Two Collectors Share Their Passion
One of the major draws to Allen & Ginter products are rip cards.
For collectors who don’t know about these unique card variations, anyone who pulls a rip card out of a box faces the ultimate mix between dilemma and temptation. The person can keep this card intact—often, it’s a numbered card of a high-profile athlete—or tear it to reveal the contents inside. A mini card is usually hidden; depending on the Allen & Ginter year, it could be cash. Literally.
To rip or not to rip, that’s the question for any Ginter collector.
It’s an easy decision for Michael DeHaven: leave the original card intact. Not all collectors have even a fraction of the willpower possessed by DeHaven.
“I probably have 30 to 35 Rip Cards that are all unripped,” said DeHaven, a huge Allen & Ginter collector. “It drives everybody crazy. I’m like, ‘Listen, y’all keep ripping, because the more y’all rip, the more valuable these are going to get 10 years down the road when there’s not many left that are untouched.’”
When it comes to Allen & Ginter, DeHaven is not just drawn to the Rip Cards. He also loves the mix of baseball cards, non-sport athletes, and other elements, such as extinct animals and cloth cards.
“Some of my favorites are the relics of legends,” DeHaven said. “That’s what I like about Allen & Ginter: there’s more than just one insert or type of card to chase. You can be chasing a Mike Trout autograph, a Chuck Norris autograph, the leprechaun gold coin, or a dinosaur fossil.”
When the Allen & Ginter checklist is released every year, DeHaven studies it as if his real estate broker license depended on it. He takes the day off of work on release day and rips a case.
Since he buys so much product each year, DeHaven hand-collates two to three complete sets. He has done this every year since 2018.
DeHaven’s biggest pull this year was a Sandy Koufax mini framed autograph numbered to 25.
“I think this year has been my favorite year out of all the years,” DeHaven said. “They just did so many different inserts. They have a scratch-and-sniff card this year, which is super cool. I think the design of Allen & Ginter this year was the best they’ve done.”
Having His Own Card
When Topps premiered its Ginter Code promotion in 2008, Allen & Ginter collector Jason Wong was all in.
The Ginter Code was a chase to see who could collect all 20 code cards, put them in order, and decipher their meaning. The first collector to crack the code would receive their own trading card in the 2009 Allen & Ginter product.
Wong won the contest.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Wong said. “I always wanted to be on a baseball card.”
In the 15 years that have followed, Wong has become a monster Allen & Ginter collector. He has tracked down all of the parallels of himself, including his wood mini and one of the 10 cloth cards produced. Wong has gotten his hands on three of the four printing plates; he is only missing the magenta plate. (Collectors, he could use a little help tracking that down).
“I’ve been looking for that printing plate for 15 years,” Wong said. “It’s either in someone’s collection or a box somewhere.”
Along with collecting his cards, Wong’s major project is getting autographs of baseball and non-sport athletes who appear in the 2009 set. When the set came out, Wong counted 324 people with cards. Through in-person autographs, getting them through the mail (TTM), and buying them on the secondary market, Wong has amassed 105 autographed cards.
“It’s a daunting task,” Wong said. “But I think I’ve got some of the harder people. I’m still trying to get Jeter, and I’ve got two non-baseball people I can’t find.”
Being in the ’09 product himself, Wong feels a special bond with the other non-athletes in the set. Two of Wong’s favorite autographed cards are Method Man and Post Malone. Wong got Michael Phelps—a fellow Baltimorean—through TTM.
Wong is also big into making Allen & Ginter sets. He completed the run from 2006 to 2023 and is working on the 2024 set. He can’t get enough of his favorite product.
“A lot of people just collect baseball, and they don’t like Ginter because it has the non-baseball players in there. But that’s what I like about it,” Wong said.
