Buzz Break: 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter baseball cards

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The pack: 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter baseball cards (value)
First Buzz preview & checklist: Click here
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (for hobby)

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

Cards per pack: 14
Base set completion: 
7 of 300 (2 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Jayden Daniels, Mike Trout, Rafael Devers, Erika Thompson, Jose Siri, Francisco Lindor, Trea Turner

RC logo cards (1) – Colt Keith

Insert cards: 6 (all in gallery below with some base)
Short-prints (Nos. 301-350) (1) – Kyle Schwarber
Gold parallel (1) – Teppeo Teranishi
Chrome (1) – Babe Ruth
Flags Of The World (1) – Romania
Stars Of The Show (2) – Stump, Micah

Autographs/Memorabilia: None

What's Buzz-worthy: The very repetitive look here led me to just do a pair of packs of this year's edition -- and I'm not sure I'll do more unless bargain-bin time includes these later -- but I was about to eat crow after opening this pack and landing Daniels, Trout and the Ruth Chrome. Then, I flipped The Sultan of Swat to find that bad quality control got me again ... what could have been an A pack wasn't with fingernail dents, a horizontal impression line and a stronger vertical surface dent thanks to the minis pushing right up against this one ... a botched Bambino does me no good. A good card makes the damage even more of a bummer. The Daniels is a nice find but it wasn't enough on its own to get me back to an A with that Ruth ... and it was a reminder to how, while I wasn't a big fan of last year's Ginter it having ink from Victor Wembanyama and a few other non-baseball notables was likely stronger than this time among the longshot finds. As I said ripping last year, I did an all-time low of this brand previously and I've been a heavy buyer since its revival in 2006 ... but I still think this one needs a reboot, rebrand or maybe even a break. Last year was a better design for the brand -- but the waist-up/essentially mugshot photo on seemingly every card is, well, not all that appealing card after card after card. ... A new take on the 1880s tobacco card aesthetic works for baseball but I'm not sure a lot of the pop culture throw-ins here really make sense on that style as much as they might for a Finest set or something that has a lot of razzle/dazzle Refractor feel to it. It just feels off ... and I don't think this retro, Victorian-style look is a good mainstreaming feel to draw non-collectors into cards in the here and now. It just feels off once again. ... Hobby boxes once again include three hits -- sometimes that will be three Relics -- and then some chase stuff that can make for fun breaks if you go there. I, myself, would rather have consistency box to box and for the more-premium price for these boxes these days I'll play the broken record and note that this one really does need an auto in every hobby box. (A lot of the names can't be pricey signers to land, either.) Rip hobby boxes if you're chasing the elite stuff or get in on the Ginter X chase -- should be an auto per box there, though its price this year is much higher than usual.

Product Grade: B (same grade as last year, but 2023 seems better with Victor Wemanyama ink among finds)
Pack Grade: B (landed Daniels and a good Chrome card ... but it's damaged)
Fun Grade: C (see above)

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