2015 Gypsy Queen - I Shall Build Thee

It dawned on me the other day that I was much more passionate about new release cards back in 2011. Inspired by the pending arrival of my son that July, I had just gotten back into our glorious hobby after nearly two decades of complete cardboard nothingness. Essentially, I collecting like a chicken with his head cut off those first few months back in the fray. I was buying a little of this and a little of that but buying some of everything that came out. Unfortunately, this didn't last long enough to include 2011 Topps Update (TROUT!), but that's another discussion.

To show for my economic contributions, I am very proud to have a complete, hand-collated "birth year" set of 2011 flagship and Archives for my son to flip through one day and enjoy (or trade for a video game, or sell for beer money, whatever path he takes). I am also darn near close to completing the Heritage and Gypsy Queen sets from that year - with one and twelve cards remaining, respectively. Check out my NEEDS list and see if we can help each other! Not too bad though, overall.

But as you can divulge from my posts over the years since, my personal collecting habits have begun to steer away from modern releases. There's a myriad of reasons - some quite empirical while others are a bit more philosophical. It can be expensive to complete sets, pack by blaster by pack. Especially when you can just drop a little over $20 and bring entire Series home with no collating fuss and shipping included. The sellers usually even throw in a nice box. It's quite the inner conflict for this Collector, I assure you.

Because I still like to open packs of baseball cards!

There's still that rush to be had and, truth be told, there are still some pretty cool cards being made from a design perspective. The return on investment has become awfully risky, but there's no doubting the quality of photography and overall card construction for most sets...for the most part.

Enter son #2.

My family welcomed our third child into the world back in March, It's been a glorious, chaotic and beautiful circus ever since as we figure out life as a family of 5. I wouldn't trade it for the world! And since I'm a fair and just father (or at least strive to be), I can't help but look upon those great hand-collated sets from 2011 in my Card Cave. And then I look at what I'm doing for my youngest...and then I feel the itch to right the wrong....

And then I find myself in the card aisle at Target with a blaster of 2015 Gypsy Queen in my hand!

Yep. I'm at it again - officially, I'm announcing that I will be pursuing the complete base set of 2015 GQ for my kid. I have a long way to go after only (6?) or so rack-packs, but I figure that I have some time. I'm not sure if I'll chase all of the SP's like I did in 2011. I can't afford to make the rookie mistake again of buying all GQ blasters in the state, as much as I'd like to...and that's okay. I think everyone will understand.

In the meantime, it was a lot of fun to rip some packs and explore the latest edition of a set that is very sentimental to me. Here's a quick glance at some of my favorites:

The Shelby Miller represents what is probably my biggest "hit" of the rack packs, being a #'d /199 mini parallel. I'm a Braves fan, so this was a nice little bonus and the GQ mini's have slowly earned my appreciation over the years. I wish I could go back to 2011 when I amassed a considerable portion of a complete set of mini's. I didn't really understand what they were or how special it would have been to gather the whole run, so I ended up trading many away. That's okay - all part of the process.

BOOM! The next best thing to pulling a Brave is pulling THE Brave that managed to elude the Atlanta front-office rebuilding cyclone last off season and one of my top Player Collections - Freddie Freeman! This mini is a great addition and I can't wait to "binderize" the Freeman stack that sits atop the Card Cave table of chaos. Here's a look at the back of these cards, because I really love the GQ backs, despite their stat-less existence:

I thought this was a pretty cool insert as well:

Undoubtedly a vintage, throw-back insert set that I need to go research on Cardboard Connection, I enjoy the simplistic old-time feel of this art card. It's also a mini parallel, so unless I decide to go all out for mini completion, I might end up swapping this one out for regular sized cards that I need for my set-building efforts. Here's the back, so that we can all learn about "Crowding the plate":

Moving on from the smaller cards, here is a regular-sized insert card of Robbie Cano entitled, "Pillars of the Community". What a great concept for a baseball card! We're often inundated with only the very worst news and stories regarding our diamond heroes but Topps has decided to swim upstream and provide an encouraging look at some charitable efforts being made by ball players in their teams' communities.

