Completed insert set – 2012 Allen & Ginter mini Musical Masters

Merry Christmas!  I had a bit of a post backlog, but I’m through that now and don’t have as much time – but do hope I can get a couple more in before the new year.  Here’s a quick completed insert set from some Black Friday purchases I made.  I didn’t go too crazy compared to the Summer/Fall purchases I made earlier this year.  But I do have a pretty big completion milestone after this one.

I collected Ginter in 2011 and 2012 (only) – so I’m trying to finish up some of the insert sets from those 2 years.  I knocked off the one remaining card from my recent Beckett purchases that I did on Black Friday.  A couple sets from that – and then a few coming from COMC that will be early next year I think!

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Info about the set:

Set description:  “16 musically minded cards featuring famous composers from throughout history.”  These are vertically oriented minis with the maestros (which by the way should have been the name of this set) depicted on the front and a write-up on their career exploits on the back.

Set composition: 16 cards, 1:5 odds (2012 Allen & Ginter’s)

I only got one of these in my box – I think it’s that the insert minis are 1:5 in total

Hall of Famers: Not a sports set.

Card that completed my set: #MM-14 Igor Stravinsky

I got this card from Beckett Marketplace as a Black Friday purchase.

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from the Ginter hobby box I bought
• 1 card from a Ginter case break I did back in 2012
• 1 card from a card show
• 1 card from a trade
• 5 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 6 cards from COMC
• 1 cards from Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  This is one of the many sets that makes Ginter unique, and it’s kind of neat to go through.  A good selection by Topps here.

I wish they had thrown in like 4 more modern composers to make this 20 cards to fill out that mini page.  John Williams and Howard Shore would be so easy – cut up a few of their blazers, get them to sign some framed minis and you have a perfect add to the Ginter product!

Best card (my opinion): #MM-2, MM-3 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Van Beethoven

I’m not a classical music aficionado – but it would be hard to pick above these two or between these two in my understanding.

Here’s the scan of the full set.

Any other tidbits:  I always like to do some cross-referencing for sets like this with Goodwin Champions from Upper Deck.  Will just check my top 2 cards here.  Beethoven is in the 2014 Goodwin base set, while Mozart is in the Goudey insert set from the 2016 Goodwin product.

Completed set – 2012 Allen & Ginter

I finished up the 2012 Ginter set with the COMC purchase I made about 3 months ago (that came about 1 month ago).  I only collected Ginter for 2 years, and now I’ve finished both base sets.  I like this design a little better than 2011, but I think I liked the insert themes in 2011 a little more.

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Info about my set:

How I put the set (non-SP / then SP) together:

• 138 (126/12) cards from my first hobby box
• 9 (5/4) cards from retail packs
• 61 (59/2) cards from a case break by Nachos Grande
• 99 (89/10) cards from trades
• 7 regular cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 31 (14/17) cards from Sportlots
• 5 SP cards from Check Out My Cards

Card that completed my set: #345 – Nolan Ryan

One of 2 cards from COMC I got recently, this is the one I like best!

General Set Info:

Set composition: 350 cards (287 current players, 30 retired players, 1 retired umpire, 32 popular figures / other sports)

Earliest active player from this set: #197 – Ty Cobb (retired players), #204 – Jim Thome (active players)

There’s two answers to this – Thome is the earliest active player from this timeframe – he made his debut of September 4, 1991.  But Ty Cobb is the earliest retired player – debuting August 30, 1905.  In 2012, Topps went from only having Mickey Mantle in the set to having 30 retired players.

Player with the most cards in the set: every player has just 1

First Card and the Hundreds: #1 – Albert Pujols, #100 – Troy Tulowitzki, #200 – Matt Kemp, #300 – Roberto Clemente

Highest book value: #140 – Mike Trout

This card does not look like Trout at all.  It’s a little more than the Harper RC as far as Beckett says.

Most notable card: #157 – Roger Federer

Best card (my opinion): #157 – Roger Federer

In 2011 it was Manny Pacquiao – in 2012 the big Champion was Roger Federer.  I’m a big Federer fan, and while I think this wouldn’t be nearly as big of a deal today – in 2012 having the G.O.A.T. (who has now probably been surpassed) was just that.

