2020 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball Forum

This is a word of note to take heed for those who are putting this set together after I just bought a blaster box of the Retail. The Hobby version has a foil front, the Retail version does not. No mixing and matching between the two to make a good set, unless that doesn't bother you. So it appears as if a separate checklist is needed for the Retail version. Not sure if there are inserts that are Retail specific.

Are you sure you didn't open a hobby hot box which contain the Silver Portraits parallel instead of the base? I am not aware that there are two different base versions between retail and hobby.

The special hobby "hot boxes" contain some silver portraits, which are glossier than the standard cards. There are some inserts only available through the retail sets, but the checklists are already flagged appropriately for those.

Here is the link to those silver portrait cards:

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCollection.cfm/sid/243566?Filter=&sTeamID=

They have their own full checklist it appears.

Well, I guess my money wasn't that well spent on the hobby then. Because, yes, they were all like what you have stated. About 1/3 of the cards are off-centered and a Dansby Swanson auto for my hit. Oh, well.

Got a hobby box and all my minis where off center big time.

I guess it just depends on how you look it.  The foil versions are more rare because they only appear in hot boxes.  On the other hand, if you're trying to put together the base set then a hot box does you no good.  If you want to go the trading route, you might be able to get a better return if you're trading away foil cards.