The cure for A&G blaster blues

I bought just my second blaster of 2009 Allen & Ginter yesterday. After two hobby boxes and a couple of trades, I'm not that far from completing the set, so I'm a bit wary of blasters at this stage.

But, apparently, not wary enough. Out of the eight packs, I pulled one base card I needed. Andrew Miller. Ridiculous. I mean I'm not 5 cards away from completing the set. I'm almost 40 cards away. And why are the same short-prints pulled over and over again? Billy Butler. B.J. Ryan, Adrian Gonzalez. I have three or four of each. Are some more short-printed than others? Should we start the congressional investigation?

Some say buying A&G blasters at this stage is still a good time because of the minis. I agree with that. And I did get minis I needed. I also got this:

Mariano Rivera with a corner that was chewed on by a chipmunk before it went into the pack.

There you can see the damage on the back, upper left corner. I'm not one to run to customer service, but that's a tad annoying. If Topps is going to have "take your pet to work day," tell the people with pet chipmunks to keep them home. Because the chipmunks obviously can't control themselves around cardboard.

Fortunately, as you may have heard, other people are collecting the Allen & Ginter set. It appears to be somewhat popular. So I have been swamped with A&G trade offers. I can't even get to all of them.

But it's certainly helped me toward the completion of the set. Because blasters aren't helping a bit. Still looking for my first relic out of an '09 A&G blaster, too.

Here are some of the A&G acquisitions that I've made recently. Maybe the best part of these trades is other non-A&G cards have come with most of the exchanges. I'll show some of those, too. I'll keep the commentary to a minimum because it's too warm to do anything, even type, even in the middle of the night.

First, there is Brian, who either has a blog or is in the process of creating one. I've really got to start keeping better track of that stuff:

That's just some of them. And here are some of the cool Dodgers:

The old Albuquerque Dukes card is just amazing. Love those wacky uniform colors. The Brown and Gutierrez cards are both numbered. The Piazzas are greatly appreciated, even the guffaw-inducing 1995 Fleer. And the Mondesi is some All-Star FanFest card that might've only been issued at the ballpark if I understood Brian right.

OK, on to Beardy, forever known as the creator of Gint-a-Cuffs. He has a few spare A&G cards on him I think.

And here is a snazzy little card that I believe Beardy sent me because he kept going out and getting cards that I was in the process of sending to him.

Ooooooooooooh. Isn't that nice? A very wool-ish jersey morsel there. But here's the thing Beardy. You know how you updated your Allen & Ginter want list last night? Well guess who had to rip open the package he had sealed for you and remove a few cards that were already targeted for your residence? Guess you owe me another relic, hmmmm?

Next is Ed of Roll Out the Barrel. Ed's not collecting A&G. He's against non-baseball folks in sets. Maybe "against" isn't the right word. Let's just say they don't appeal to him. That's cool. Because it netted me a bunch of A&G I didn't have!

The first three are short-prints, which is very cool, since I think I'll flip out if I pull another Billy Butler SP. The fourth is one of the crack the code parallel cards. I don't have much interest in them. I suppose I should get all the Dodgers. It just seems like So. Much. Work.

On to the non-A&G Dodgers!

The Kershaw card is tremendously appreciated since it's both a Kershaw card and one of the Timeline Dodgers that I so desperately want. I also quite enjoy the Repko Topps Total card. That's why Topps Total should still exist, so players with a jersey number of "75" can get a card.

Next are some A&G cards that were given out in the Tribe Cards group break just last week. The cards are already in my hands! David moves fast.

Dave actually packed the cards I received in an A&G wrapper, as if it was an actual unopened pack. The pack was sealed super tight. I wished I had one of those chipmunks to get it open. But when I finally opened it, I think I got a loaded pack. There were two minis in there and a mess of Dodgers.

OK, the first one isn't a Dodger. But it's a card I needed for the set.

Lastly, I'm showing one simple card from Chris of Ballcard Mania. I saw it on his blog a little while ago and expressed an interest in it.

Chris sent it out to me for nothing. I'm sure I'll find something in return for him eventually, but wasn't that nice to send out another Kershaw for my collection?

Now all that's left for the A&G Kershaw collection is the no-numbered back and the wood mini. I'm sure those will be falling into my lap any day now.

Thanks everyone for curing my blaster blues. You have rendered Topps' diabolical poor collation tactics useless. You have neutralized the power of the blaster. And you keep your chipmunks in their cages, where they belong.