I love having this card in this set, regardless!

Second best card (also my opinion): #75 – Erin Andrews

11 years ago I was way too stoked about Erin Andrews having a card in Allen & Ginter.  Still pretty cool, and I wish the old Gameday crew would still be around.

Best subset card: N/A

Favorite action photo: #229 – Ichiro Suzuki

A&G isn’t really made for action shots – this one is pretty cool though.

Favorite non-action photo: #254 – Rickey Henderson

Fits well with the card set, a photo of a younger Rickey that wasn’t too heavily used (at least at the time).

My Favorite Reds card: #74 – Johnny Cueto

The Reds were so good in 2012.  Cueto always reminds me of that.  I think if he hadn’t gotten injured in game 1 of the opening series, we beat the eventual champion Giants and then … who knows?

Other Notable Cards:  Justin Verlander and Kate Upton did not start dating until 2014 – but they both made the Allen & Ginter 2012 set!

Completed insert set – 2012 Allen & Ginter mini Man’s Best Friend

I collected Ginter in 2011 and 2012 (only) – so I’m trying to finish up some of the insert sets from those 2 years.  I knocked off the one remaining card from my recent Beckett purchases.

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Info about the set:

Set description:  “20 cards celebrating some of the most popular breeds of man’s most popular companion.”  These are horizontally oriented mini cards with the doggie depicted on the front and a write-up on the breed on the back.

Set composition: 20 cards, 1:5 odds (2012 Allen & Ginter’s)

I only got one of these in my box – I think it’s that the insert minis are 1:5 in total

Hall of Famers: Not a sports set.

Card that completed my set: #MBF-8 Labrador Retriever

I got this card from Beckett Marketplace last month.

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from the Ginter hobby box I bought
• 1 card from a retail pack
• 1 card from a Ginter case break I did back in 2012
• 2 cards from a card show
• 5 cards from Sportlots
• 3 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 7 cards from COMC

Thoughts on the set:  This is one of the many sets that makes Ginter unique, though it isn’t the most interesting one since there are a lot of sets that have various dogs on it. I do like that there’s some reading on the backs – sometimes Topps just puts a checklist.

Best card (my opinion): #MBF-6 Dachshund

Pretty easy choice – I’m a dachshund owner!  He’s a lot older these days than this picture from ~12 years ago.

Here’s the scan of the full set.

Any other tidbits:  There’s been a lot of sets about dogs, I learned looking into this that Upper Deck did a “Canine Collection” set.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Completed insert set – 2011 Allen & Ginter N43

I finished up a few Ginter inserts in the first of the Beckett Marketplace packages I bought in September and the first one was the box topper variety.

Most of the insert sets in Ginter are not of the standard size.  Most of them are minis.  And then there are cabinet cards or N43 cards that are only obtainable as box toppers.  I finished off the Cabinet set already, and now I’ve finished off the N43 cards as well.

Info about the set:

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Set description: “15 cards styled after the original N43 card, which was 3 1/4″ and 2 7/8″ in size!”

Sort of larger cards, with a a mini version of the Ginter design (most of the cards are different photos from the player’s regular card – a couple are though) over a flower and field background.  There were autograph and relic versions for most (but not all) of the players as well.

Set composition:  15 cards, box topper (2011 Allen & Ginter’s)

Hall of Famers:  1.  So far just Roy Halladay.

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from my first hobby box
• 1 card from Sportlots
• 7 card from COMC
• 6 cards from Beckett Marketplace

Card that completed my set:  #N43-MT – Mark Teixeira

 

I got this card from Beckett Marketplace in September.  This and other posts will be come out of those purchases.

I was actually down to just this card for 7 full years before I finally pulled the trigger!

Thoughts on the set:  I like it, don’t love it.  The background is kind of good impression of what a ballfield in the early professional era – though this isn’t the best Ginter design I’ve seen.

Best card (my opinion):  #N43-JV – Joey Votto

Best Reds card (my opinion):  #N43-JV – Joey Votto

The early phase of Votto’s greatness.  He was coming off his MVP season when this came out.  Feels like the right card given the news that he won’t be back with the Reds next year.

I do also like the Pujols card where he’s coming up for a throw.  There’s also an Aroldis Chapman card from the Reds perspective.

