Buzz Break: 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter X baseball cards

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The box: 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter X baseball cards
Checklist: Click here
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com

Keep reading for a full breakdown of what was in this one as well as a gallery of highlights.

Packs per box: 18
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 142
Base set completion: 
115 of 300 (42 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Ken Griffey Jr., Hank Aaron, Ken Jeong, Ty Cobb, Pete Alonso, Cody Bellinger, Lou Gehrig, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Roger Maris, Warren Spahn, Albert Pujols, J.K. Dobbins, Freddie Freeman, Eddie Murray, Jacob deGrom, Joe Morgan, Jim Abbott, Mike Piazza, Stan Musial, Cal Ripken Jr., Ivan Rodriguez, Willie Stargell, Buster Posey, Carlton Fisk, Frank Thomas, Todd Helton, Robin Yount, Kris Bryant, Dave Winfield, Ryne Sandberg, Eddie Mathews, Shohei Ohtani, Mark McGwire, Tony Gwynn, Alex Rodriguez, Juan Marichal, Courtney Hansen, Craig Biggio, Andre Dawson, Juice Tandron, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Carl Yastrzemski

Rookie Cards (10) – Luis Robert, Bo Bichette, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Lewis, Nico Hoerner, Aristides Aquino, Jesus Luzardo, Abraham Toro, Brendan McKay, Shun Yamaguchi

Insert cards: 26 (a sampling of everything in gallery below)
Short-prints (9) – Larry Walker, Fred McGriff, Mark Grace, Sean Casey, Cecil Fielder, Luis Aparicio, Phil Niekro, Bernie Williams, Monte Irvin
Mini parallel (15) – Bo Bichette, Jackie Robinson, J.K. Dobbins, Albert Pujols, Reggie Jackson, Ty Cobb, Willie McCovey, Nick Castellanos, Tommy Edman, Manny Machado, Dansby Swanson, Lucas Giolito, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Julian Edwards, Nyjah Huston
Mini short-prints parallel (2) – Thurman Munson, Bill Mazeroski

Autographs/Memorabilia: 1
Silver Framed A&G X Autographs (1) – David Cone (/20)

What's Buzz-worthy: Ginter X is an online-exclusive staple of sorts for several years now and it's one that typically includes one autograph and often (at least in my experience in past years) a numbered mini per box but that last part may not be the case this year. I had a couple packs with with two minis inside and then three that didn't and with one of those packs being the hit pack (typically one base card short) that means the math adds up to I was missing one mini ... could it have been the good one? While that's one of those things I'll wonder about in the short-term, I was very pleased to see the name Bo Bichette on the back of the first pack I opened and that same pack had Yordan Alvarez on the front -- a sign that I was going to be a bit pleased here on the RC front ... and I was. Luis Robert made an appearance later and others of note on the checklist pretty much showed up making this one a solid box. Pulling a Bichette mini after that also was a big plus for me. My auto arrived a bit early in this box and it was a silver-framed auto (/20) which thankfully avoided the metallic inks this year (some rarer versions have it). The silver is the standard version here with black (/10) and then metallic inks. David Cone is probably somewhere in the lower middle of the spectrum for autos I'd want here but it's better than some others here and looks good compositionally. I'm not a big fan of the black borders with the chippy stock -- that's been a rough spot for me through the years -- that can have corner and edge tweaks easily right out of the pack but the general value if you land a big auto here, it's still a win. All in all, I think the RCs and that Bo mini bailed out my one-mini-short box here and while my SPs were pretty rough my overall run of mini cards here (that included two SPs) was very solid ... and that's another big reason I typically rip into Ginter every year.

Product Grade: A-
Box Grade: A-
Fun Grade: B

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