Happy 2014 Ginter Hangover Day

Well, I got so drunk on ripping Ginter that this post has to come a day late...

Greetings Mafia,

2014 Ginter is upon us, and of course that means Gint-A-Cuffs. I have a unique and possibly never-before-done move that will simply STUN the Gint-A-Cuffs universe, assuming the Commisioner OK's it. The $5 he's going to find in his lunch sack says he'll be fine with it.

Now, don't worry. This isn't going to give me any sort of unfair advantage. In fact, I am purposefully tying a hand behind my back (so to speak). However, desperate times call for desperate measures. There is almost no upside and I'm dumb for doing it, but who has several people's thumbs and doesn't care? This guy.

This year's set is great. Production is down about 40%. Things are easier to hit all around, there are some interesting new additions (some good, some bad), and all around it is a great product once again. I love the design, I love what they've done with the inserts and minis, the Pastime's Pastimes are fantastic looking in black... needless to say, resisting the urge to open this sealed box designated for Gint-A-Cuffs is going to be... taxing. Possibly on my wallet. Because I want to open it and every other box of Ginter within a 12,000 mile radius. I'll leave you with a quick list of loves and hates for this year's Ginter. As always, keep it in the family.

-Ginter Godfather

2014 Ginter LOVES:

-Felicia Day. Duh.
-Plentiful RIP cards (never pulled one myself, REALLY hoping to. This year is the year, I think... c'mon double RIP card!)
-Framed mini relics fall roughly 2 per case. They are SCARCE. Will help their value tremendously.
-Snoop Lion/Dogg. Fo' shizzle.
-Metal minis. I haven't seen one in person, and probably won't. But, it's a mini and therefore I must love it.
-Box toppers. They're smaller, so they are easier to store/display. They look AWESOME. I love the cabinet cards and the cabinet-sized cards. Nothing like having a GIANT CARD OF YASIEL PUIG.
-Gold retail minis. They're baaaack!
-Distribution of hits. The way they fall, ROUGHLY 5:6 boxes will have only 2 relics. Odds are very good to get an autograph, printing plate, or RIP card. GOOD JOB TOPPS!

2014 Ginter HATES:

-Urban Fauna #2. It's a cockroach. I hate cockroaches. They give me nightmares. For real.
-Gold retail minis. Doing the math, ONE set requires over $1000 of retail to be bought. That's with perfect collation. It's crazy... like a fox! With parasites.
-Full-sized Relics. 2 per box! Not even sure it is possible to NOT get 2 relics. Last year I saw a box opened that had a relic, an auto, and a RIP card. I want a box like that.
-Carlos Gomez card #231. You open 4 boxes, you'd expect to complete the main set 1-300. Yeah, Carlos decided to steal 2nd, 3rd, and home in one go and made it out of all of my boxes. He better be hiding in the Gint-A-Cuffs box or there might be a hit squad out on him.
-"SP" Minis. Yeah, no secret here. They aren't SP'd. Think about it. Odds are 1:10. So at least 2 per box, sometimes 3. At 12 boxes per case, you're looking at about 2 cases with perfect collation to complete the set. We'll call it 3 for good measure and you really should have most of them. After you factor out the insert minis (falling 1:5, so about 4 or 5 per box), and the A&G and Black Bordered minis, you end up with, on average, 12 base minis per box. 12 boxes per case, 144 base minis per case. At 300 of them, you're going to need at LEAST 3 boxes with amazing collation to put together one set, with it being more likely to need 5 or 6 based on the sheer number and impossibility of amazing collation. Just a little food for thought!
-"SP" base. I'd like to see these go from 1:2 to at least 1:6, maybe as rare as 1:12. Let's make "Short-Print" *really* mean something. Or, split it. 301-325 inserted 1:6, 326-350 are SSP at 1:24. Something like that. Just a thought!