Here’s a scan of the full set:

Other tidbits:  It’s challenging to store these cards.  I have the 3-card page binders and just trust that the cards won’t move over the middle to the other side!

Completed insert set – 2012 Allen & Ginter mini Giants of the Deep

This one’s been sitting in the queue needing an update for a while.  I’ve wondered in the past and still do if I’ll ever get caught up posting the insert sets I’ve completed!  Here’s another mini set from Allen & Ginter that I completed back in November of last year.

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Info about the set:

Set description:  “15 cards featuring various species of whale.”  These are horizontally oriented mini cards with the animal depicted inside.  There is a write-up on the back describing why the species is endangered.

Set composition: 15 cards, 1:5 odds (2012 Allen & Ginter’s)

I weirdly got zero of these in my box!

Hall of Famers: Not a sports set.

Card that completed my set: #GD14 – Beluga Whale

I got this card from COMC in 2020!  I’m behind!

How I put the set together:

• 2 cards from a card show
• 1 card from a trade
• 5 cards from Beckett
• 3 cards from Sportlots
• 4 cards from COMC

Thoughts on the set:  This is the kind of set that makes Ginter interesting.  But they just have the checklist on the back, so not all that cool – would be interesting to have some things to read.  Like with some of these mini sets – the photos aren’t very clear in a lot of cases.

Highest book value: They all book for the same

Best card (my opinion): #GD9 – Orca

Pretty easy choice!  I’d have considered the Narwhal but the picture isn’t very good on that one.  The Orca is very clear compared to a lot of these cards.

Here’s the scan of the full set.

Any other tidbits:  From 2011 to 2013, and then again in 2019 and 2021 Upper Deck inserted patch cards called “Animal Kingdom” into Goodwin Champions.  I cross-referenced the checklist for this set to the Goodwin patches, and the following 18 cards were in both sets:

• GD1 – Humpback Whale (2011)
• GD2 – Sperm Whale (2019)
• GD3 – Blue Whale (2013) – also in the 2011 Ginter Animals in Peril set
• GD4 – Narwhal (2013)
• GD5 – Beluga (2011)
• GD9 – Orca

The 9 cards that weren’t in the Animal Patches set are: Bowhead, Right Whale, Fin Whale, Pilot Whale, Pygmy Sperm Whale, Minke Whale, Bottlenose Whale, Gray Whale, Bryde’s Whale

Completed insert set – 2011 Allen & Ginter Cabinets

Most of the insert sets in Ginter are not of the standard size.  You have the Baseball Highlight sketch cards and maybe 1 or 2 others, but the rest are minis.  And there are cabinet cards or N43 cards that are box toppers.  I finished off the Cabinet set from 2011 6 or 7 months ago.

Info about the set:

Set description: “10 oversize cabinet cards featuring mini parallel cards showcasing 2 to 4 key subjects in an important 2010 baseball highlight, or the founding of a National Park.  These subjects are featured on mini-parallel cards on a larger 5 ¼” by 8″ cabinet card.”

There’s a lot of duplicate wording on that write-up from the sell sheet.  Basically, these are really large cards with scenes as the background and then 2, 3 or 4 photos of mini cards using the 2011 A&G design.  Cards #1-6 are baseball highlights from 2010, while cards #7-10 are National Parks and the President and some other influential figure who helped to get the park that designation.  The backs have a checklist of the specific portion of the set (the baseball cards only have the first 6 listed, the National Parks only have the last 4).

They were a little off in calling the mini-pictured cards “parallels”.  The players all had cards, however Tony LaRussa isn’t in the main set and most of the presidents or other figures aren’t either.

Set composition:  10 cards, box topper (2011 Allen & Ginter’s)

Hall of Famers:  1.  Shown above, Tony LaRussa is on card #6, which is titled “Decade of Dominance”.  It’s honoring Albert Pujols, who did have quite an incredible first 10 years.

Ryan Dempster is the other player on this card.  I was trying to figure out what this card was getting at, other than Pujols being really good.  He hit more homers of Dempster than any other pitcher, but I think this card is in honor of May 30, 2010.  In that game, Pujols went deep 3 times.  Two of those bombs were off of Dempster, who also gave him 2 intentional passes.  So he could have hit the magical mark of 4 homers in a game if not for the free passes.

