Some 2011 Gypsy Queen Help from the Daily Dimwit!

Sam over at The Daily Dimwit was kind enough to send over a few cards that I needed for my 2011 Gypsy Queen collection.   Sam and I both share a love of that set, the very first of the Gypsy Queen releases.   It holds a special place in my collecting heart as THE first cards that purchased when returning to the hobby after a 20+ year hiatus.   If only I had stashed away a few more blasters......

Sam has an AMAZING close master set of 2011 Gypsy Queen.   Relics, framed mini's, mini's, parallels, autographs.....ALL OF IT.   He lacks only a couple of white whales, and by that I mean cards like the Koufax autograph, Hank Aaron auto, etc.   It's incredible and a true testament to the set-builder and collector that Sam is.   Sam's also just a good guy....one of the first that welcomed me into our modern hobby digital community.

I made the mistake of not holding on to all of my mini cards.   I still have a bunch, but as I was not quite sure how to handle these odd-sized micro cards (no such thing existed in my previous collecting life?!), I sent off many of them to good homes in the form of trades or goodwill packages.

That being said, I was all about the insert sets and SPs.   In fact, I wasn't even quite sure what a "SP" was, but I think this may have worked in my favor.   Kind of an 'ignorance is bliss' sort of event.   I never got frustrated over how challenging it was to find these 50 cards, I simply kept hunting as a happy, numerically and linearly-inclined set-builder.

Man, those were the days!

Anyways, I still need a couple inserts and SPs but thanks to Sam, I can now cross these off the list.   Thanks, Sam!

OH, did I leave a glare on Buchholz's card or is that just a foreign substance?

2013 Gypsy Queen: The Verdict & Trade Lists

I won't be collecting the 2013 Gypsy Queen base set.

Don't get me wrong, I picked up a blaster and enjoyed my packs.   No wait....they were out of blasters.   I snagged three "rack" packs....of packs.....not that it matters.   I enjoyed checking the set out.   There was a healthy dose of inserts and parallels throughout and I even pulled a Mattingly base card!   Yep, I was mystified as to why the previous two editions of GQ blacklisted The Hit Man and even tweeted to @ToppsCards about it.   Obviously, they listened to Ryan's Pitch and decided to include him in this year's release.   I'm ecstatic to make it the latest addition to my Mattingly PC!

The cards were sorted and reviewed.   By yours truly, so it was pretty technical.

I've set aside a few cards for my collection - mostly Braves, Yankees and a few legacy stars.   But otherwise, the base card design just didn't do it for me.   I don't necessarily hate it.   Remember, the 2011 Gypsy Queen set was what welcomed me back into the hobby a couple of years ago ( my goodness!?).   I pursued it with reckless abandon and flip back through my (almost complete!) master set on a regular basis.   I dig the artistic nature of the cards' pictures and I really enjoy the mixture of current and past players.   It's just that...the design of the cards aren't that much different, and I just don't think they have enough color.   Or the right color, I guess, as the '11 versions were strictly tan and black:  

Gateway Set

Yeah, I don't get it either - I just enjoy the 2011 design much more.   This latest attempt just seems more cheap and bland.   And that's fine - you can't win them all.   We'll try again next year.

In my opinion, Topps got it right with the initial release as far as base, relics, inserts and production numbers are concerned.  

Hawkish

They took a step back last year with some inserts that just didn't appeal to me and a design that was so-so.   There seemed to be a lot more "blah" names on the relic and autograph list, too.   But I chased it anyways and have almost completed the base set.

Just.....no.

This year, I think the inserts are spectacular for the most part and I will actually try to collect a few of them: "No Hitters", "Sliding Stars" and "Collisions at the Plate".   I'm really glad that Topps brought back the 'Sliding Stars' inserts.   I still dig them and the 'Collisions' was a great idea.

  

 

Therefore......I don't need all of the cards I have but I need some that I don't!   The cards below are "For Trade" and can be yours if you need them - just let me know!   If possible, I'd really like to swap them for cards I need.  

