The online-exclusive Allen & Ginter X set has once again proven to be one of the most popular products available on topps.com. The $70 hobby boxes were made available on 7/30, but you had to be quick to take advantage of the opportunity. The boxes sold out within minutes.
This Javy Baez 1/1 was one of my pulls!
It’s not hard to understand why. For $70, collectors would receive a 18 pack box with 8 cards in each pack. Each box includes a framed mini autograph serial numbered to 25 or less. Also, each box contains one “premium” mini card. With that guaranteed content, Allen & Ginter X is one of the best values in the hobby.
The design of the set mimics the regular Allen & Ginter set, however all the cards have a black border instead of the standard off-white edge you see in the traditional set. The mini cards found in each pack use this same black border design. One big difference is there are no relics or other inserts in Ginter X. Only the base set, minis, and auto framed relics are included in the checklist. One thing to note about the checklist is for some reason the base set goes from 1-300, and then the short prints run from 351-400. There are no cards in the 301-350 range. Very odd indeed.
There are a few different parallels in this set. The full size cards only have one parallel: a 1/1 glossy. The mini’s have a few more to chase. The “no numbers” fall 1:133 packs, the “stained glass” fall 1:528, the “Brooklyn Back” #/25 fall 1:265, the reds #/5 fall 1:28, and the silver 1/1s fall 1:137, and very rare glossy 1/1s are found in 1:6,469.
Box Break
I had never bought any of these before, but I decided to order three boxes this year. I’m glad I did! Check out the video of one of my boxes below.
I was very happy with the hits I received. The Soto will be going in my personal collection, and I’ll be selling the Dan Rather and Drechsel in the photos below to other collectors. It was awesome pulling the Baez 1/1 mini, and the Carlton Fisk red made the Chicago focus of my break complete! The one aspect of the break I was a little disappointed with was the collation of the base cards. I thought I’d be real close to a base set, but I ended up with several triples. I was so far away, I decided to not even try for the set. I pulled about 30 cards of my favorite players and added them to my binders, so I still ended up with a nice addition to my PC.
The secondary market on Ginter X is usually pretty strong and 2019 was no exception. Within the first month of release, sealed boxes were selling for about double the direct cost. Base rookie cards of Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. sold for $5 - $10.
These direct to consumer products are gaining more and more popularity. If you want to learn more about the other sets available on topps.com, you might want to check out the Topps Living Set section of the site or my article on the Gary Vee Direct 360 set!
Checklist
The list below applies to both the 2019 Topps Allen & Ginter base set and the minis.
