By: Andrew Harner, Editor-in-Chief

Hitting stores today, the two year reigning Product of the Year Topps Allen & Ginter returns for a third series.

Bringing back the 1880s design of the original Allen & Ginter baseball cards, Topps quickly gave itself an anticipated release on each year’s release calendar.

Allen & Ginter is a set for more than just baseball collectors though. Politicians, world icons and even animals have been featured in Allen & Ginter which was a feature of the original cards. This year, DNA relics and the chance to be on your own Allen & Ginter card in 2009 are two driving forces for the product. Can you imagine what the original creators of Allen & Ginter cards would do/say if they saw this set today?

Per box averages:

  • 24 packs, 8 card per pack
  • Two Autographs, Relics, Printing Plates or Allen & Ginter Original cards
  • One N43 or Cabinet (hobby only)
  • At least seven mini parallels
  • 26 inserts
  • Also look for one Rip Card per case

Base set:

  • 274 baseball veterans
  • 32 rookies
  • 24 historic figures
  • 20 World Champions

Parallels:

  • Allen & Ginter Mini parallel
  • Allen & Ginter Black parallel – 1:5
  • Allen & Ginter Black Bordered parallel – 1:12
  • Allen & Ginter No Number parallel – /50
  • Allen & Ginter Bazooka Backs parallel – /25
  • Allen & Ginter Framed Cloth parallel – /10 (hobby only)
  • Allen & Ginter Wood Card Parallel – /1 (hobby only)

Inserts:

  • Allen & Ginter World Leaders – 50 current and former leaders of many nations inserted 1:12 packs
  • Allen & Ginter U.S. States – 50 cards, one for each state along with a MLB player from the state, inserted one per pack
  • Allen & Ginter Ancient Icons – 20 ancient icons of the world inserted 1:48 packs
  • Baseball Icons – 17 of the most legendary names ever to play baseball inserted 1:48 packs

Framed Cards:

 

Framed Autographs – Original sized (1-15/32” x 2-11/16”) autographed cards of 60 various athletes from the base set inside a colorful standard size (2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″) frame.

Framed Relics -  Original sized (1-15/32” x 2-11/16”) relic cards of 60 various athletes from the base set inside a colorful standard size (2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″) frame.

Framed Originals -  100 original, repurchased Allen & Ginter cards fit into the colorful standard size (2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″) frames.

Framed DNA Relics – Includes DNA pieces from 10 past figures including Abe Lincoln, JFK and a wooly mammoth. All are 1/1.

Framed Printing Plates – Printing plates for all the parallel cards featured inside the colorful standard size (2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″) frames.

Box Loaders:

Allen & Ginter N43 – 15 cards styled after the original N43 cards (3-1/4” x 2-7/8”). Comes in autograph (10 cards /15), relic (10 cards /25) and autographed relic (five cards /5) parallels.

2007 Cabinet Loaders – Features 10 5-3/4” x 8” Cabinet cards that include player’s who made highlights in 2007. There are two to four players on each of these cards.

Rip Cards:

Rip Cards – Falling one per case, each rip card is in essence another pack that includes one card from any of the following sets:

  • Dick Perez Originals – Perez painted 30 individuals for this set
  • Red Autographs – 30 hand-numbered mini autographs numbered to 10
  • Mini Exclusives – Cards 351-400 can only be found in rip cards
  • Mini Wood Exclusives – Cards 351-400 printed on wood and numbered to one.

Other features of Allen & Ginter:

Short Prints – See a list of all short printed base cards and autographs here.

Cut Signatures – 1/1 Cut Signatures of 20 former political figures

Break the Ginter Code – The first collector to break the code featured on 20 cards featuring some of the world’s greatest victories will be featured on a 2009 Allen & Ginter base card.

Kosuke Fukudome – The first real Fukudome Topps rookie card.