Artwork
CARDBOARD CANVAS: Beautiful artwork, light backgrounds make Topps Allen & Ginter cards a hit with autograph collectors
As a collector of baseball autographs, some of my favorite cards to get signed come from the Topps Allen & Ginter brand.
As anyone in this hobby knows, not all baseball cards are great for autographs. Cards with players in dark jerseys, or with dark backgrounds, are most often problematic. Newer cards that now come with slick finishes have to be rubbed down, or the ink, even with a Sharpie or pen of your choice, will bubble and smear.
This is where Allen & Ginter cards come to the rescue. A soft finish, beautiful artwork pictures, and light-colored backgrounds make them the perfect cards for graphing.
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Before we go any farther, let’s take a brief look back at the history of these cards.
In the 1880s in Richmond, Va., tobacco manufacturers John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter created what is thought to be the first cigarette cards for collecting and trading on a national level. The purpose of the cards was two-fold: yes, you got a collectible, but they were made and inserted as stiffeners for the tobacco packages as well.
The early cards were of baseball players, along with other athletes, plus notable public figures such as Robert E. Lee, Buffalo Bill Cody, and even scenes of birds and wildlife. The well-illustrated and colorful cards featured vibrant chromolithographic printing.
These cards are still much sought after today, including those of baseball stars and figures such as Charles Comiskey, Cap Anson, and King Kelly.
Les Wolff of Plainview, N.Y. deals in sports autographs and says that to find an original Allan & Ginter signed baseball card from that time period, “Well, I will just say that it would be extremely rare, indeed.”
So, let’s jump back to the 21st century.
In 2006, Topps brought the brand back to the public with great success, printing the cards much as they had been back in the 1880s, with artwork and the same type of card stock and finish.
Since they were long gone from the days of being available in cigarette packs, they now came in boxes with multiple packs at your favorite hobby shop, card show, or big-box stores. Topps did take up where the tobacco dealers left off at the end of the 1880s, with most of the cards still featuring baseball players, with some other athletes, coaches, celebrities, astronauts and art cards thrown in as well.
It serves as a tribute to the history of the brand, now going on its 20th year in this second go-around. Some football, basketball and golf cards are still showing up in the mix. There are some boxes that come with a larger top-loader card of the biggest stars of this era that are popular with collectors. Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Bryce Harper are just some that can be found. For the last five or six years I have carried an Allen & Ginter card of Derek Jeter with me to spring training in Florida with the hopes I may cross paths with him and get it signed.
From 2006-09 famed baseball artist Dick Perez did #1/1 art cards for Allen & Ginter.
Drew Pelto of Arlington, Texas is the host of the TTMCAST podcast where he chats with fellow autograph collectors, and also writes a weekly article on his TTM (through the mail) successes for Sports Collector Daily as well.
“Allen & Ginter cards are my favorites, along with Topps Heritage for getting cards signed. I would put them No. 1 and No. 2,” he said. “I like the simple, clean background, and I don’t have to spend my time rubbing off the gloss finish like the regular Topps cards have. I really like the artsy quality they have when you look at them, plus I like the fact that they have 400 baseball cards and another 100 non-baseball cards in the sets, many of which are of other sports and celebrities. Most of the celebrities love to sign their cards if you ask them.”
I asked him about his favorite A&G cards he had gotten signed over the years.
“Phil Coyne, the longtime usher for the Pirates, who I think was around 100 at the time,” he said. Coyne worked Pirates games for 82 years, and appeared on a card in the 2018 set.
“Another would be tennis star Rodger Federer, who lives in Switzerland,” Pelto said. “Someone gave me his address and I sent him a card on the whim, and I added a few bucks to pay for the return postage. He sent me back that card along with an A&G card he signed as well. How about that?”
He thought for a moment, then said, “My favorite baseball A&G would be one I got signed by Elvis Andrus of the Texas Rangers. There is just something special about it that I like. Some hockey cards also—I am a big hockey fan as well.”