1 Mookie Betts
2 Christian Yelich
3 Babe Ruth
4 Lou Gehrig
5 Shohei Ohtani
6 Luis Gonzalez
7 Albert Pujols
8 Reggie Jackson
9 Zack Greinke
10 Mike Trout
11 Nolan Ryan
12 Blake Treinen
13 Ozzie Albies
14 Chipper Jones
15 Freddie Freeman
16 Kris Bryant
17 Anthony Rizzo
18 Ryne Sandberg
19 Javier Baez
20 Ernie Banks
21 Francisco Lindor
22 Jose Ramirez
23 Bob Feller
24 A.J. Burnett
25 Ronald Acuña Jr.
26 Justin Verlander
27 Gerrit Cole
28 Jose Altuve
29 Alex Bregman
30 George Springer
31 Jeff Bagwell
32 Sandy Koufax
33 Walker Buehler
34 Cody Bellinger
35 Mike Piazza
36 Starlin Castro
37 Josh Hader
38 Lorenzo Cain
39 Jesus Aguilar
40 Ryan Braun
41 Robinson Cano
42 Jacob deGrom
43 Edwin Diaz
44 Noah Syndergaard
45 Amed Rosario
46 Rickey Henderson
47 Matt Chapman
48 Dennis Eckersley
49 Khris Davis
50 Hank Aaron
51 Paul Molitor
52 Buster Posey
53 Willie McCovey
54 Juan Marichal
55 Evan Longoria
56 J.D. Martinez
57 Felix Hernandez
58 Edgar Martinez
59 Justus Sheffield RC
60 Ichiro
61 Mark McGwire
62 Paul Goldschmidt
63 Yadier Molina
64 Stan Musial
65 Ozzie Smith
66 Roger Clemens
67 Roberto Alomar
68 Justin Smoak
69 Danny Jansen RC
70 Max Scherzer
71 Patrick Corbin
72 Stephen Strasburg
73 Trea Turner
74 Cal Ripken Jr.
75 Brooks Robinson
76 Jim Palmer
77 Tony Gwynn
78 Trevor Hoffman
79 Luis Urias RC
80 Eric Hosmer
81 Andrew McCutchen
82 Rhys Hoskins
83 Aaron Nola
84 Roberto Clemente
85 Chris Archer
86 Felipe Vázquez
87 Willie Stargell
88 Ralph Kiner
89 Adrian Beltre
90 Ivan Rodriguez
91 Elvis Andrus
92 Joey Gallo
93 Blake Snell
94 Willy Adames
95 Jose Canseco
96 Andrew Benintendi
97 Rafael Devers
98 Ted Williams
99 Chris Sale
100 Ken Griffey Jr.
101 David Price
102 Joey Votto
103 Johnny Bench
104 Tony Pérez
105 Todd Helton
106 Trevor Story
107 Nolan Arenado
108 Charlie Blackmon
109 George Brett
110 Salvador Perez
111 Bo Jackson
112 Miguel Cabrera
113 Al Kaline
114 Jose Berrios
115 Rod Carew
116 Tony Oliva
117 Harmon Killebrew
118 Frank Thomas
119 Michael Kopech
120 Yoan Moncada
121 Jose Abreu
122 Isiah Kiner-Falefa
123 Gleyber Torres
124 Miguel Andujar
125 Giancarlo Stanton
126 Clayton Kershaw
127 Juan Soto
128 Roger Maris
129 Jackie Robinson
130 Torii Hunter
131 Juan Gonzalez
132 David Ortiz
133 Don Mattingly
134 Derek Jeter
135 Dale Murphy
136 Mariano Rivera
137 Vladimir Guerrero
138 Gary Carter
139 Harold Baines
140 Luis Severino
141 Miles Mikolas
142 Mitch Haniger
143 Max Muncy
144 Whit Merrifield
145 Xander Bogaerts
146 Josh Donaldson
147 J.T. Realmuto
148 Corey Kluber
149 Manny Machado
150 Steve Carlton
151 Marc Summers
152 Augie Carton
153 Jay Larson
154 Hailey Dawson
155 Gary Vaynerchuk
156 Vincent Stio
157 Mike Oz
158 Kyle Snyder
159 Rodney Mullen
160 Matthew Mercer
161 Sister Mary Jo Sobieck
162 Mason Cox
163 Loretta Claiborne
164 Justin Bonomo
165 John Cynn
166 1st Tiger Mask
167 Mayumi Seto
168 Rhea Butcher
169 Drew Drechsel
170 Lawrence Rocks
171 Charles Martinet
172 Tyler Kepner
173 Ben Schwartz
174 Dan Rather
175 Danielle Colby
176 Post Malone
177 Robert Oberst
178 Brian Fallon
179 Burton Rocks
180 Quinn XCII
181 Emily Jaenson
182 Pete Alonso RC
183 Fernando Tatis Jr.