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from my 2nd hobby box
• 7 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 2 cards from COMC

Card that completed my set:  #CB-9 – Yosemite National Park.

I got this card from COMC back in May.  Pretty cool putting Old Faithful on there, though there is no “parallel” in the main set.  Old Faithful did have a card in 2009 Allen & Ginter.

Thoughts on the set:  Retro sets are best the more they connect with the original.  Cabinet cards were a staple of tobacco cards from back in the late 1800’s, so that’s pretty cool.  I like the combination of national parks and baseball highlights.

Best card (my opinion):  #CB-10 – Redwood National Park

This card is for the National Park in Northern California.  I picked this one because it’s the only one I’ve been to out of the 4 cards in this set.

Other tidbits:  Here is a checklist of the 10 cards in this set, followed by information on the date of the game (or year the National park gained its status) and the “mini cards” shown on the cabinet.

CB-1 – “Galarraga’s almost perfect”.  June 2, 2010.  Armando Galarraga, Miguel Cabrera, Jason Donald.

This would probably be my favorite if I had picked from the baseball portion of the set.  This is from the perfect game that Galarraga lost when umpire Jim Joyce incorrectly called Jason Donald safe at first base for the 27th out.  Topps should have figured a way to get Joyce onto this card.

CB-2 – “Postseason No-No”.  October 6, 2010.  Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Howard.

One thing that is really weird about this set – the main guy in the event is usually in the background, but not on the mini card.  The only exception is It depicts Roy Halladay’s no-hitter against the Reds, which was the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history.  You see Ruiz running out to Halladay in the background, but Halladay isn’t one of the mini cards.  Howard had the last put out at first, so I get why he’s on there, but to me just having Ruiz and Halladay (or at least having the guy who threw the no-no) would have been the way to go.

CB-3 – “Dallas is perfect in Oakland”.  May 9, 2010.  Landon Powell, Daric Barton.

Topps did the exact same thing here with Dallas Braden’s perfect game.  Powell was the catcher, Barton gloved the last out at first.

CB-4 – “Multiple Milestone Matchup”.  September 23, 2010.  Felix Hernandez, Jose Bautista.

Ichiro is in the background here.  Hernandez pitched a complete game near the end of his Cy Young season.  Bautista, however, went deep off him to give Toronto a 1-0 win.  It was Bautista’s 50th homer of the season, and Ichiro notched his 200th hit in the game as well.  That was his 10th straight season with 200+ hits, extending his own record and tying Pete Rose’s record for number of such seasons in total.

CB-5 – “A-Rod does it again, for the 600th time”.  August 4, 2010.  Derek Jeter, Shaun Marcum.

This one’s pretty simple.  A-Rod hit his 600th homer.  Shaun Marcum was the pitcher.  Derek Jeter was on base.

CB-6 – “Decade of Dominance”.  May 30, 2010.  Tony LaRussa, Ryan Dempster

See above.

CB-7 – “Grand Canyon National Park”.  1919.  President Woodrow Wilson, President Benjamin Harrison, President Theodore Roosevelt.

This card has 3 Presidents on it.  Wilson was the President who signed the bill to make the Grand Canyon a National Park.  Benjamin Harrison actually first introduced a bill to make it a National Park in 1882 when he was a Senator.  And Teddy Roosevelt established the Grand Canyon Game Preserve when he was President.

CB-8 – “Yosemite National Park”.  1864.  President Abraham Lincoln, Senator John Conness.

Conness lobbied for protection of Yosemite, Lincoln signed it into law.

CB-9 – Yellowstone National Park.  1872.  President Ulysses S. Grant, Old Faithful.

CB-10 – Redwood National Park.  1968.  President Lyndon B. Johnson, Congressman John E. Raker.

See above.

Completed factory insert set – 2011 Allen & Ginter Glossy Rookies

This is a set that was factory exclusive to 2011 Ginter.  I didn’t buy the factory set, so I had to get each of these cards through individual purchases.

