Box Breaks: 6 Boxes of 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter X

 

Ginter X was one of my favorite products last year due to fact of how easy it was to get value back from your breaks. With Red Mini Paralells falling nearly 1 per box (numbered to 5) #1/1 Silver's easily obtainable and getting one guaranteed Silver mini framed auto per box (unlike regular Ginter which for $30 bucks more has 3 hits, but more than likely they will all be boring plain color swatches), I was highly anticipating this year's offering. I skipped regular Ginter altogether (just found it too damn boring) and opted to focus on this instead. When it hit Topps, I quickly grabbed 6 boxes. Now..there was a little cause for concern as Topps has really cranked up the presses this year with it's baseball products and the fact that initially the Topps website had little information in what you could actually get in these boxes had some people hesitant to buy in. What if Autos went from one per box to one per every other box? What if the Silver and Red parallels odds went up astronomically? So just like that, I had a little tinge of regret just blindly buying this stuff assuming it was going to be just like last year. Fortunately..it WAS just like last year as if anything production for Ginter X DECREASED..which is awesome for rarity. I quickly wished I had bit the bullet and bought more boxes but hey at least I got 6. I waited with anticipation to get my boxes and I finally got them in this past Tuesday. I opened a box Wednesday, 2 on Thursday, 2 last night and finished up today. Did Ginter X live up to its hype? Here's what I got

Box 1

Notable Base Rookies
Shohei Ohtani
Ronald Acuna
Walker Buehler
Rafael Devers
Rhys Hoskins
Alex Verdugo


Minis
Mookie Betts
Michael Rapaport
Chris Archer
Bob Gibson
Sonny gray
Andre Dawson
Daniel Murphy
Babe Ruth
Kris Bryant
Jacob DeGrom
Trea Turner
Billy Hamilton
Stugotz
Scott Blumstein
Tyler Glasnow
Josh Donaldson
Sean Manaea



No Number Mini
Max Kepler


SP's
Daryl Strawberry
Justin Turner
Nick Williams
Ryder Jones
Cole Hamels
Aroldis Chapman
Anthony Rendon
Brandon Woodruff
Starlin Castro


Home Run Challenge
Jake Lamb

Framed Mini Silver Auto
Chance Sisco (#25/25)

Box 2
Notable Base Rookies
Gleyber Torres
Ozzie Albies

Base SP's
Sandy Alcantara
Andy Pettitte
Sean Newcomb
Todd Frazier
Corey Dickerson
Mitch Haniger
Dustin Fowler
Jen-Ho Tseng
Whit Merrifield


Minis
Walker Buehler
Hank Aaron
Jose Altuve
Brian Anderson
Justin Bour
Hunter Pence
Khris Davis
Didi Gregorius
Andrew Benintendi
Paul DeJong
J.P. Crawford
Adrian Beltre
Andrew Stevenson
Sandy Koufax
Ted Williams

Mini SP's
Lorenzo Cain
Nomar Mazara


Mini No Number
John Smoltz


Home Run Challenge
Anthony Rendon

Framed Mini Silver Auto
Tommy Wiseau (#18/25)

Box 3

Notable Base Rookies
Shohei Ohtani
Ronald Acuna
Walker Buehler
Clint Frazier

Base SP's

Ender Inciarte
Lewis Brinson
Nomar Mazara
Harrison Bader
Lorenzo Cain
Carlos Santana
Erick Fedde
Dennis Eckersley
Dwight Gooden


Mini's
Kevin Pillar
Yasiel Puig
Reggie Jackson
Francisco Mejia
Jake Arrieta
Yuli Gurriel
Yonder Alonso
Wade Boggs
Ian Happ
Carlos Gonzalez
Jesse Winker
Sean Evans
Marine National Monument
Clayton Kershaw



Mini SP's
Gregory Polanco
Carlos Martinez


Home Run Challenge
Joey Gallo

Red Mini
Jose Altuve (#1/5)
Nick Williams (#2/5)


Framed Mini Silver Auto
Raudy Read (#16/25)

Box 4
Notable Base Rookies
Ronald Acuna
Shohei Ohtani
Walker Buehler
Clint Frazier
Rafael Devers
Rhys Hoskins
Alex Verdugo


Base SP's
Dustin Fowler
Julio Urias
Joe Mauer
Will Clark
Richard Urena
Darryl Strawberry
Justin Turner

Mini's
Felix Hernandez
Joey Gallo
Luis Severino
Gio Gonzalez
Jackie Robinson
Craig Kimbrel
Rougned Odor
Ozzie Smith
Gleyber Torres
Hanley Ramirez
Dee Gordon
Willson Contreras
Lance McCullers
Jacob DeGrom
Sonny Gray
Sean Manaea

Mini SP's
Brett Gardner


Home Run Challenge
Jay Bruce

Red Mini
Billy Hamilton (#5/5)


Framed Mini Silver Auto
Claire Smith (#18/25)
Darryl Strawberry (#14/25)

Box 5
Notable Base Rookies
Shohei Ohtani
Rafael Devers
Alex Verdugo
Rhys Hoskins

Base SP's
Matt Chapman
Hyun-Jin Ryu
Elvis Andrus
Josh Hader
Andy Pettitte
Sean Newcomb
Todd Frazier
Corey Dickerson


Mini's
Yuli Gurriel
Sean Manaea
Ty Cobb
Jon Gray
Zack Cozart
Taijuan Walker
Babe Ruth
Jon Lester
Orlando Arcia
Jacob DeGrom
Lindsey Vonn
Billy Hamilton
Franncisco Lindor
Kenta Maeda
Sloane Stephens


