Box 2

As one of the bloggers who has bought more than one box of 2009 Allen & Ginter, I suppose it's my turn to examine what I pulled and compare the two boxes.

Sadly, I was semi-underwhelmed by box 2, which just happened to be a birthday present. The annoying point to me, other than the box itself, was that I went out of my way to purchase each box in a drastically different way, and it didn't work.

The first box was ordered online, from Atlanta Sports Cards, and delivered to my home. The second box was bought at Dave & Adam's Card World, in their store in Buffalo. So I was hoping that two boxes purchased in different ways, from locations a thousand miles apart, would yield very different results.

Nope.

First of all, I'm glad I didn't enter this box in Gint-a-Cuffs, because I don't think it would even add up to 200 points. The number of Yankees in this box was atrocious. Ten Yankees! Far more than any other team in any of the two boxes. Pulling Yankees cards on my birthday! I might as well arrange a trip to the dentist on my birthday, too. I can pull Yankees AND get teeth pulled. Party!

Secondly, I received just two Dodgers. And both of them I had pulled already in box one. And one of them -- Chad Billingsley -- was a short-print. Gah.

Overall, I pulled 51 base cards that I pulled in box one. So almost 40 percent of the 132 base cards were doubles. And six of the short-prints I pulled in box 2 -- half -- were duplicates. Bleh.

My luck with the National Pride insert set was worse. Half of the 24 NP cards I pulled were doubles. And of the four sketch cards that I pulled in box 2, half were doubles. I also pulled one double among the 15 base minis.

So, that means I still need a whole lot to complete the base set. And if I was thinking of completing the other sets, minis or otherwise, I'm done with that thought. I can blow my money some other way.

With two boxes open, I remain 138 cards short of completing the 350-card base set. That's after two boxes. And more than $150 spent. I've completed a hair over 60 percent of the set. And that's with eight cards per pack, instead of the six you're getting out of retail.

You know what that means, don't you? Yup, the want list is updated. There is no way I'm going to be able to complete this set without help from fellow bloggers. If buying four boxes doesn't complete the set, as some bloggers have shown, buying a bunch of blasters isn't going to do the job either. You guys are my only hope.

I'll list the vitals of Box 1 and Box 2 at the end of the post, but I figured I'd show the highlights of Box 2.

First a couple base cards:

I must show the lovely Cat. Saw her in the World Cup softball tournament recently. She is something else.

And I guess I've got to show Winnie the Pu. It's a nice card. And now he's got even more help in the batting order with the addition of Matt Holliday. The A's, meanwhile, what are they doing? They get Holliday in the offseason and then give up on him so quickly?

This is the best black-bordered mini I've pulled so far. Just about everyone else has been a marginal player, in terms of pulls anyway. Adam Eaton, Nate Snell, guys like that.

My Creature of Legend, Myth and Terror is Nessie. Always liked Nessie. I've got a Scottish background, so I'm supposed to know something about her.

Those are the ho-hum sketch cards that I pulled that I DIDN'T HAVE ALREADY.

Here are the hits. Your average three in a box. The Josh Johnson card is already destined for a package headed south.

I like this one. Some material off of J-Roll's jersey. I think a few folks might want this one.

And a bat card of Fred Lewis. Yippee. A Giant. I seriously picked up the wrong box.

Yes, those are the highlights. Pretty darn average for A&G if you ask me. And I'm still not over the doubles.

On with the details, if you care:

BOX 1

Base cards: 132 (1 double in the box, Scott Rolen)
Short-prints: 12
Crack-the-code variation cards: 2
Sketch cards: 4
National Pride inserts: 24 (Nos. 47-56, 58-71)
Hits: 3 (Scott Olsen auto, Alex Rodriguez pants, Kosuke Fukudome jersey)
Base card minis: 17
Base card minis w/A&G backs: 5
Black-bordered minis: 3
Hoax/bamboozle cards: 2
Creatures of legend/myth cards: 1
National heroes cards: 1
Crack-the-code ads: 4

BOX 2

Base cards: 132
Doubles from Box 1: 51
Short-prints: 12
Short-print doubles from Box 1: 6
Crack-the-code variation cards: 2
Sketch cards: 4
Sketch card doubles from Box 1: 2
National Pride inserts: 24 (Nos. 36-59)
National Pride doubles from Box 1: 12
Hits: 3 (Josh Johnson auto, Jimmy Rollins jersey, Fred Lewis bat)
Base card minis: 15
Base card mini doubles from Box 1: 1
Base card minis w/A&G backs: 5
Black-bordered minis: 3
Hoax/bamboozle cards: 2
Creatures of legend/myth cards: 1
National heroes cards: 2
Crack the code ads: 4