Info about the set:

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Set description:  In October 2011, Topps announced it was issuing a glossy factory set of Allen & Ginter cards.  There were 999 sets produced.  There were 10 bonus cards (also glossy) issued that were an extra for purchasing the factory set.  The cards contain 8 promising rookies from the 2011 season in the same design as the 2011 Ginter set, a card of the newly married Prince William and Duchess Kate, and a card honoring the Navy Seals who were about to have the 50th anniversary of their creation.

Set composition:  10 cards, in glossy factory sets (2011 Allen & Ginter’s)

Hall of Famers:  None – the set is all current players

How I put the set together:

• 7 cards from COMC
• 2 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 1 card from Sportlots

Card that completed my set:  #AGS5 – Anthony Rizzo

Rizzo in a Padres uniform just doesn’t look right.  I got this card from Sportlots last month.  It took forever to find for a reasonable price.

Thoughts on the set:   Issuing the glossy factory set felt like a money grab at the time, but it is an impressive checklist to add to the Ginter product.  Unfortunately, 2011 was one of my least favorite designs for Ginter.

Best card (my opinion):  #AGS1 – Eric Hosmer

I like the Hosmer card just a bit more than the Dee Gordon.

My Favorite Reds card:  There are none.

Here’s the scan of the full set:

Any other tidbits:  5 of the rookies (Moustakis, Gordon, Rizzo, Blackmon and Crawford) have made the All-Star game since their 2011 rookie season.  And that doesn’t include Hosmer who may be the best player of the group.

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• AGS1 – Eric Hosmer
• AGS2 – Dustin Ackley
• AGS3 – Mike Moustakis
• AGS4 – Dee Gordon
• AGS5 – Anthony Rizzo
• AGS6 – Charlie Blackmon
• AGS7 – Brandon Crawford
• AGS8 – Juan Nicasio
• AGS9 – The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge
• AGS10 – U.S. Navy Seals

Completed insert set – 2011 Allen & Ginter Minds that Made the Future

This is the 4th full-size insert I’ve completed from A&G.  Like most of those insert sets, it’s one that doesn’t have anything to do with sports.

Info about the set:

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Set description:  “Honoring the biggest brains in history!  Archimedes, Kepler, Mendel, Volta, Lavoisier, etc.”  The set has a gear as a frame containing a picture of the brilliant mind.  A picture of the individual’s invention is in a circular frame just below that.  The back has a write-up about the famous person’s influence on the world.

Set composition:  40 cards, 1:8 odds (2011 Allen & Ginter’s)

Hall of Famers:  None as it’s not a sports set.

How I put the set together:

• 6 cards from 2 hobby boxes
• 8 cards from trades
• 18 cards from Sportlots
• 5 cards from COMC
• 3 cards from Beckett Marketplace

Card that completed my set:  MMF24 – Nikola Tesla.

I got this card from Sportlots last month after buying a bunch of cards when COMC had its Black Friday sale.  Tesla is one of my favorite cards of the set.  Tesla was a significant contributor to the science surrounding electricity and magnetism.  Plus, he’s the naming inspiration for an American automobile company, and an 80’s heavy metal band (who I saw live a few years ago).

Thoughts on the set:  It’s an interesting set, and I liked reading through the write-ups of so many brilliant minds.  There’s so many cards that it was really hard to put together.  I always like to learn something from these Ginter sets, and having 40 cards does make it so you get to read quite a lot!  But 40 is a lot to put together – which is why it took me over 3 years!

I would have also added a few more recent people.  Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, John Nash and Ralph Baer are just a few that seem to be missing.

Best card (my opinion):  #MMF40 – Ben Franklin

Tough to top the most famous inventor in American history!  He has the final card in the set.

Any other tidbits:  This set is all about history, like so many Ginter sets.  There was another 2011 set – from Goodwin Champions – called “Citizens”.  I thought there would be a few guys in both sets, but Louis Pasteur is the only guy in both sets.  Alfred Nobel is in that set, but surprisingly is not in this Allen & Ginter insert set.

I also think Plato and Socrates could have been included.

