The winner for Best Baseball Trading Cards announced.

There are five nominees for Best Baseball Trading cards.  With Topps’ exclusive MLB license you would expect a clean sweep, but two other companies made it onto the list and for good reason.  Here are descriptions of the nominees for the All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award in the category of Best Baseball Trading Cards.

2010 Bowman Baseball

Solid design, chrome inserts and the card that made collecting headlines this year with one name, Strasburg, Bowman Baseball is a great product.  When you have a rookie class like this year, sets like these benefit.  Perhaps its not as flashy or unusual as other sets, but there is something to be said for a set that delivers time after time.

2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Baseball

This is the set for prospectors.  6 autos per box, 200 base card sets and hot boxes to be found, collectors willing to roll the dice on future players covet this set.

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter

With a wide variety of inserts, every thing from Regis Philbin to Zeus to Tony Hawk to Rip Cards to... oh yeah... some baseball cards too, this is still a fun set to collect, with “still” being the operative word.  Like a magician who repeats his tricks, Allen and Ginter runs the risk of losing some of its appeal next year, but for this year, it still holds up.

2010 Topps Baseball Series 1 & 2

The thing that pushed this set over the top this year was the Million Card Giveaway. A great base set and some solid inserts made this an easy choice for collectors.

2010 TRISTAR Obak Baseball

There is a lot to like about this set.  Nothing out there quite looks like this set.  With there matte finish and raw cardboard backs, these cards scream throwback.  Lots of hits, 4 autos per box, plenty of short prints, and parallels this is a fun box to open and collect.  If you are lucky enough, you can hit the case hot box with 35 hits and 10 autos.

And now… the All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award for Best Baseball Trading cards goes to:

We are going against the grain a little with this pick.  Look at almost any fan poll done and you see Allen & Ginter is the clear choice, but this year you can’t overlook what the Bowman line did for collecting in general.  And with the rookies in the set and the fact that these are the Rookie cards to have, we had to go with 2010 Bowman Baseball as our pick.