Concept aside, this is a beautiful card. The image of Seattle is really sharp and means a little bit more to me as a former resident. I wonder if there was a discussion about working SAFECO Field into the background? In the end, I believe the Space Needle works better as the most iconic landmark for the Emerald City. At least they didn't go with the original Starbucks, am I right?

Here's the back of the "Pillars" Cano card:

I first noticed "celebration" and "walk-off" cards in the Opening Day and flagship sets a couple of years ago and I was immediately a fan. I think these types of cards capture the best parts of baseball - teamwork, family, competition, achieving your goal, having fun, etc. I think the concept works well in the Gypsy Queen format and this Royals card is a great example. Like the Pillars card above, I can't wait to see other cards from this insert set. Enjoy:

As I've mentioned before, I enjoy cards that pay tribute to a specific game or event and take care to match relevant images with relevant card-back write-ups. This GQ Walk-Off Winners card delivers on both accounts when I flipped this card over:

Part of the marketing effort by Topps includes the "bonus" pack of white-bordered parallel cards that accompany each rack pack. Sometimes these annoy me - other times, they look really nice and end up serving as excellent TTM material. I admit, the crisp white borders do look pretty nice - and are always welcome when they surround a new Mike Trout card:

Here's another white parallel that I thought looked awfully sharp:

In addition to the Freddie shown above, I had another great pack-ripping moment when I pulled an Anthony Rizzo base card! Yes, I am old and still get excited about base cards of my favorite players - no shame in my collecting game. Of course, now I need another one if I am going to "finish the race" and set this one aside for my son's set. Good thing I love the little guy :)

Here's the back - are the GQ card-back write-ups getting shorter? I know they were always succinct by design, but this one seems fairly random (which I do appreciate) and sparse at only four lines with additional blank space to be had towards the bottom. Thoughts?

Okay, so I have some work ahead of me to get my 2015 GQ NEEDS List posted, but hopefully I can stay the course and make a best effort to pull together some nice birth year sets for my youngest boy. Feel free to drop me a note if you think we can work out a swap. Long live set-building!

Thanks for reading -

Ryan

 

It's Finally Here!

Last year was my first year back in the hobby for more than 20 years.   It's been an interesting ride since last spring as I've dabbled here and there with the various releases available.   Some I liked, some I have decided to pass on.   One of my favorite cardboard blogosphere quotes definitely come to mind:

"Collect What You Like" - 30YOC

For me, last year's Gypsy Queen offering was my favorite!   I'm not sure why, but the artist-rendering effect and retro-design was very appealing to me.   The card stock is nice and thick.   The combination checklist of past stars, current veterans and rookies just seemed right.   The middle-of-the-road set count of 300 was manageable and the 50 SPs was a little easier to tackle than the 75 SPs of Heritage.   I had far more luck with 'hits' in blasters and retail packs of GQ than any other release and the 5 insert sets (Great Ones, Wall Climbers, Sticky Fingers, Home Run Heroes and Future Stars) rounded it out nicely as they too struck a good balance for me between the challenges of chasing and completing.   Speaking of which, I still have a few more remaining on the NEEDS list - let me know if you can help me out!

All of this is a little curious, too.   Yes, the GQ set appeals to my set-building nature in some ways.   But it is fairly short at only 300 base cards.   Why would I favor this set over the Dual Series + Update flagship release?    I also like to read the backs of cards and appreciate a full set of stats or some nifty little cartoons.   I'm not going to find either of those with Gypsy Queen!   There's limited cards per team to show current rosters in lieu of sharing some space with legends from the old days.   This could drive me a little nuts as I have become infinitely more familiar with and interested in the full rosters for pretty much every club - thank you, fantasy baseball.

I know.   It's completely illogical. 

But here we are, one year later with the 2012 release!

Well yes, naturally, there's a Yankee on the box.

