Be Good At Gifting
There’s always an Allen & Ginter elephant, if needed
One of the great unspoken but understood secrets of the holiday season is this: nobody is good at White Elephant gifts. You’re either “holy crap, who bought this?” amazing or simply “terrible.” There is no in-between. But we’re here to help you be the former. All gifts in this guide are between $20-40, which is right in that price range/limit for this fun but stressful gift-giving (and receiving) tradition.
Gifts Under $20 | Gifts $20 -$25 | Gifts $25 – $30
Gifts Under $20
Topps Living Set Fine Art Print #783 – Buck Leonard
If you poke around enough on the Topps site, you’ll find some dusty corners with very cool hidden gems. This is a 10×14” print on really nice stock, and the picture is fantastic. Buck Leonard had a .346 lifetime average, was a Negro League All-Star almost every year he played (even at age 40, in his final season), and… do you need more to grab this for under $20? Look at it.
If you need to up the price range a little, grab a frame at Michael’s, wrap it up, and hope someone in your office appreciates the aesthetics.
Topps Living Set Fine Art Print #600 – Lou Gehrig
We promise this isn’t going to be just a list of Living Set FIne Art Prints. But this Lou Gehrig piece captures The Iron Horse in a pose and moment we never really get to see. His “iconic” moment is a black and white speech, you rarely get to see him just being a relaxed ballplayer.
2022/23 Bowman Chrome University Basketball pack
This could end up being a massive disappointment… or a wonderful surprise. You’ll have to include a note with this saying the recipient could get a Caitlin Clark or Victor Wembanyama—or even a JuJu Watkins or Lauren Betts… the possibilities are endless! But a hobby box now is $400+, and blasters are out of reach at around $100 each, so we turn our gaze to a single pack—maybe two if you find the right price at your local hobby shop or online. The thrill will be there—maybe they’ll even open it up on the spot.
Anything you can find from the Topps Vault
The Topps Vault was a collection of signed contracts, photo negatives, and other cool materials related to old cards. For this one, you’ll have to hope you have a collector in your White Elephant group because it’s obscure, but ultimately really awesome memorabilia. You can search online for a wide variety of possibilities; we suggest the negatives—it doesn’t even matter which player it is (which should help keep the price low).
Gifts $20 – $25
2024 Topps Chrome Tennis – Value Box
You never know who might love tennis in your group of gift exchanges. But even if they don’t, this is still a nice box to sit and open—Chrome cards “feel” important and heavier than you expect, and even the most casual sports fan will recognize a couple of names from this product.
2020 Big League Baseball Collector Box
Once again, know your group, but this is one of the more unique boxes Topps has put out in recent memory, as you get a set of really great—looking and colorful cards PLUS a Super 7 3.75” “action figure” of a baseball player. It’s a “pure fun” twist that should go over well because the figurine is something you don’t see every day—and it feels like a value add that would push this gift to the high end of the spending limit.
1989 Topps Baseball Coins (Unopened Box)
Yes, this is another nostalgia play! But it’s so much more. Topps coins are a forgotten fun piece of collecting — they feel good in your hand, they clang around in your pocket, you can fidget with them, and the winner can pass some packs around after pulling the box at the exchange. You might be surprised at how people will marvel at the players they had forgotten, the late-’80s haircuts, and even the general coolness of the product. It’s not just a fun gift for you to go home and open up (and then give to your kids to serve as a monetary system for their play kitchen); it’s also a fun thing to pass around while the party is still going.
Gifts $25 – $30
Garbage Pail Kids Series 4 (1986) rack pack
You can smell the old Kay-Bee Toy Store just by looking at this, right? Not everyone will love Garbage Pail Kids — and you may even be in a gift exchange where they don’t know what they are. But chances are there will be someone in that group who sees the nearly 40-year-old rack pack and will stop at nothing to swap their gift out for it. They may even negotiate for it after the swap has ended. To a certain group of participants, this rack pack is a show-stopping “where did you find this??” bit of unparalleled nostalgia.