Mini SP's
Darryl Strawberry
Justin Turner

Silver Mini
Trey Mancini (#1/1)


Framed Mini Silver Auto
Mark McGwire (#25/25)

Box 6

Notable Base Rookies Ronald Acuna
Walker Buehler
Clint Frazier
Shohei Ohtani
Rafael Devers
Alex Verdugo

Base SP's

Dwight Gooden
Erick Fedde
Dennis Eckersley
Carlos Santana
Lewis Brinson
Carlos Carrasco
Christian Villanueva
Josh Harrison



Minis
Miguel Cabrera
Joe Panik
Robbie Ray
Corey Kluber
Ben Lecomte
Alex Verdugo
Steve Simeone
A.J. Pollack
Bo Jackson
Amed Rosario
Paige Spiranac
Tom Segura
Justin Upton
Dansby Swanson
Garrett Cooper


Mini SP's
Lorenzo Cain

Home Run Challenge
Edwin Encarnacion


Mini Red
Buster Posey (#1/5)

Framed Mini Silver Auto
Gleyber Torres (#15/23)
Bill James (#02/25)

Overall Thoughts: You know, being an avid box breaker, I get taken to the cleaners more often than not and sometimes it's to devastating results. Not since my Topps Tier One break have I had such a SUCCESSFUL  break! I absolutely killed it. My luck has been extremely bad overall since Topps Tier (with a smatter of successes in 2018 Elite Football and 2018 WWE Heritage of all things) so it was NICE to finally break a product were coming down to the last box I was already way ahead and even the last box OVER DELIVERED. First of all, I LOVE Ginter X Base cards because of the black background. It just works so well and is so cool looking. The price point is just so great..for $70 a box you are guaranteed an on card silver signed framed mini auto numbered to 25 or less (one great thing Topps did this year was serial number the autos) and a pretty decent chance at a red mini parallel numbered to only 5 copies. I ended pulling 5 base Ohtani rookies out of 6 boxes (those alone sell for around $15 on Ebay) and 4 Acunas (those too sell in the $10-$12) range. Also pulled multiple rookies of top rookies such as Rhys Hoskins, Rafael Devers, Walker Buehler, and pulled some decent vet mini's as well. The chase of course is in the autos and mini parallels. I crushed it there, with 4 reds (two best being Buster Posey and Altuve) and 1 Silver #1/1 (Trey Mancini) The crazy thing is, it's hard to get disappointed when pulling a red or silver of a player you might think is mediocre when you end up selling them for decent amounts. I sold the Billy Hamilton red for $50 and the Mancini for $65. Altuve is my guy, so it's always that MUCH more awesome to pull a super limited card of a guy you PC. I absolutely love the red mini I pulled and that's definitely a PC card. The Nick Williams I'm hoping to sell, but overall it's a 350 card set and to pull two superstars in Altuve and Posey it's really hard to do. Very pleased how those turned out! Onto the autos..first of all not all autos are numbered equally, guys like Trout and Bryce Harper are numbered to like 5 copies but not all superstars are numbered that way. Acuna and Ohtani are two that are numbered to 25, and are the most coveted of the set. I feel like the only "junk" auto I pulled was of Raudy Read (and even that's probably at least a $10 card so it's not like Topps Chrome and there $1.00 junk autos the encompass 75% of their autograph set). So Ginter of course includes a mix of celebrities and athletes so three of 8 pulls were of non baseball players. I'm not really familiar with Tommy Wiseau at all but apparently he's pretty popular and I'm sure eventually I'll be able to get about $40-$50 for his Ginter X Auto. Claire Smith was apparently a pioneer as the first female MLB Beat Writer ever. That's pretty cool, historically speaking, and I learned something that I hadn't known before. Bill James is a famous sports statistician so at least 2 of the non baseball players are tied to sports still. The awesome thing is, two of my boxes actually had 2 autos so the Smith and James were bonus autos. On the baseball front, outside of the Raudy Read, I was disappointed with my first auto of Chance Sisco..that is until I Sold it for $40. It just got better from there as I ended up with Darryl Strawberry, Mark McGwire, and to finish my break off..GLEYBER (a short print numbered to 23). I don't have a Strawberry auto in my collection, so it's definitely staying in the PC as I absolutely love Ginter X Autos. What makes the McGwire so awesome is it's numbered #25/25..not only the last serial number, but it's Big Mac's jersey number! I was thrilled with everything I had pulled to that point and then the Gleyber was just icing on the cake. All in all if you were able to get on Ginter X as it's original price point, odds are you weren't disappointed and worst case is, you probably broke at least even or lost a tiny bit. At it's original price point, I don't see this as a product where you will take a bath on. It's rare to find products like that, but once again, just like last year, Ginter X more than delivered! 

Success/Failure- FINALLY a break that passes the Success mark in the truest sense of the word. With my conservative estimates, I figure I come close doubling my original purchase price of this product. It's my most successful break since Topps Tier One. Pics of the cards!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5 Pulls of 2018

#1 2017-18 National Treasures FOTL RPA Exclusive Lonzo Ball (#13/15)

#2 2017-18 National Treasures FOTL RPA Exclusive De'Aaron Fox (#3/15)

#3 2018 Topps Tier One Triple Patch Autographs Ichiro (#1/1)

#4 2018 Bowman Chrome Prospects Red Refractor Autograph Jeren Kendall (#2/5)

#5 (Tie) 2018 Topps Tier One Tier One Signatures Derek Jeter (#7/15)

#5 (Tie) 2018 Donruss Optic Rated Rookies Autographs Black Holo FOTL Exclusive Shohei Ohtani (#10/12)