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• MMF1 – Leonardo Da Vinci
• MMF2 – Alexander Graham Bell
• MMF3 – Eli Whitney
• MMF4 – Nicolaus Copernicus
• MMF5 – Johannes Gutenberg
• MMF6 – George Washington Carver
• MMF7 – Samuel Morse
• MMF8 – Granville Woods
• MMF9 – Elisha Otis
• MMF10 – Alessandro Volta
• MMF11 – Tycho Brahe
• MMF12 – Gregor Mendel
• MMF13 – Carl Linnaeus
• MMF14 – Johannes Kepler
• MMF15 – Isaac Newton
• MMF16 – Marie Curie
• MMF17 – Carl Friedrich Gauss
• MMF18 – Sigmund Freud
• MMF19 – Bernhard Riemann
• MMF20 – Leonhard Euler
• MMF21 – Robert Fulton
• MMF22 – Ada Lovelace
• MMF23 – Florence Nightingale
• MMF24 – Nikola Tesla
• MMF25 – Galileo Galilei
• MMF26 – Charles Darwin
• MMF27 – Louis Pasteur
• MMF28 – Guglielmo Marconi
• MMF29 – Antoine Lavoisier
• MMF30 – Michael Faraday
• MMF31 – Dmitri Mendeleev
• MMF32 – Robert Koch
• MMF33 – Euclid
• MMF34 – Archimedes
• MMF35 – Jagadish Chandra Bose
• MMF36 – Aristotle
• MMF37 – John Deere
• MMF38 – George Eastman
• MMF39 – Samuel Colt
• MMF40 – Benjamin Franklin

Completed insert set – 2012 Allen & Ginter mini Culinary Curiosities

This is actually the first mini insert set I’ve completed from 2012 Allen & Ginter.  I was pretty surprised about that fact, but I only bought 1 box of Ginter and didn’t even get one of these in that box.  Still, I think this is my favorite mini insert set from 2012 Ginter.

Info about the set:

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Set description:  “10 cards highlighting some of the oddest dishes and most bizarre delicacies from around the world.”  The mini cards have a pretty standard A&G design.  The miniature cards are horizontally oriented with a white border and the set name in a nameplate at the top.  The picture of the delicacy shown on top of a red and white checkered table mat.  The back has a writeup describing the dish.

Set composition:  10 cards, ~1:30 odds (2012 Allen & Ginter’s)

I’m projecting with the odds.  Insert minis combine for 1:5 odds, and there are 6 mini insert sets.

Hall of Famers: Not a sports set.

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from a case break
• 4 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 3 cards from COMC
• 2 cards from Sportlots

Unfortunately I didn’t pull one of these in the hobby box I bought of 2012 Ginter.

Card that completed my set:  #CC1 – Nutria

This was one of 3 cards I got last May in an order from Check Out My Cards.  I think I had just gotten sick of not finishing this set off and figured 75 cents per card was worth it.  Nutria is a dish that’s also known as Coypu, is a type of river rat cooked to taste.  Chef Paul Prudhomme, who passed away in October last year, was best known for cooking this.  He used to serve it in his Cajun restaurant, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans.  This was probably the least strange dish of the 10 cards, not that I’m in a hurry to try river rat!

Thoughts on the set:  This is a cool set.  I like when Ginter has unique subject for these minis.  It tends to make for a fun read.  This set was more fun than the average – I’d daresay it’s my favorite mini of the 2012 product.  Also, I kind of like the checkered place mat background.  It’s kind of like the place mats you’d find at an old school pizza parlor, which is a nice touch.

Best card (my opinion): #CC7 – Fugu

The Fugu is a type of puffer fish that’s been cooked as a delicacy in Japan.  The fish itself is poisonous and is lethal unless cooked in a very specific manner.  Certification to cook and serve it takes 2-3 years in Japan.  I had read about this before, and would have guessed this fish would be included in a set like this.  There’s a fascinating back story about the history of this fish – it’s been illegal to serve at various times throughout Japan’s history, and the Emperor of the country is not allowed to eat this for safety reasons.

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Any other tidbits:  2 of these dishes are poisonous if not prepared correctly, 2 of them require eaten something that is still alive, another requires cooking an egg while a fetus is still alive, and one dish involves collecting beans that have passed through the digestive system of a tropical animal.

