Alright, just as a fair warning to anyone reading.  I’m not a fan of Allen & Ginter.  In fact, I don’t like the A&G set…but, i always buy a couple of packs each season with the hopes that my interest will be peaked.  This year i splurged and dropped $12 on 3 packs from Hoopla Sports, another LCS in good ol’ Beaverton.  Twelve dollars bought me a whole lotta nothingness and left an empty place in my soul.

My problem isn’t with the base cards, the photos or the card stock.  I think all three of those things are great! Especially when you can pull a card of Werth’s sweet ass beard AND Hammerin’ Hank in those sweet 70’s Braves unis.  The power of that beard and the flowing locks adjacent to the the iconic humility of the true home run king is priceless, especially as part of a base set.

You also get some great action photos of superbly talented young shortstops making nice plays going to their left…with a soccer haircut.  You also get a base landscape.  LOVE.

But here is where the wheels fall off for me as i roll down this steep hill to hell.  I get cards like this.  Tommy Lee…seems to me like this should have been a landscape card, eh?

For me though, this is the ultimate reason i hate strongly dislike the A&G set.  Miss Universe and some dude with a paintball gun.  What The F**K!!  A Russian paintballer that has the ability to never forget the amazing people he has met…that’s what the back of the card told me.  Well, that’s great.  I googled him and could only find information on a Matthias Blonski that is an apparently highly motivated and creative graphic designer.  Good for him.  Now, Ms. Olivia Culpo.  Although she is quite stunning and appears to be talented as well as intelligent, i don’t want her rookie card.  To me this is a waste of card stock.  It has no place in my collection.  Maybe one of you kids out there have a Miss Universe PC you’re working on, but i don’t.

My rants are almost over…only three cards left.

The subsets, oh the subsets.  These are just a couple of the subsets i pulled a card from.  Martial Mastery, Knights and Civilizations of Ages Past, Vikings.  Knights and Vikings.  Again, don’t have a place for these guys.  My PC consists of baseball and football players, not nordic pagans or dudes from the Cantebury Tales.  I guess i can start a Chaucer or Marauders PC?  Thoughts?

Ok, last card.  Just like any good American, I love a good manmade canal.  Anything to facilitate the trafficking of goods from east to west…and definitely anything to avoid Cape Horn!  I’m being a little sarcastic here if you can’t tell, but i would actually love to visit the Panama Canal at some point in my life…not really sure why, but it’s one of those things I would love to see in action.  Maybe i can take my card with me?

So, i vented a little.  I know a lot of you guys love the Allen & Ginter and I think that’s great…it’s just not a set for me.  But hey, I absolutely love Heritage and will continue to collect that set each year.  I will also continue to buy a pack or two of Allen & Ginter and feel empty inside…if any of the card above interest you, please let me know.  Send me your address and they will be yours for free!  I have the remainders of the three packs as well.

At the end of the day, I guess that’s what makes collecting these pieces of card stock so great.  We can have things we love that no one else does, and vice versa.  Good night and good luck with that Gint-a-Cuffs thing everyone is doing.