 - The Strongman

Hometown Heros #15 - Matt Holliday

I'm pretty sure Aimee Mullins is the hottest subject of any of the cards in this years set. Always good to have a few extra of her around!

Still no hit, and no code cards either, and we're 25% of the way done. We're getting close to some good cards being broken! I hope you join me tomorrow for the next pack!

Topps Diamond Giveaway Loot

Good morning! I'm so glad you could join us today for this post!

I managed to find a 2011 Topps Series 2 Blister pack last night and one of the four packs had an additional code card in it. I entered the codes this morning and managed to get my first truly decent card!

By no means a home run, but a solid single or a double even! What's more, I nabbed an instant win prize in the digging portion of the contest! It was a vintage pack of baseball cards from the 70's or 80's. Not the world's greatest prize, but I'll certainly take it!

If you have any vintage Twins cards I'd be happy to look at my portfolio and see if I have anything similar to trade for it!

Day 5 - Recap

Good morning! I'm glad you could join us for the continuation of the Ginter Godfather's first Hobby Box Break! We're on Day 5 and I can feel the first hit coming... and I've got a feeling it's going to be a doozie!

Here we go!

Pack #5:

Base Card #13 - Brett Anderson

Base Card #72 - Maxim Shmyrev

Base Card #80 - Joey Votto

Base Card #152 - Jordan Zimmermann

Base Card #346 - Brett Gardner (Short Print)

Baseball Highlight Sketches #BHS14 - Mariano Rivera

Black Bordered Mini Card #277 - Hank Cogner

Hometown Heros #53 - Justin Verlander

Wahoo! Our first black bordered mini! I do like this parallel a lot, though I think the design from the 2010 Allen and Ginters is a lot crisper and more refined looking. Either way, you can count on me to try and collect all 350 of these little black bordered buggers. Also, our second Baseball Highlight Sketches! I think I'll get all of those, too.

No hit in this pack, but I can feel it coming very soon! Tune back in tomorrow for another pack! Have a good weekend!

Day 4 - Recap

Good morning! Glad you could join us for a recap of Day 4's pack. Here we go!

Pack #4:

Base Card #86 - Greg Halman

Base Card #122 - Ryan Dempster

Base Card #268 - Dallas Braden

Base Card #271 - Chris Young

Base Card #297 - Travis Hafner

Ascent of Man #17 - Hominidae

Hometown Heros #94 - C.J. Wilson

Portraits in Penultimacy #4 - Igor

I do like the look of these Ascent of Man cards! So not a bad pack, we got two solid inserts! Thanks for having a look and we'll see you here again tomorrow!

Simulacra of the Seas

Having not much else to do, I wanted to come up with an insert for a future Allen & Ginters set. Not wanting to overlap too much with the 2010 Mini Insert Set 'Sailors of the Seven Seas', I wanted to find a way to put my personal hero and favorite naval leader of all time on a card: Stephen Decatur.

So I set out first to find a name. I settled on 'Simulacra of the Seas' to continue on with Ginter's tendancy towards fancy and obscure words. This would be another mini-insert set, but primarily focuses on subjects that had an exceptional talent for naval tactics and prowess on the high seas. Here's who I have for a 15-card insert...

Simulacra of the Seas

Stephen Decatur
Horatio Nelson
Yi Sun Shin
Heihachiro Togo
David Glasgow Farragut
Tran Hung Dao
John Paul Jones
Gaius Duilius
George Dewey
John Barry
Niels Iuel
Michiel de Ruyter
Henry Morgan
Francis Drake
Oliver Hazard Perry

If you don't know who any of these people are, I strongly recommend you go ahead and look them up on Wikipedia. Some of them are truly fascinating and their contributions to naval history is unprescendented. In my opinion, they truly represent the best of the best and are the Simulacra of the Seas.

Think there is someone else that should be added or removed from the list? Leave a comment!

Day 3 - Recap

Good morning! I hope you're excited as I am about reviewing the cards busted in day 3! This marks the 1/8th mark, meaning we're 12.5% of the way complete! We've seen some decent cards and even gotten a no numbered plain backed mini of our favorite team, so lets hope that things continue in that direction today!

Pack #3:

Base Card #7 - Mickey Mantle

Base Card #126 - Jair Jurrgens

Base Card #160 - David Wright

Base Card #180 - Kyle Drabek

Base Card #194 - Rick Porcello

Base Card #239 - Brett Myers

Hometown Heros #26 - Torii Hunter

World's Most Mysterious Figures #7 - Man in the Iron Mask

Alright, we received our first mini insert! Most excellent! No more Twins to add to our collection, but we certainly haven't taken a step back! Onward and upward!

Day 2 - Recap

Good morning.

It's another glorious day here at the Ginter Hideout. But you probably don't want to hear too much other than what cards I pulled. Without further ado!

Pack #2:

Base Card #77 - Rafael Furcal

Base Card #140 - Felix Hernandez

Base Card #270 - Kevin Youlkis

Base Card #284 - Eric Jackson

Base Card #312 - Cody Ross

Hometown Heros #47 - Jose Tabata

Baseball Highlight Sketch #11 - Trevor Hoffman

No Number Regular Back Mini Card #128 - Michael Cuddyer

Alright! This pack is a huge improvement over yesterday's pack. We're running strong on the base cards and got our first insert, a Baseball Highlight Sketch of Trevor Hoffman breaking the 600 save mark, which has never been done before. Excelent.

On top of that, we have a Michael Cuddyer mini. Our first Twins card, and a mini no less! But wait, there's MORE! A closer examination of the back reveals that the card number 128 is missing! What could this possibly mean!?

According to sources online, some variation of minis has a limited print of no-number parallels limited to 50 cards per variation. This is indeed a rather lucky pull! The pack itself does not express odds of a regular backed mini no number, but the odds of an A&G back no number is approximately 1:417. I'm not saying they correlate in any way, I'm just giving it as a reference.

So this pack is much improved and I look forward to tomorrow's pack!

Welcome To The Family

Good Morning.

I'm glad you've stumbled across our little safehouse here. I am the (self proclaimed) Ginter Godfather. There seems to be a niche for (mostly) Allen & Ginter collectors such as myself, and I thought I'd step up and grab the reigns of this unique and exciting position and hopefully become a hobby subject matter expert on the topic. I certainly hope you'll join me on this undertaking, either on one or two steps or maybe every step of the way.

We'll start this blog off right with our first hobby box break of 2011 Allen & Ginters.

Isn't it a thing of beauty? We'll be opening approximately one pack per day, coinciding with a form of behavior modification in an attempt to change my lifestyle for the better. But I don't want to bore you with the boring stuff, we'll get right to the break.

Box Toppers:

N43 Card - Ubaldo Jiminez, Colorado Rockies

State Relic Card - Utah #42/50

So we hit a one-per-case box topper with the state of Utah relic, a great way to start off the box. The N43 card was a little disappointing, but you can't really use it to discount the state of Utah. 42 IS this Godfather's favorite number, so it gets extra bonus points for having the best possible number.

Pack #1:

Base Card #9 - Joe Saunders

Base Card #168 - Carlos Marmol

Base Card #188 - Daniel Descalso (RC)

Base Card #243 - Mike Nickeas (RC)

Base Card #275 - Justin Verlander

Base Card #294 - Jacoby Ellsbury

Mini Card #78 - Luke Scott

Hometown Heros #90 - Ryan Howard

So after the great start with the box toppers, the first pack was a bit of a let down. Two Rookies and no Minnesota Twins. Lets hope tomorrow has something a little better.