Thursday, August 23, 2018

Making Some "Mini" Decisions

I've been back in the swing of things for weeks now, in terms of posts and my almost daily steps to organize cards from before as well as the actual National card show. Yesterday, one of those steps involved a project I had begun not too long ago.

My Allen & Ginter mini frankenset.

Started out of no real place to keep my A&G minis, I began the frankenset with the minis I could find, mainly from my breaks of the 2016 and 2017 sets. Then, my trip to Cleveland delivered quite a few 2018 minis, including variations and parallels that instantly earned a spot in the set. 

Then, a trade package from Night Owl arrived on my doorstep last weekend. In it, among other cards, was a hefty stack of Allen & Ginter minis from the frankenset, ranging from all different years of the sets' history.

Between the 2018 A&G minis from The National and the package from Night Owl, I found myself having to make a couple decisions involving which card would make it to the set, and which card would not.

All in all, there were 4 decisions that I had to make. Some choices were rather easy. Others, like the one I'm about to show, proved to be more difficult.

#BAM-3 2017 Bust a Move Belly Dance
To start things off, we have an insert mini, which can prove to be fairly tough pulls out of A&G compared to the regular insert cards. In this case, the dance represented is the belly dance. Although the concepts don't always interest me, the cards themselves and the quick blurbs on the back never fail to impress me.

#3 2018 Babe Ruth A&G Back
I have to say, I never thought I'd have to decide between a belly dancing card and a Babe Ruth card in my life. In addition, the card being an A&G back mini gives it more upside than a regular mini card, let alone a card of Babe Ruth. Having to do something like this is pretty surprising, but I think my decision on which card makes the set will be even more surprising.

My pick; Bust a Move Belly Dance
Even though I really like the Ruth mini and the fact that it's an A&G back, I'll have numerous chances for baseball player minis. I even have another Babe Ruth mini in the set. However, chances to put a belly dance insert card into a frankenset don't come along very often, so I had to take the chance I got.

#WD-6 2017 World's Dudes Hunting Guide Dude
Like I just said, insert minis don't come along too often in the A&G I break, let alone the hugely popular dude inserts from the 2017 Allen & Ginter set. For this card, the dude shown is a hunting guide, and on the back of the card, it states that hunting is the #3 best selling sporting goods category behind only golf and fitness equipment.

#6 2018 Chris Taylor
There's not a whole bunch to say about this card. Nothing against Chris Taylor whatsoever, but there's a base mini up against likely my favorite mini insert set in A&G history. It would be difficult for any card, nevermind a base mini, to get me to change my mind on the dude mini insert.

My pick; World's Dudes Hunting Guide Dude
One of my goals for this frankenset is to incorporate as many insert minis as I can into the set without over-doing it. That means, almost any mini insert, especially one of the dude minis, will likely end up as a part of my A&G mini frankenset.

#212 2013 Barry Melrose
Spending time as a hockey player, coach, and most famously as an analyst, Barry Melrose is one of the smartest minds in hockey and has been widely recognized for his work over the last decade as an analyst for ESPN. In particular, I remember seeing him do hockey highlights in the mornings I'd watch SportsCenter on ESPN network before going to school.

#212 2017 Don Mattingly
As it was for Babe Ruth, I already have a Don Mattingly (2018) mini elsewhere in the set. Because I already have a Mattingly mini, it would take a lot for me to put 2 cards of the same guy in this frankenset unless I had another option. You can likely tell where I'm going with this.

My pick; Barry Melrose
The bit of nostalgia that Melrose provides combined with the fact that there is already another Don Mattingly mini present in the set makes this another fairly easy decision for me.

#299 2017 Stephen A. Smith A&G Back
Like Melrose, Stephen A. Smith is yet another ESPN analyst with a very good shot of making it into the frankenset. Unlike Barry Melrose, I don't recall watching Smith back when I watched the morning SportsCenter, but I have been following the highlights of his show First Take on ESPN for any basketball information, news, or highlights that interest me.

 #299 2018 Adam Jones
If there was ever a base mini of a baseball player that I would choose over any other card, there's a very good chance it would be this here Adam Jones card from this years' Allen & Ginter set. It must be something about the colors, uniform, and Jones' holding of the bat on the card, but this is an above average base mini which impresses me a lot.

My pick; Stephen A. Smith A&G Back
Sorry, but I'm really trying to take every chance I get to make this frankenset as interesting as possible, and one of the ways I intend to accomplish this is to take any chance I get to put non-baseball players' base minis into the set. The more interesting, the better the frankenset is.

#339 2008 Jack Cust
For my 5th and final decision, I have my very first matchup of 2 baseball players' base minis. Granted, both of these cards, to my knowledge, are short-prints, but they're also both base minis, so I guess I'll have to go purely off which card I like better, not which I want more in the set.

#339 2018 Starlin Castro
I felt bad for Castro when he got traded to the Marlins in the Giancarlo Stanton trade. Just like what happened with the Cubs, he got traded away right when the team was going to take-off and become perennial contenders.

My pick; Jack Cust
Given all the 2018 A&G minis I brought back with me from the show and how much I like this Jack Cust card, I thought it was the right decision to go with the Cust mini over the Castro. This time, there's no real reason other than I just happen to like the Jack Cust mini slightly more.

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