It's pretty safe to say that Allen & Ginter Baseball has been a smash hit for Topps over the past few years. The 2008 set attempts to build on that success by keeping many of the elements that have proven popular with collectors and adding a few new wrinkles.
Boxes of 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball come with 24 eight-card packs plus an oversized box topper pack. Autographs, relic (memorabilia) cards, printing plates and original Allen & Ginter cards combine to fall two per box, with rip cards falling one per case.
Base Cards and Parallels
If you've seen previous Allen & Ginter base sets, you know what these cards will look like. Just like the namesake 19th Century tobacco cards, the 350 athletes, personalities and places on these cards are made to look like paintings set against a white background, simple but striking. Except for a different treatment of the logo at the bottom of the cards, very little has changed since 2007.
Along with baseball players, subjects of the base cards include athletes from other sports, famous figures from history like Frederick Douglas and Davy Crockett and even places like the Empire State Building. Card backs once again have stats written out in complete words or write-ups where applicable.
Topps opted to short print 50 base cards as in previous seasons but simplified things by making them cards 301 through 350. The short prints fall 1:2 packs, which adds just a tiny bit of challenge to completing the set.
Mini cards return as the primary parallels in the 1 15/32" by 2 11/16" size of original Allen & Ginter cards. They're found one per pack but come in a number of varieties that include regular, Allen & Ginter Back (1:5 packs), Black-Bordered (1:10 packs), No Number (50 copies each), Bazooka Back (#'d to 25), Cloth (#'d to 10) and Wood (1-of-1). Those last two are exactly what they sound like: cards printed on cloth or wood instead of cardboard.
I busted one random box for this review and found 143 of the 350 base cards, including the expected 12 short prints. Five Allen & Ginter Backs and two Black-Bordered cards popped up among the 19 mini parallels.
Mini Insert Cards
Replacing the mini parallels in some packs of Allen & Ginter are similarly sized insert cards. Like the base cards, they're a somewhat eccentric mix of subjects.
Baseball Icons are self-explanatory, featuring 17 all-time greats. Ancient Icons pay tribute to figures from the distant past, both real and fictional, while World Leaders cards may be the only ones in the hobby to depict the actual men and women in charge of 50 different countries.
Coming out of my sample box were five mini inserts, including two World Leaders and one card each from the other three sets.
Standard Size Insert Cards
Mini cards draw a lot of interest, but several groups of standard size inserts also add to the mix. U.S. State Cards are new for 2008 - 50 extra-thick cards found in almost every pack that deter pack searching while also pairing a state flag with an MLB player born in that state. They are really attractive cards laid out horizontally.
Falling one per case this season are Rip Cards, which provide an interesting choice for the collectors who find them. Numbered to 75, these cards can actually be torn open to reveal rare mini cards encased inside. Among the hidden treasures are exclusive parallels, autographed cards and Dick Perez art cards.
One final new addition for 2008 is the World's Greatest Victories set. These cards spotlight 20 great wins, ranging from the 2004 ALCS to the Battle of Gettysburg. But they also are at the heart of an intriguing contest called The Ginter Code. The first collector to successfully crack the code found on these 20 cards and email the answer to Topps will be immortalized on their own 2009 Allen & Ginter base card.
The About.com review box produced 21 U.S. State Cards and a CC Sabathia Rip Card.
Autographed Cards
Authentic autographed cards didn't exist in the 1800's, but they do in this modern take. Allen & Ginter Autographs put signatures from 58 different personalities on mini cards and encase them in a frame that is the same size as a modern card. The end result looks cool but doesn't give the subjects much room to write.
This season's checklist is heavy on baseball but also delves into the other athletes from the base set. The cards aren't numbered, though Topps did announce print runs for some of the rarest signatures.
It seems like any product with a historical bent includes cut signatures these days, and Allen & Ginter obliges with 1-of-1 cuts from 20 historical figures. John Glenn, Buffalo Bill and John D. Rockefeller are just a few of the names that can be found.
A Matt Kemp autographed mini card was the lone signature in my review box.