Finished my Allen & Ginter Quest!

[TimCarrollArt]

I've always been a fan of the framed mini autographs in Allen & Ginter. Specifically, the non-baseball subjects. I picked up several over the years that I really liked, and when Harrison Ford was announced for the 2019 set, I decided to make a go for one of those. I found it very difficult to land, so I poured over the older A&G checklists to see if there were any others I had missed in previous years that I needed to find. There were MANY. So I started buying. As I knocked my list down, I continued to add. Finally I decided to make a run at all of them. I set parameters. I only wanted base frames, no black frame/25s. No red ink/10s. No GinterX for the newer sets. I knew that Phelps had 8 poses in 2009 (limited to 8 copies each), but I was content with landing 1 copy of any of the poses. I passed on adding other variations from other years like the Blaine sig variation, the Seto Kanji variation, and Augie Carton green ink. I do have the 2020 Courtney Hansen gold ink, but I do not count it towards my run. Since the 2019 Fish was an unannounced SP/10, I left it out of my hunt. I also omitted all of the employee autographs. I added the 2008 Marcus Henderson relic because it was a guitar pick that was autographed. It fits the collection. I also picked up the 2007 Greg Oden that was limited to 100 copies....even though it was inserted in the basketball product Echelon. I do not count the Oden towards my count because it wasn't checklisted with the regular 2007 set. In 2015, Topps inserted 10th anniversary edition framed autographs into packs. They used previous subjects like Hogan, Patrick, Andretti, Chestnut, etc. 12 total subjects, 10 in each A&G design. I picked up one of each subject regardless of design.

The final checklist through 2021: 571 cards (there's 573 pictured because of the Oden/Hansen mentioned above.) This will be spread out across 4 posts below. Here's to hoping 2022 has some monster A-list celebrities to chase!

[TimCarrollArt]

[TimCarrollArt]

[TimCarrollArt]

[brob28]

Impressive seeing them all together, congrats! I wonder how they choose the subjects?

[Elberson]

Dry cool, congrats

[frankbmd]

An excellent display of the progressive(?) advancement in cursive education.

Disclaimer: A few of them are legible, I think.

[saucywombat]

Great to see these.

Congratulations

[jp1216]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

A few of them are legible, I think.

Signatures ain't what they used to be.....

Great work Tim. Thanks for sharing!

[Mike D.]

Awesome collect of A&G autos!

I used some of the non-sport A&G regular issue cards to get TTM autographs back in the early 2010’s with good luck. Some fun cards for sure.

[stkuhl]

I know nothing about A & G but that many autographs is impressive. As a set collector it's always a good feeling to finish off a set.

[Bigdaddy]

Very cool, and impressive collection.

Who are your favorites? And what ~percentage of them did you not know who the person was? I'd bet I'm at > 50% that I don't know.

[58pinson]

I am amazed at what you've assembled! Congratulations.

[Seven]

Fantastic collection. I often wonder is the hunt more satisfying than completing the set?

[CobbSpikedMe]

Outstanding Tim! Great accomplishment there. I can't believe you tracked down all of them. What are some of your favorites?



.

[TimCarrollArt]

Thank you all for taking the time to go through the photos and respond!

Originally Posted by brob28

Impressive seeing them all together, congrats! I wonder how they choose the subjects?

I know Topps puts out feelers on social media every November/December, asking followers to tell them who they want. In the year following Olympics, it's safe to say they'll have a couple of subjects from that. I've also noticed that the last couple of years have been loaded with people that have massive social media followings, so I assume that is now part of the criteria.

Originally Posted by frankbmd

An excellent display of the progressive(?) advancement in cursive education.

Disclaimer: A few of them are legible, I think.

To be fair, none of these people are popular because of their handwriting

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

Very cool, and impressive collection.

Who are your favorites? And what ~percentage of them did you not know who the person was? I'd bet I'm at > 50% that I don't know.

Originally Posted by CobbSpikedMe

Outstanding Tim! Great accomplishment there. I can't believe you tracked down all of them. What are some of your favorites?



.

Agreed, most of the subjects from recent years have been head scratchers. I had to research who many of them were, because I genuinely had never heard of them (especially the comedians and social media influencers). Some of the early years were like that also, but those subjects fit in with the A&G theme of "World's Champions." Even if the record holder was in something like cardstacking, horseshoes, paper plane flying, rock/paper/scissors, or something else off the wall, it was neat to have the quantifiable "best of" in there. I hope they get back to more of that if they choose to go to subjects most of us haven't heard of.

As for my favorites, here are my top 10:

1. 2013 Pele
2. 2015 Sylvester Stallone
3. 2019 Harrison Ford
4. 2008 Serena Williams
5. 2011 George Bush
6. 2013 Axl Rose
7. 2006 Mike Tyson
8. 2012 Roger Federer
9. 2016 Kevin Costner
10. 2011 Stan Lee

Originally Posted by Seven

Fantastic collection. I often wonder is the hunt more satisfying than completing the set?

Oh absolutely, the chase was waaay more fun than putting that last card in place! I can only hope that some A-list celebrities are included in this year's group. The bigger the name, the shorter the print run....which means I have something to hunt down a little longer.

[timzcardz]

Very nice, and impressive!

I loved the A&G product, right up until I pulled a Johnny Damon Travel Day Worn Shirt Swatch! Travel Day shirt? WTF!

Always liked the autos though.

This past year, while spending all of my time at home, I was sending pics daily of stuff from my collection to a friend and my son.

Going through cards that I haven't looked at in a while I came across my Snoop Dogg Lion 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Framed Mini autograph. I remember getting it and being pissed, because I wanted a baseball autograph, not this guy (I'm not a fan of his) and simply stashed it in a binder.

So my buddy kept asking me what different things that I had went for, so I looked at what that card had been selling for on ebay and was floored at how much it is getting. Not as pissed now, but haven't sold it yet.

[Batman]

Nice variety and cross section of subjects. Well done.