Impulse buy #4

If you head on over to A Pack To Be Named Later you can read my latest contribution to the project. I posted a rip of the hotly anticipated and highly popular 2009 Allen & Ginter's World's Champions release that hit my local hobby shop today. I had no plans of buying any packs this year and was hopefully going to raid others breaks for the cards I coveted. As the fates would have it I won a few dollars on my coffee break scratch lottery ticket. The weak impulse buyer that I am, I immediately thought of what I could do with the money;

Flowers for the wife? (unfortunately didn't cross my mind first.)
Coffee for the rest of my co-workers (once again, not first on the list.)

I KNOW!!!!!....2009 A&G!!!

Let's face it, I'm pathetic.

The very first pack yielded the best hit of the four I bought. I like the look of the framed minis and for some reason the mini jersey cards work for me. My first introduction to a mini card patch was the 2008-09 Champs Hockey set where I bought a Dion Phaneuf swatch.


As I said, these just work for me. Here's the framed mini I pulled from pack one. Hideki Matsui. I have seen one posted on eBay also with a pinstripe. I imagine they are all like that. Still, regardless of it being a Yankee, I like the card.


Pack #2 yielded base cards of Jose Reyes, John Maine, Michael Cuddyer, Derek Lowe and Kerry Wood. The 'National Pride' card represented the Dominican Republic and featured Francisco Liriano.
The one's I scanned from the pack were a black bordered mini of RHP Chris Duncan,


The advertisement insert for the 'Crack the Code' contest,


and a really cool card that matches up perfectly with the Roy Halliday card I got from pack one via a trade for C.C. Sabathia with my local card shop owner. Gunfighter Doc Holliday.


Pack #3 had base cards of Matt Kemp, Chone Figgins and Carl Crawford plus 2 nice looking "landscape" style cards featuring, yep ANOTHER Yankee (see Impulse Buy #3 & 3a), in Chien-Ming Wang and a presumably safe Jimmy Rollins.


My only beef here is that the backs are not the same orientation as the front. A small issue yet one nonetheless.


This next card I am strictly posting for my fellow Canadian, Captain Canuck. If you put your ear up to the computer monitor and listen reeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyy close, you can almost hear Russel saying "Brian who??". Just kidding my friend.

The mini I got in this pack would have scored me some decent points in the 'Gint-A-Cuffs' contest going on with Beardy and combatants. A nice A&G backed card of Burke Kenny the World Champion Full Beard, Styled Moustache.


and lastly the 'National Pride' card from this pack goes to the good ole' U.S of A and features Stephen Drew.


The fourth and final pack of my purchase had the base cards of Luke Hochevar, Brad Hawpe, Andrew Bailey and Adrian Beltre. Representing the Dominican Republic from the Cincinnati Reds in the 'National Pride' set is Edinson Volquez. The cool card from this pack is one that was first shown on bdj's Topps Baseball Card Blog. 2008's 'Crack the Code' winner, Jason Wong.


Anyone have any idea where I would start trying to find a way to attempt a TTM autograph of this card?

The next to last scan is of the Baseball Highlights Sketch series. This card features C.C. Sabathia. Needless to say even though he is in a Brewers uniform he still has that Yankee aura about him. Still though, nice card.


Lastly, not to end on a down note but simply to call it as it is, we finish up with a mis-cut mini of Milwaukee Brewer Rickie Weeks. In this day and age of computerized processes and high tech production methods I would think card companies could make mis-cuts a non-issue.


To reiterate what I said on AP2BNL, I look forward to the coming days and weeks of posts about the 2009 Allen & Ginter box breaks, pack rips and discoveries. It was fun to be able to be a part of the initial rush to post on the release, but now I will quietly sit back and watch the fun the rest of the way. Right now I would say the only card I am itching to get a hold of is the Loch Ness Monster card. If anyone manages to pull it and feels the need to send it north of the border I will gladly make it worth the while.