• CC1 – Nutria (South America)
  • River Rat cooked in a variety of fashions.
• CC2 – Haggis (United Kingdom)
  • A recipe of sheep heart, lungs and liver hashed with oatmeal, onion, spices and liquid stock.
• CC3 – Kopi Luwak (Indonesia)
  • Coffee beans obtained in an … unusual … fashion.  Coffee berries are fed to the asian palm civit.  Once the civit digests the pulp, the defecated beans are harvested.
• CC4 – Casu Marzu (Italy)
  • A Sardinian cheese made from cheese milk that goes past typical fermentation into a state of decomposition.  It contains live “insect larvae” (i.e. – maggots) at the time of consumption.
• CC5 – Rocky Mountain Oysters (Western U.S.)
  • Deep-fried bull testicles.  These are served in Coors Field, which makes this dish somewhat more relevant to a baseball product than the others!
• CC6 – Hakarl (Iceland)
  • A national dish made from the Greenland shark, whose skin is poisonous unless processed.  To do this, the shark is buried for 6-12 weeks, exhumed, cut into strips, and hung to dry for 3-4 months.  When ready, the dish is known for an incredibly strong smell of ammonia. This dish was featured on the TV show that I watch, Elementary – Watson is grossed out when she comes home and smells the dish that Holmes is eating.
• CC7 – Fugu (Japan)
  • Puffer fish that’s poisonous unless served in a specific fashion.
• CC8 – Sannakji (Korea)
  • Raw baby octopus cut into pieces while they are still alive and served immediately thereafter.  The pieces are still squirming at the time of consumption.  The suction cups on the arm pieces can present a choking hazard.
• CC9 – Balut (Philippines)
  • Duck egg matured 17-21 days to the point that the fetus is live.  The egg is boiled then spiced to taste.
• CC10 – Muktuk (Alaska)
  • Whale skin and blubber served raw, pickled, or fried.

I haven’t eaten anything on this list, though I imagine at some point I’ll try haggis, rocky mountain oysters and (maybe) Muktuk.

Completed insert set – 2012 Allen & Ginter Historical Turning Points

I don’t focus too much Allen & Ginter, but I did finish off another regular size insert set from the 2012 product.

Info about the set:

Set description:  “20 cards featuring great battles, speeches, and decisions that helped determine the course of civilization.”

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Set composition:  20 cards, 1:10 odds (2012 Allen & Ginter)

Hall of Famers:  None – it’s not a sports set.

How I put the set together:

• 3 cards from my hobby box
• 1 card from a retail pack
• 7 cards from trades
• 6 cards from Sportlots
• 2 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 1 card from COMC

Card that completed my set:  #HTP18 – On the Origin of Species

Charles Darwin was the last card I needed.  I got it May last year from COMC.

Thoughts on the set:  This set fits in pretty well with the Allen & Ginter themes.  It’s always good to learn some history!  Though it’s more generic / not as unique as some of the mini sets from 2012.  Also, I would have preferred adding the invention of the internet to get something more recent included.

Best card (my opinion):  #HTP5 – The Fall of the Berlin Wall

I love French history, and wanted to go with either the French Revolution or the Battle of Waterloo.  However, I think going with an event from my lifetime made more sense.

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Any other tidbits:  Here’s a list of the events, with the year they occurred.  I always prefer chronologically for sets like this, but Topps never obliges.

• HTP1 – Signing of the Declaration of Independence, 1776.
• HTP2 – The Battle of Waterloo, 1815.
• HTP3 – The Fall of the Roman Empire, 476.
• HTP4 – The Reformation, 16th century.
• HTP5 – The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989.
• HTP6 – The Treaty of Versailles, 1919.
• HTP7 – Invention of the Printing Press, 1440.
• HTP8 – Allied Victory in WWII, 1945.
• HTP9 – Discovery of the New World, 1492.
• HTP10 – Discovery of Electricity, 1752.
• HTP11 – Signing of the Magna Carta, 1215.
• HTP12 – The Renaissance, 14th to 17th centuries.
• HTP13 – The Industrial Revolution, 1760 to 1850.
• HTP14 – The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863.
• HTP15 – The First Flight of Kitty Hawk, 1903.
• HTP16 – The French Revolution, 1788-1799.
• HTP17 – The Great Depression, 1929 to the 1930s.
• HTP18 – On the Origin of Species, 1859.
• HTP19 – Sputnik I, 1957.
• HTP20 – The Agricultural Revolution, 18th and 19th centuries.