It's the one I've been waiting for.   Its release date is officially tomorrow, but the cards have already flooded the Bay of E.   I haven't perused the listings though.   I want to form my own opinion of the cardboard when it's in-hand.   If the 2012 edition is anywhere close to the rookie release, I'll be happy!

I'm wondering if it's already hit the shelves of the local Target?   I bet it has.   The April 18th release date had dropped off my radar.   I had anticipated Heritage's release and scooped up some early wax the day before.   How did my favorite set sneak up on me?

Life and work and, heck - baseball itself has kept me busy lately.   Some rounds of golf.   Some good times this spring with friends and family.   My VERY fortunate trip to the Final Four.   Bubba's victory at the Masters.   My incredible kids and amazing wife.   The backyard fire pit and the 'ol smoker grill.   I've had and am currently in the middle of several trades with many of you......thank you for your patience, guys.....lots of things going on - great things*!   And what could be better along with all of that than a pleasant little surprise reminder that GQ is back again.  

I'm hoping to make a stop by the Big Box du jour and pick some up soon and I look forward to seeing what everybody else thinks of it, too!

Until then - good luck and if you're into Gypsy Queen like I am, may your HITS be amazing!   Let's bust some wax!

Thanks for reading!


*Disclaimer: List of "Great Things" is not necessarily in any order of priority :)
 

First Return for the 1st Annual Spring TTM Experiment

I knew it.

I just had a feeling that there would be one of those glorious little SASE's waiting for me on the counter when I got home from work today.   An inkling, perhaps?.....(cheesy pun TOTALLY intended)

And there it was...

Don't worry - I was the animal that caused THAT tear!

Who could it be?   Probably one of the lesser-known players, right?   Somebody who might have had a little more time, maybe a bit more patience or excitement about receiving TTM requests in the first few days of their first or second time at camp.

I let the cards inside gently slide out into my hands.

"My God..."  I whispered to no one in particular.   Here's what dropped out:

500 Saves is SO 100 Saves Ago

My Kind of Art

                



















Thank you, Mr. Rivera!

That's right - the most successful closer of all time spent a few moments to sign my cards.   This wasn't supposed to happen.   I focused most of my efforts on preparing requests for the more 'probable' responders off of the Bombers' and others' spring rosters.   I had sent to Rivera before, during the off season in late 2007.   I had mailed off a Game Program from Yankee Stadium that I had held on to since my first and still ONLY visit to the Bronx in 2000-ish.   Mo was on the cover - it was going to look AWESOME.

It never came back.

That's okay.   I knew Rivera was a 'big name' and that the volumes of mail he probably received would be working against me.   So it was that I finished his letter a few weeks ago, with that "...might as well, because you never know" eternal optimism that I seem to be cursed/blessed with.   The cards I chose were kind of random, as you can see.   My choices were slim as I hadn't been back in the hobby long enough to amass too many Mo's for the collection.   But I liked the layout, background and balance of the Peak Performance card from 2010.   It marked a pretty solid milestone and it would look pretty cool with a signature across the front.

Same thing for the Gypsy Queen green-border parallel.   I am normally indifferent to parallels but I was enamored with almost all aspects of the GQ release last year, these greenies included.   This Rivera was beautiful to me as an artsy rendition of his classic delivery with a border and background color scheme that just worked.   It too would look fairly solid with some ink across the middle......if I ever even saw these cards again, that is.

But here they are, and I think they turned out beautifully!   These are my first autographs of Mariano Rivera.

This might very well be Mo's last season in the game he has dominated so effortlessly.  Ironically, he might be handing the reigns of Yankee Closer to my latest favorite player and PC quest - David Robertson - or somebody else, at the end of this year.   So this might have been the last shot before years of potential chance run-ins at shows or auctions.   How poetic!

Thank you, Mr. Rivera.   Thank you for your contributions to the team I live and die with every season.   Thank you for your contributions to the game of baseball and all of those epic moments in your career that are memories for me.   Let's make a few more!

Okay....I'm done with my drama  :)

The first return for STTM1 is in the books, ladies and gentlemen!   Who will be next?

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!