184 Travis Pastrana
185 Hilary Knight
186 Wade Boggs
187 Jason Varitek
188 Didi Gregorius
189 Tyler O’Neill
190 Eddie Rosario
191 Brandon Nimmo
192 Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
193 Jack Flaherty
194 Kevin Newman RC
195 Dakota Hudson RC
196 Cedric Mullins RC
197 Brad Keller RC
198 David Bote
199 Dereck Rodriguez
200 Aaron Judge
201 Sean Reid-Foley
202 Luke Voit
203 Jeff McNeil RC
204 Cionel Perez RC
205 Chance Adams RC
206 Corbin Burnes RC
207 Ramon Laureano
208 Dawel Lugo RC
209 Ryan O’Hearn RC
210 Framber Valdez
211 Patrick Wisdom RC
212 Dylan Cozens
213 Egg
214 Jonathan Lucroy
215 Cody Allen
216 Justin Bour
217 Andrelton Simmons
218 Michael Brantley
219 Yuli Gurriel
220 Josh James RC
221 Stephen Piscotty
222 Matt Olson
223 Jurickson Profar
224 Matt Shoemaker
225 Brandon Drury
226 Dansby Swanson
227 Touki Toussaint RC
228 Yasmani Grandal
229 Orlando Arcia
230 Matt Carpenter
231 Paul DeJong
232 Willson Contreras
233 Cole Hamels
234 A.J. Pollock
235 Corey Seager
236 Brandon Crawford
237 Carlos Santana
238 Trevor Bauer
239 Starling Marte
240 Dee Gordon
241 Kyle Seager
242 Brian Anderson
243 Michael Conforto
244 Brian Dozier
245 Wil Myers
246 Odubel Herrera
247 Maikel Franco
248 David Robertson
249 Jake Arrieta
250 Yusei Kikuchi RC
251 Gregory Polanco
252 Nomar Mazara
253 Kevin Kiermaier
254 Charlie Morton
255 Matt Kemp
256 Yasiel Puig
257 Sonny Gray
258 Daniel Murphy
259 David Dahl
260 Billy Hamilton
261 Nicholas Castellanos
262 Willians Astudillo
263 Byron Buxton
264 Yonder Alonso
265 Troy Tulowitzki
266 DJ LeMahieu
267 James Paxton
268 Adam Ottavino
269 Scooter Gennett
270 Ben Zobrist
271 Carl Yastrzemski
272 Carlton Fisk
273 Fred McGriff
274 Dwight Gooden
275 Deion Sanders
276 Hideki Matsui
277 Frank Robinson
278 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RC
279 Kolby Allard RC
280 Bryce Harper
281 Bob Gibson
282 A.J. Andrews
283 Andy Pettitte
284 Roy Halladay
285 Jorge Alfaro
286 Harrison Bader
287 Catfish Hunter
288 Ryan Yarbrough
289 Whitey Ford
290 Pee Wee Reese
291 Cespedes Family BBQ
292 Eddie Murray
293 Jon Lester
294 German Marquez
295 Franmil Reyes
296 Cincinnati Red Stockings
297 Boston Red Sox
298 Ian Happ
299 J.A. Happ
300 Tino Martinez
351 Carlos Correa
352 Robin Yount
353 Shane Bieber
354 Rowdy Tellez RC
355 Jordan Hicks
356 Kyle Schwarber
357 Kenley Jansen
358 John Smoltz
359 Larry Doby
360 Jorge Posada
361 Victor Robles
362 Fergie Jenkins
363 Austin Meadows
364 Dustin Pedroia
365 Ty Cobb
366 Daniel Palka
367 Masahiro Tanaka
368 Eddie Murray
369 Rick Porcello
370 Marcell Ozuna
371 Yu Darvish
372 Justin Turner
373 Edwin Encarnacion
374 Yoenis Cespedes
375 Pat Neshek
376 Wade Davis
377 Christin Stewart RC
378 Aroldis Chapman
379 Darryl Strawberry
380 Nomar Garciaparra
381 Scott Kingery
382 Dave Winfield
383 Sean Doolittle
384 Rogers Hornsby
385 Gil Hodges
386 Eddie Mathews
387 Warren Spahn
388 Casey Stengel
389 Lou Brock
390 Phil Rizzuto
391 Phil Niekro
392 Sammy Sosa
393 Alex Rodriguez
394 Tom Seaver
395 Barry Larkin
396 Tommy Lasorda
397 Orlando Cepeda
398 Eloy Jimenez RC
399 Tim Raines
400 Randy Johnson