I am working through Topps Allen & Ginter right now, both for my sets and my player collections. My sets got a good start when I broke two boxes of the stuff. My player collection did not fare nearly so well from those two boxes.
In my first box, I got one lousy Hamilton card. You would think it would be the base card, but no – I managed to hit the Josh Hamilton Dick Perez sketch card. All things considered, I was pretty happy about it. Its a great looking card, and it harkens back to one of the greatest Josh Hamilton moments of the 2008 MLB season – the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium.
In my second box, I doubled my haul of Josh Hamilton cards. I hit two of them. Unfortunately – one of them was a double of the aforementioned sketch card.
I considered the math for a little while. If the math holds, should I not end up with four Josh Hamilton cards out of my next box of Allen & Ginter? Then I realized – I am not that lucky. I contented myself with the National Pride insert that came out of the second box, and a sketch card for tradebait and called a halt to the box breaking for the product.
That’s when the completion project turns its focus outwards. And as it so often does – help came from Marie over at A Cardboard Problem. She dropped me a note asking if I needed a Hamilton base card (which I didn’t hit in two boxes). I was pleased. Later, I made a deal for 
another copy for my set (I am horribly obsessive – I can’t have one card fill two slots. If Hamilton has a card in a set I am doing, I need two copies).
Marie also dropped me a note that she had obtained a Hamilton code card at a show. I wish we had card shows up here during the summer. Being in a hockey dominated market, shows are pretty much exclusive to the winter months. I also don’t get any baseball blasters in stores, but let me save that rant for another day. There are racing blister packs, but no baseball. Yes, racing. I love Canada, but baseball cards at Wal-Mart would just make it a little bit better.
The code cards are kind of neat. I am not much for codes, but I am a geek, so I would have liked a shot at it. Ultimately, the code was cracked before I had received my first box to break. I guess it wasn’t quite as hard as the code maker thought. Oh well, it happens sometimes.
I still need a few more cards out of 2009 Topps A&G, including the box toppers, and all the minis (easy ones and hard ones), but the set is well on its way.
