The Ginter Project

Greetings Ginter Mafia,

With Gint-A-Cuffs in the past (an a recap post overdue... thanks again to the Commissioner for hosting!) it is time to turn our attention towards the horizon. I've been kicking around a few ideas for projects and have finally settled on one.

I'm sure you've seen any number of attempts at recreating the famous 'Red Paperclip' project in the hobby. Folks will take a single card and try and wheel and deal to obtain some fancy target card like a Ken Griffey Jr. PSA 10 Gem Mint Rookie Card, or a Mike Trout Autographed Superfractor, or a Bryce Harper Rookie 1/0 Invisfractor. All very admirable goals. I'm going to take it one step further, however, and be slightly different. More unique, if you will.

The Ginter Project's goal is simple - obtain the best Allen & Ginter card or cards that I can. It is an ongoing project without any sort of "end." It will end whenever it dies, and that will be that. Having amorphous goals is generally bad, however, so we'll start out with a simple goal: Obtain an unripped Allen and Ginter RIP card. Any year, any player, any serial numbering. Our starting point will be the following: Nothing.

Yep, you read that correctly. Nothing. I am going to physically start with nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Squat. Not a single card to the project's name. I will need to discover ways to obtain things for free and trade/sell them towards my goal. This includes rescuing cans and bottles from landfills and redeeming them for their container deposit ($0.05 per can/bottle!). Here are the rules:

1) Dignity will be maintained. That means no dumpster diving or stealing from recycling bins. Retreiving cans/bottles from garbage cans discreetly is permissible. The Ginter Godfather isn't a bum.

2) No personal funds will be permitted. The Project will have its own pile of money (probably in the form of quarters, nickels, and dimes) to pay for EVERYTHING - postage, envelopes, supplies, etc.

3) I am permitted to trade with myself. The trades need to be fair using SELL VALUE ONLY. Because if you can find someone who is willing to pay book value for all of my cards, I'll give you a 10% commission.

4) As an addendum to Rule 3), I can trade/buy supplies from myself. This way I don't have to buy an entire box of PWE's or something silly like that.

5) Any and all avenues are available but must be documented here. I can use message boards, LCS's, FeeBay, etc.

6) No extraordinary measures are to be taken. This is to prevent me from driving around aimlessly to pick up cans. I'll burn more in gas then I would obtain in bottle deposits. Everything must be done in the course of my regular day.

Seems pretty easy, eh? I'll post a recap for the day either every day or every couple days to keep everyone abreast of my progress. This will be fun, I think!

Just keep it in the family.

-GG