Allen & Ginter Part 4: Minis

On to one of my favorite parts of the Allen & Ginter set: The minis.  I feel like my box had some good minis in it starting with my box topper which was an extra pack of minis.  The pack held five red bordered mini cards which were all numbered to 40.  Here's a look at the five cards.....

Some pretty good names in that group of cards.  There were other color bordered in the Ginter set beyond the red.  The black bordered minis, which are always the most common, look really nice this year.  In putting together my base set, I almost always put together a team set of black bordered minis for the Cardinals and Rays.  Here's a look at what these cards look like in this year's Ginter set....

I pulled a Lackey black border out of my box, which will make putting together the Cardinals team set a little bit easier, but these cards are not hard to find and not very expensive.  Most of the time I can find most of the team set for a few dollars on Ebay, or COMC.  I like the design of the black cards this year.  The design around the edges of the card are a little less heavy feeling.  

I also pulled a Ginter flag card from my box.  I pulled a copy of the Hank Aaron version of this card last year and completely missed it because I was not looking for these when I opened my box.  This year I turned over all of the minis as I went through and I opened the box.  Kind of makes me wonder how many of these I have missed over the years?  Hmmm.  Might need to go back through some boxes.  Anyway, this year I pulled Greg Holland and promptly traded it away to a Royals fan who was annoyed by their ownership of a Cardinals card.  

Lots of cool mini inserts too.  I like those Hoist the Black Flag cards on the right side.  Might have to make that one of the non-sport sets that I put together this year.  Wonder if any of these pirates are in the set?  

Two New Cardinals Pick-Ups

I added two new Gypsy Queen Cardinals cards yesterday afternoon from another local collector.  I had not really gone out and tried to pick up any of the Cardinals relics/serial numbered parallels from this set, so I might have to take these two new cards as a good starting point to add a few more of these.

First up is this Wacha relic.  No serial numbers or anything here.  Just a nice looking relic card.  I do like the framed relic pieces better than the non-framed.  The frames on the cards seem a little bit tighter this year.  In past year's the cards would slide and move around inside the frame.  This year's seem to do less so.  Maybe it's just this card....

and finally a brand new Lackey card.  This is the one per box framed card that is numbered out of /499.  A nice looking card.  I have not really done much with Lackey since he was traded to the Cardinals last season.  He has pitched well and has a lot of cards.  Maybe a project for my upcoming summer break.

#MyCardMonday

How is that I am always doing my #MyCardMonday post at the end of the day on Monday?  Next week I have put it on the calendar and will have it up on Monday morning.  I guess you are going to have to enjoy my selection for the week through Tuesday morning and into tomorrow afternoon when I will post a little something about an old school set in my collection.  So, here is my card.....

This is my John Lackey autograph.  Yes, I picked it because he was traded to the Cardinals and pitched well in his first outing yesterday against the Brewers.  I picked this card up several years ago before the former Angels star signed on with the Red Sox.  I have never really minded Lackey as a player and fondly remember his performance in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.  It was not that I was rooting for the Angels as much as I was rooting against Barry Bonds.