MY A&G QUEST
A few years back I decided that A&G cards were the best way to go for my autograph collection. I start by looking for and buying cards at different shows that I attend, by searching mainly thru commons and minor star boxes. Most dealers are happy to pull the short-printed and insert cards out of packs and will let the rest of them go at a good price.
I have accumulated a collection of close to 2,200 individual player cards that I have sorted out by alphabetizing them, regardless of the year. If I need one of a player, I can just go to the monster box and pull it out.
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When I prepare for spring training in Florida, my first priority is to get as many A&G cards of players, managers and former players of the teams I am going to see, so I will be ready to get them signed if possible. Most living Hall of Famers have been featured more than once in A&G sets and they are good cards to take with you as a lot of them make appearances for their former teams. If you are in the Tampa area, the Yankees are famous for having their former stars return and be accessible to fans.
Like Drew, I have obtained cards signed by athletes from other sports through the mail, such as football, basketball, golf, and hockey. My favorites? College football coaches Kirby Smart and Bobby Bowden, both of whom won national championships. Basketball’s Steve Kerr (NBA champ as a player and coach), and ESPN’s Dick Vitale. I got golf’s Hank Haney, who became famous as the one-time coach of Tiger Woods.
In hockey, I got cards of two of the greatest announcers of all-time in Mike “Doc” Emrick and ESPN’s Barry Melrose (also a very good player and coach) signed for me. I always enjoyed listening to them talk about the game.
One thing I like about Allen & Ginter is the randomness of who they make cards of, many with a touch on baseball history. In 2020, they made one of longtime St. Louis baseball writer Derrick Goold. A former Boy Scout and lifeguard, he had performed CPR on a man at Busch Stadium and helped save his life. Because of that, he got a card. He signed it and sent it back, along with a very nice note thanking me for asking him to sign it. He’s at the top of my list!
I too had sent a card off to Phil Coyne, the longtime Pirates usher, but he passed away before he had a chance to sign it. I wish I had sent it sooner.
Last year I came across a card of the Brooklyn Dodgers Ebbets Field from the 2014 set, and I sent it to Carl Erskine, who signed it for me.
Masanori Murakami was the first Japanese player to play in the majors when he signed with the San Francisco Giants in the early 1960s. He appeared in the 2024 set, so I mailed him one to Japan, and he signed it for me. These certainly top the list of my favorites.
A couple of years back at the Florida spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays, I struck up a conversation with a retired gentleman who was getting autographs from the visiting Baltimore Orioles as they completed batting practice before the game. He told me he was from a small town in Canada, not far from Toronto, and that he and his wife came down every year and spent the months of February and March in Dunedin following the Blue Jays around Florida. I noticed he was using mostly A&G cards and was getting them signed with an orange Sharpie.
“I love these cards. They are the best, with the light background, and the paper stock is perfect for these,” he said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a bag containing an assortment of different colored Sharpies. “I use the team colors on them; today it is orange for the Orioles and blue for the Jays. Tomorrow it might be black for the Yankees, red for the Cardinals, Phillies and Red Sox, orange for the Mets, blue for the Braves. Just whoever we are playing that day. The colors work on these cards, not so much on the others, and for them I usually use black.
“I started out years ago getting balls signed, but they take up too much room to display, so I switched to cards, preferably the Allen & Ginters if I can, my first choice. I’m looking for the more established players anyway. The younger guys, I don’t much know who they are like some of these guys here do.
“It works for me,” he said with a smile, as he took off to get the O’s Cedric Mullins. “I’ve got one of his cards,” he said, pulling out an Allen & Ginter.
So, if you are an autograph collector, I hope some of these thoughts and tips will help as you build your collection.
Hope to see you at a game!
— Barry Blair is an author/writer from Jonesborough, Tenn. You can reach him at barryblair54@gmail.com or check out his website rightfieldpress.com. He just published his fourth novel, ”The Biggest of Lies.”
