Earlier this fall, I wrote about completing the Allen & Ginter N29 Champions set. While I’d made some good strides on the inaugural N28 set from a year earlier, it didn’t look like I’d be able to finish that one in 2024. But with the year’s end approaching, I grabbed the final two cards needed and now am pleased to say I’ve got all 100 cards from the iconic series.

When you look at the 19th century cards, there are many popular ones. Certainly, several are more valuable and more difficult to build. While all 100 cards in the two series’ do not make for a particularly easy set build, the reality is that of the substantive sports sets from the 1800s that are headed by baseball players, it is one of the few achievable ones.

While the cards remain popular, for many, it likely is not high on a bucket list of sets to complete. The card design and artwork are arguably second to perhaps only Goodwin’s N162 Champions set. But the reality is that both sets include a lot of subjects that are not well known. A lot of collectors will pursue a handful of cards or perhaps all of the baseball cards. But beyond that, few seem to care about a great majority of others, save for the likes of popular subjects, such as John Sullivan, Annie Oakley, or Buffalo Bill.

Still, to me, the set has always been amazing. There’s a reason that Topps revitalized the brand and issues annual Allen & Ginter sets today. Here’s a look back on my set build, which began at some point in 2018.

The Beginning(s)

I actually started building an N28 Allen & Ginter Champions set sometime in or around 2014. But after making it a little more than halfway, I sold those cards, along with many others, to sink my teeth into the T206 set back in 2015. It was an easy decision. I needed the money for other cards and while I’d made good progress, was still lacking almost all of the big cards from this set.

Fast forward to 2018. I’d completed the 520-card T206 set as well as T205, and was looking for some new projects. I couldn’t help but get sucked back into the Allen & Ginter cards.

Take two on the set made it seem like it would be an easy one. I picked up a total of 21 cards in that first year alone, making my set a little over 40% complete in a short amount of time.

The highlight of the year was adding this skinned but otherwise gorgeous card of Hall of Fame baseball player Tim Keefe.

But while I was feeling confident after that first year, I’d soon find out it would be a harder set build than I expected.

N29 Interruption

I kept chasing N28 in 2019 but my progress was impeded somewhat because I started to really collect the N29 set, too. Some of those cards with a similar style are shown here.

I picked up a few N29s in 2018, but didn’t really get into that second series much until the following year. And collecting both at once definitely made things a bit more difficult.

Despite that, I made pretty decent progress on my initial N28 set. I finished the year with 30 of the 50 N28 cards, picking up another nine that year, including some of the boxers and wrestlers. The key pickup was the card of Jack ‘Nonpareil’ Dempsey. This isn’t the Dempsey of the 20th century that most sports fans know. Instead, this was another fighter with that name — from which the later, more popular Dempsey actually took his name.

Overall, though, I was still in the same position I was before — a little more than halfway complete with most of the big subjects missing.

Covid Shutdown and Ensuing Slowdown

In 2020 when the pandemic struck, I really began shifting my collecting focus. I started picking up a lot more singles and working a lot less on sets. I also started getting significantly more into non-sports cards, which split my resources even more.

One thing I did, though, was continue to make good strides with my N28 set. But after Covid, I really took a break from N28. That wasn’t necessarily intentional. But I was running out of the cheaper cards to buy and was continuing to turn my attention to other things. One of those was completing the T207 set in 2021, which was a major milestone. I also attended the National for the first time that year and between plane tickets, a hotel, and other trip expenses, spent a good bit on cards that didn’t even include buying the actual cards.

Another reason for the interruption was trying to put a bow on the E90-1 American Caramel set (minus Shoeless Joe) and the complete E91 American Caramel series’, both of which I finished earlier this year.

How much was my N28 set build affected? Looking back through my records, I only picked up a total of four cards in 2021, 2022, and 2023

The highlight there was this card shown of Buffalo Bill, Bill Cody, one of the key non-baseball subjects. Cody is presented in the set as a champion rifle shooter, even if most would view him as a non-sports subject.

A Rebirth

I picked the project back up this year as I really wanted to avoid stalling out completely.

I entered this year with 41 of the 50 cards in the set. With the number of bigger subjects still needed, I didn’t anticipate being able to complete the N28 set before the year ended. But I was determined to try.

I started with low-grade copies of baseball players John Clarkson and Joe Mulvey, the latter a National pickup. In October, I grabbed Hall of Fame boxer Jake Kilrain, who was a particularly tough one to find at the price point I wanted. Kilrain was one of the last of the non-baseball players I needed.

The last few months were just a flurry, honestly. In September came the trio of Jack Glasscock, as well as Hall of Famers Charles Comiskey and John Ward.

November saw me add this PSA 2 of Annie Oakley, who is priced as a baseball player. Like Buffalo Bill, Oakley is included in the set as an ‘athlete’ for her legendary rifle shooting skills. And as part of Buffalo Bill’s wild west show, the pair appearing in the set together is a fitting honor.

The Conclusion

I’d made a really big push over the summer and fall with those baseball pickups to go along with the Oakley card. But I was still short the two biggest cards in the set and assumed I’d go into 2025 missing them.

But a King Kelly card appeared as a rare auction on eBay as opposed to the direct sale options, which had been the majority of what I was finding. As is often the case, I was able to snag a PSA 1 in an auction at a slightly lower price than the straight sale options I’d seen online elsewhere.

That still left me short the Cap Anson card, which is the big one in the set. But once I grabbed Kelly, I immediately began looking for an Anson. I’d seen, and passed on, a few earlier in the year. But I was motivated to go into next year focusing on other stuff, including the other two Champions sets (N162 Goodwin and N184 Kimball) as well as the new 1895 Mayo set I started this year.

While I typically target lower-graded examples to save money to buy more cards, I found this PSA 4 at a reasonable price, given what the cards typically sell for. That was enough to push me to grab it and wrap this set up. Similar to what I did with my N29 cards, I’ll add scans from my now-complete N28 set to the page shortly.

But before all of that, I’m sufficiently ready to take a break from this year before recharging and seeing what 2025 might hold.

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