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.

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