Did I Mention Gypsy Queens?

I had an incredible time opening up some Gypsy Queens a few weeks back and swung back through Big D's Sports Cards during my delicious day out last week.  I did pick up a really cool Gypsy Queen patch of Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello, but I also decided to try a little more Gypsy Queen.  Here's a run down of my box, which was nice, but was not quite as good as my previous boxes.  Is the bar too high?  Maybe. 

Gypsy Queen boxes have two relics and and two autographs.  My two relics were pretty ho hum, but I was pleased to see a copy of former Durham Bulls star Alex Cobb in my pair of relics.  Elvis is okay too. The Andrus is a mini framed relic while the Cobb is just the regular relic card.  Neither card is serial numbered. 

My autographs were hit and miss with one really cool pull and another autograph that was a duplicate from my first box.  The duplicate was Jeremy Hefner who is currently not playing after undergoing Tommy John surgery and then was non-tendered by the Mets.  Heffner was a pretty good pitcher for Buffalo in the International League in 2012 posting a 2.77 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 9 starts, so maybe he will bounce back somewhere later this summer. 

My other autograph was the real prize out of this box of Gypsy Queens:

This Adam Jones autograph is limited to just 25 copies.  He also seems to be one of those players who signs a lot, but I never seem to land a card of the O's talented outfielder.  I love the darker frame and the on-card autograph is sweet.  This card is a keeper all the way.  Outside of the Jones autograph I did manage to pull two other cool cards out of the box.  Both of the same player.....

 

This is the regular Jose Abreu rookie card which is a short printed high number card.  If you have not checked out Abreu this year he is having a great year playing first base for the White Sox.  At this moment he is battling Albert Pujols for the American League lead in home runs.  "You can put it on the board"

I also managed to pull a copy of Jose Abreu's miniature card from the Gypsy Queen box.  This copy is the variation of the mini which features Abreu wearing the White Sox Sunday Softball Specials.  Why is there not a picture of Lamar Hoyt airbrushed into the background? 

Amazing Day of Gypsy Queens

I stopped by my favorite local card shop in Raleigh, Big D's Sports Cards, to open up some Gypsy Queen boxes.  Topps released Gypsy Queen this past Wednesday, but with family in town, it took me a few days to make it into the card shop to check out the newest version of this annual popular Topps release.  Jimmy at Big D's picked up a pair of cases of Gypsy Queen.  My two boxes were pretty amazing.  Small details first:

The base set is the typical Gypsy Queen product that Topps has issued over the past several of years with this product.  The base set is 350 with about 50 short printed cards which are generally the high numbered cards and a few singles scattered throughout the set.  The shortest of short prints appears to be the Tanaka card.  I did not pull a copy of the Tanaka rookie card, and out of the boxes that had been opened in the card store, only one copy had been pulled.  The Gypsy Queen set also features it's usual run of minis.  I pulled six black minis and a sepia mini in my two boxes. 

All of the Black Minis are numbered to 199 and the Sepia mini is numbered to 50.  Jimmy also traded a few minis with me and I also picked up a nice copy of the black Stan Musial and the Adam Wainwright.  I will probably try to pick up a few more of the black framed minis of the Cardinals and maybe a few of the Rays. 

On to the good hits.  Each box of Gypsy Queen should have four hits: two autographs and two relics.  I definitely beat the odds with my box.  Here are my autographs from my first box:

Nothing too great there.  KIckham and Hefner might both potentially be Major Leaguers at some point, but they are not probably going to be anything too great.  Kickham did go to Missouri State.  Connection, kind of...  I also was happy to pull a copy of a Bourjos jersey card with a picture of the Cardinals new center fielder in his new jersey. 

Really happy to pull the Bourjos card.  I had seen a few of these floating around this week and was really eager to add one of these to my collection.  Always nice when you can just pull one out of a box.  Now, for my good hits from the first box which more than make up for the fact that I did not get a second relic card. 

This is the first of my two good hits from my first box.  The plate is the mini Cyan of Dodgers right handed pitcher Zach Greinke.  Pretty nice looking card, but I actually landed a nicer card than this one in my box. 

This Shleby Miller Texas flag patch was my favorite card I pulled out of this box.  The card is serial numbered out of 5 and features a cool flag patch of Miller's home state.  Gypsy Queen has done a few insert sets with flags before in the past, but never with patches and never limited to just 5 copies.  Throw in the fact that the card features a Cardinals player and I am extremely happy with this pull.

Now, I did get a second box of cards, and while the first box was really good, the second box was really cool too.  In fact, the Miller card was the highest serial number (out of 5) of any of the extra hits I landed in my two boxes of Gypsy Queen.  So, my first move in opening my second box was to bust open the small box of minis on top of the box.  My second box was a little short on mini because this card was in the box...

 

I have never pulled a button card, so landing this Greinke was really sweet.  The card is limited to just 3 copies.  Just really really cool.  After landing the Greinke I went through the box and pulled my two autographs and my two relic cards.  My autographs were Steve Delbar and Adam Eaton. 

 

Ironically I returned home sorted out my base set cards and minis and witnessed Eaton hitting a home run yesterday against the Indians.  Eaton is now on the White Sox.  My two relics....

 

After pulling the two relics I was really happy with my second box and would have been more than satisfied with two autographs, two relics, and a button card limited to just 3 copies.  However, I managed to pull one more cool hit out of my box...

I am not a huge plate person and I rarely seem to pull them, but two in a day is a personal record for me.  Plus I managed to land two pretty good players with Greinke and Utley.  Overall, my two boxes of Gypsy Queen were pretty incredible.  Four autographs, three relics, a button card, and two printing plates is a pretty good day at the office.  In fact, Big D's had a great weekend with this product.  In addition to my good pulls customers in the store also pulled.  Here are four other customer's hits that Jimmy posted on his Facebook page including a Yogi Berra 1/1, Reggie Jackson 1/1, Puig Printing Plate, Dual autograph of Julio Tehran and Mike Minor, a Minor printing plate, and a jumbo Stanton.   I actually picked up the Porcello patch from Jimmy in the third picture down.  I will post it at some point.