Here's the situation:

For Trade

Base:                    4, 7 (Mike Schmidt SP), 25, 43, 52, 59, 68, 88, 105, 129, 153, 165, 206, 214, 235,
                             241, 256, 261, 278, 338, 343, 345

White Parallel:     Ben Revere (269), Alex Gordon (141), Darwin Barney (341), Jemile Weeks (214),
                             David Wright (37), Yonder Alonso (173), Chris Capuano (241)

Mini:                    CJ Wilson (224), Vida Blue (157)

Black Mini /199:  Alex Rios (65/199, #114)



Dealing Aces:      Stephen Strasburg, David Price

Glove Stories:      Manny Machado

Cards I Need 

Sliding Stars: Austin Jackson, Adam Jones, Andrew McCutchen, Bryce Harper, Carlos Gonzalez,
                       Derek Jeter, Jason Heyward,  Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Ozzie Smith,
                       Prince Fielder, Rickey Henderson

Collisions at the Plate:   McCann, Posey, Fisk, Carter, Bench, Montero, Rosario, Molina

No-Hitters:   Feller, Hunter, Abbott, Santana, Weaver, Millwood, Ryan, Humber, Halladay, Koufax,
                     Spahn

For Yanks & Braves Team Sets, here is what I have (below).   I will gladly take any that I don't have and any parallel version from my favorite teams!

Yanks

A-Rod (#6), Ivan Nova (#21), Paul O'Neill (#316)

Braves

Chris Johnson (#195), Craig Kimbrel (#257), Tim Hudson (#344)

Yanks & Braves Mini's & Parallels

Mariano Rivera (#86)


Thanks for reading guys - have a great weekend!

You Never Know!

Greetings and salutations, my friends!   I've missed you all over the past.........well, it's been too long.   And before that, too few and far in between posts.

But no moping because there's no crying.....in......you know how it goes.

It was a great baseball season and, even though none of my personal favorites contended in the Fall Classic - it was a powerful finish for the Black and Orange.   Hats OFF to them and congratulations to my fellow bloggers who are Giants fans through and through.   It must have been a great roller-coaster ride!

Of course, one of the best highlights from the series for most of us was the historical performance by Pablo Sandoval in Game 1.   It set the tone for the Giants' ultimate victory and places a guy we all call "Panda" in some pretty esteemed World-Series-Game-Home-Run-Hitting company.   How cool is that?   I watched it unfold on TV as Mrs. Ryan's Pitch sat nearby.   I caught her attention to clue her into what was going on.   She's not a baseball nut like me but she enjoys the game and understands my obsession.   We both marveled at the moment...

Continuously checking my twitter feed and adding in my own 140-character nuggets as "@RyansPitch", I suddenly looked off into the distance.

"Wait a second...."

I ran plodded down to the basement and began a reckless search for a piece of cardboard that I had suddenly been inspired to think that....maybe, just maybe.......I actually had in my collection.   I scattered boxes and binders and loose-card stacks all over while I looked for a certain box.    Along with the original epiphany of this particular card, a new theme began to cultivate in my synapses:

"Organize your damn collection, lazy!"

I promised myself that I would.   Later.

AH!

Found it.   YES!   I knew it to be true.....I had pulled this card out of a blaster during my "Ryan's Spring" in 2011 when I dove back into our hobby.   It was awesome, simply because it was an autograph and autographs on cards in packs was a complete revelation to me as a born-again collector (can I say that?).   But it was of a player I wasn't that crazy about.....he didn't wear pinstripes or do the Tomahawk Chop....so it went in its top-loader and was placed into THIS stack instead of THAT stack and eventually forgotten.   Doomed to rest in peace until it was handed over to my son one day with a, "Behold.........my son."

But I had to wake it up and enjoy its....new found importance in the collection.   Cards have stories to tell.  Sometimes it's the picture on the front.   Other cards tell their best stories through stats on the back or a hand-written scribble by some kid from decades past.   Mostly, our cards will speak to us about the players they depict - the inherent purpose for their existence, after all.   And now, this card's story - like the man who signed it - will have an even sweeter story to tell.

We all love "pulls" and it's kind of neat when a "pull" enjoys an increase in "mojo" over time.

Enough words in quotation marks.   Here's The Panda:

Loopy On-Card Greatness

Man, I miss 2011 Gypsy Queen.   It was the release that brought me back into the collecting fold.  I thought it was pretty damn cool and as it turns out......it still is.   I hope Topps can re-capture what they had because further review of the sophomore release only heightens my disappointment and "meh" attitude towards it.

Pandas and GQ aside - it's great to be back.

Thanks for reading!