So the other day I completed a small trade for some minis from Topps Allen & Ginter, as well as UD Goodwin Champions. Among them were two black border parallels — a 2009 Allen & Ginter Albert Pujols and a 2009 Goodwin Joe Mauer. These two cards reminded me of a thought I had late last year — are Goodwin minis underrated?
Allen & Ginter gets a lot of love because people dig A&G with a passion. But what about Goodwin? Sure, it has been treated as an A&G knockoff, but truth is UD’s Goodwin line is a rendition of an old tobacco brand, just like Topps’ A&G.
The thing I like about the Goodwin cards is that there is a sense of realism about them. Aside from the cloudy background, UD used actual pictures on their cards, where as Topps’ ran the images through a filter on some photo editing software to get this artistic feel.
I suppose it’s a matter of taste; there really is no wrong answer as to which is better because they both are good-looking cards. I just think that Goodwin may not have gotten the credit it was due. Afterall, UD’s brand was cheaper and did have minis of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Alex Ovechkin and Smarty Jones last year — all of which look pretty damn cool if you ask me.
cardboardicons.com 