THE ATHLETIC: Our favorite cards in 2024 Allen & Ginter: From Westminster winners to chicken tenders and bees
When you open a pack of baseball cards you can usually be certain of what you’ll find inside: baseball cards. But with Topps’ annual Allen & Ginter set, you might also find a card featuring a piece of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries’ wedding menu in it. Or one autographed by the Invisible Man. Or an Egg card.
It is arguably the most imaginative and fun major sports(ish) trading card release each year, and the 2024 edition is no different. Yes, it includes hundreds of cards depicting baseball stars past and present (from Paul Skenes to Babe Ruth as a member of the Boston Red Sox), plus big names from a variety of other sports, like Jayden Daniels and Katie Ledecky, but there’s also a mix of celebrities, entertainers and also journalists — like The Athletic’s own Dianna Russini, who has base cards, autographed cards and relic cards in the set.
“The Allen and Ginter set is from the late 1800s,” says Topps senior vice president of product, Clay Luraschi. “What it did was it paid tribute to the world’s champions. The original set had a group of baseball players in there, boxers, weightlifters, etc. (Ed. note: There was also a “World’s Dudes” set.) And we were inspired by that because we thought it was really unique. It also had a really interesting design. It was back in the late 1800s when they were making tobacco cards. This was one of the sets that people considered to be an important piece in trading card history. So in 2006, (Topps) picked up the brand and started releasing the products under the name…