Collector Stories | Allen & Ginter Non-Baseball Autos Completist

Tim Carroll’s Amazing Framed Mini Autograph Collection

Date: Nov 10, 2025

Author: Greg Bates

Topics: Allen & Ginter, Cards and Culture, Collector Stories

Length: 844 Words

Reading Time: ~5 Minutes

Tim Carroll already had a few Allen & Ginter Framed Mini Autographs when he noticed Harrison Ford was in the 2019 release. Chasing the legendary screen actor’s signed card ended up turning Carroll’s collecting habits in an entirely different direction.

While at the National Sports Collectors Convention that year, Carroll went on a quest to find an autographed Allen & Ginter card of Ford. It proved to be a difficult venture since they were so short-printed.

“I started thinking about, ‘Well, if they’ve got Harrison Ford on the checklist, what are some of the other cards in previous years that I’ve just kind of missed?’” Carroll says. “So, then I looked it up: Stan Lee, Pelé, Snoop Dogg. So, I jumped right in and started getting them.”

Heading into the 2025 Allen & Ginter release — which will mark the 20^th anniversary since Topps brought back the once-tobacco cards from the late 19^th Century — Carroll owns all 726 checklisted, non-baseball Framed Mini Autographs that have ever been produced.

The collector decided to go after all the Framed Mini Autographs, which aren’t numbered but are all short-printed. He likes having a uniform set, so that means no black frames and no red-ink signatures.

“It’s so fun,” says Carroll, who resides in Conway, S.C. “It’s such a fun little talking point when I have friends over, especially friends that are not collectors. When we’re sitting around and we run out of stuff to talk about, we pop open one of the [binders] and just start flipping through it.”

In his social circle, Carroll’s collection has become quite a crowd-pleaser. “They’re pointing out people that mean something to them that I just picked up for a couple of bucks and didn’t think anything about it,” he says. “It was just another addition to the collection that I didn’t already have. But to them, it’s more important than some of the big-name people.”

Completing the Allen & Ginter Framed Mini Auto Journey

Starting his project in 2019, it took Carroll just two years to pick up all 571 non-baseball Framed Mini Autograph cards that were produced from 2006 to 2021. Every year after, Carroll just has to add cards from the latest release.

Some cards have proven to be a lot more difficult to obtain. When Carroll finished the set, the Sarah Michelle Geller card was impossible to track down. Carroll believes there are Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans and other movie collectors who are holding onto the actress’s cards. A few other tough finds were juggler Anthony Gatto — who supposedly bought up as many of his autos as possible to sell at his shows — and Sylvester Stallone.

“These are the kinds of cards that get buried in collections from people that don’t actually collect sports cards, or even non-sports cards,” Carroll says. “They just like this certain skateboarder or something like that, then they put them in their collection and you never see them again. It becomes a challenge to go back through the years to get the ones that aren’t hot on the market at the moment.”

Two of Carroll’s favorite non-baseball Framed Mini Autographs both come from the 2014 set. Rapper Snoop Dogg and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain are extremely hard signatures to come by. Bourdain passed away in 2018, making his autographs extremely rare.

Perhaps Carroll’s most coveted Allen & Ginter autographed card, however, is of soccer icon Pelé.

“To me, he is like the perfect example of an Allen & Ginter Framed Mini Autograph —just the pose, the subject, the big, bold blue Pelé autograph right across the front,” Carroll says. “For some reason, it’s on the 2006 design instead of the 2013, but it’s within the 2013 frame. So, that makes it kind of unique. It just stands out. It’s just one that I’ve always loved.”

Carroll’s favorite Allen & Ginter set over the years? That’s easy: 2011, because of its star-studded checklist. It features the likes of George W. Bush, Manny Pacquiao, Stan Lee, and Guy Fieri.

“A lot of really strong people in the set, and I love the actual frame, too,” Carroll says. “It mimics the 2010 down to 2006. All those frames were basically the same pattern and design, but different colors were used.”

With his collection now up to date, Carroll has turned his attention to collecting the baseball Framed Mini Autographs. As of early August, he’d knocked out 1,114 of the 1,268 cards. The project keeps Carroll active while he awaits the next Allen & Ginter release. For him, the 20-year anniversary set will be a particularly special occasion.

“I’m excited. I’m ready to see all that they do for it,” Carroll says. “Does Topps pump up the 20^th or do they wait for the 25^th anniversary? I think there’s no time like the present. Celebrate it every year. It’s such an awesome brand.”