A little detective work – 1992 Topps Strawberry & Hubie Brooks

I was pretty intrigued by two cards I dubbed “best action photo in 1992 Topps” in yesterday’s post.

First, the two cards in question, both of which have a similar picture from third base at Shea Stadium.

I decided to do some work to see if I could determine the dates and details of the games.  As you’ll see, I was successful for both, but I started with the Strawberry as there was more information available from the photo and I knew I’d be able to pinpoint the details for that card.

For one thing, it’s much easier to narrow down because the road team is featured. Whereas the Brooks card has 81 potential home games to get through (and much less information on the card anyways), there were only 6 games where the Dodgers played at Shea in 1991.  Plus, I can see the inning on the Strawberry card as well.  I’ll blow it up so you can best see it on the blog.

I liked what I found.  This one is from a game on July 21, 1991 and has a pretty cool back story.  Strawberry was not only facing off against his former team – none other than Dwight Gooden was on the mound that day!  Strawberry singled off him to lead off the 2nd inning and then Chris Gwynn walked to move Darryl over to second base.  Lenny Harris (#29 – you can see that on the scoreboard) then knocked a single to left field on a 3-2 pitch to score Strawberry.  Gwynn was later forced at 3rd, but Gooden gave up 3 runs that inning.

The Mets wound up getting Doc the victory anyways.  Interestingly enough – this was the only hit Strawberry ever got off the teammate he is forever linked with.  Oh, and last thing – that’s Mike Winters manning the second base umpire spot.

The Brooks card was much more difficult, but I was able to pinpoint that one as well.  The only piece of info for that card that was more helpful?  There’s only one umpire I’d recognize just about anywhere, and if that’s not Eric Gregg over Brooks’ shoulder than I’m an Ewok.

The key here was that I could tell from the scoreboard that Mackey Sasser was batting, as he was #2 for the Mets in 1991.  I think that’s him rounding first, but can’t tell for sure as the number on the runner’s uniform is too difficult to see.  Anyways, Mackey being the hitter was very helpful.  If I assumed Brooks scored on this play, I would need to sift through 48 Brooks runs (25 were at home).  With Sasser, there were only 35 RBI (21 at home).  Linking the two up helped.  Of course, it’s always possible Brooks was thrown out at home in which case I’d have to learn how to figure that out.  Or just give up.

It was actually a little easier than I thought.  Using Baseball Reference, I found out that Mackey knocked Brooks in on 3 separate occasions in 1991.  Of those, only one happened at Shea Stadium – June 30th, in a 10-9 loss to Philadelphia.  Interestingly, Gooden also pitched this game, though it was the Phillies’ Danny Cox who was on the hill for this hit.  In the bottom of the 4th inning of a 4-0 game, Kevin McReynolds singled off Cox with one out.  Howard Johnson then flew out before Cox hit Brooks with the pitch.  Sasser then came up and doubled off Cox to knock both McReynolds and Brooks in to make it 4-2.  So, not seen on the card is the fact that McReynolds scored ahead of Brooks.

And yes, that’s Eric Gregg behind Brooks. Yub Yub.

Completed set & master set – one last look at 1992 Topps

Continuing my “getting back into the swing of things” as far as the lifetime Topps project goes…

The 1992 set hasn’t historically been one of my favorites.  I often think of it as too similar to the 1991 Topps set, and not having photography quite as good.  At the same time, I always thought it was a fairly solid set.  This was a transition year for the Topps base set.  In 1991, the photography got much better from the photos in the 80’s.  In 1992 the card stock was changed to white paper after years of the gray stock we all know and (some of us) love.  In 1993, the cards went slightly glossy with a color photo on the back, and in 1994 they got the super-glossy UV coating.

After going through this process, however, I’m more impressed with 1992 Topps than I had been.  The photography is still behind 1991 Topps in my opinion – but not by much.  There are a number of very cool shots in the set, and I’m impressed with how well the design works for horizontal cards.

Of note – this is one year where finishing the “master set” was easy for how I define it!  There aren’t any inserts aside from the Topps gold parallels.  Topps  scrapped the Glossy send-in cards after the 1990 set, and they scrapped the Glossy All-Star / Rookie inserts after the 1991 set.  So there really isn’t anything other than the base and Traded sets.  There is an autograph of Brien Taylor that comes with the Topps Gold factory set, but that’s in the category of “other” as I see it (though I do have the Taylor auto).

Info about my set:

How I put the set together:

• 508 cards from the wax box
• 10 cards from a card show
• 274 cards from trades

Card that completed my set:  #485 – Chris Sabo (see photo below in the Reds section).  One of 3 cards received in a trade with Nolan’s Dugout that completed the set.

Recap – Completed decade, a last look Topps in the 1980’s

Just like my top 10, I wanted to put together one post that summarizes everything I just did from the 1980’s decade in Topps.  I still have some inserts to finish up to wrap a complete bow on the decade, but the main part of my lifetime Topps project is done for 1980-1989.

The majority of the information below is stuff I’ve covered previously – this is a summary.  If you want the greater detail for some of this, click on “Topps 1980s” over in the right hand column.

Info about my decade:

How I put the decade together:

A total of 8,976 for the decade, including the Topps Traded sets.

• 4,102 from wax boxes
• 1,939 from other forms of original Topps packaging – 1,240 from vending boxes, 296 from Jumbo Packs, 279 from a Cello Box, 122 from Rack Packs, 2 from a 1983 Michigan Test pack
• 1,301 from trades
• 1,188 from purchasing the Traded boxed sets
• 380 cards I already had at home in good condition (all 1986)
• 41 single card purchases – 38 from Sportlots, 1 from a card shop (80 Schmidt), 1 from COMC (83 Ripken), 1 from eBay (82 Ripken)
• 25 from other methods – 13 from a Target Re-pack and 12 from the Diamond Giveaway

Card that completed my decade: 1982 Topps #21 – Cal Ripken RC

Decade composition (number that are from Topps Traded in parentheses if applicable):

• 7,894 individual player cards (1,118 of which are in Traded).
• 78 Future Stars tri-player cards.
• 37 Team USA player cards (21 from Traded).
• 21 Draft Pick cards.
• 274 Manager cards (40 from Traded).
• 182 Team Leaders.
• 176 All-Stars.
• 52 Record Breakers.
• 40 In Action.
• 39 League Leaders.
• 34 Super Veterans.
• 20 Turn Back the Clock.
• 18 Season Highlights.
• 18 Active Leaders.
• 14 Father Son.
• 6 Tribute.
• 4 Post-Season Highlights.
• 69 checklists.

Representation of the decade: The 1980-1989 Topps sets should, in theory, tell the story of the 1979-1988 MLB seasons.  Since I’m including 1989 Topps Traded, it also includes rookies from the 1989 season.  So it isn’t quite the decade of the 80′s when you do this comparison – it’s 11 years instead.  During those 11 seasons, 2,411 different players graced the fields of Major League ballparks.

Of the cards from the base and future stars subset cards listed above, there are 1,828 different players featured.

To this number, there are 7 players from subsets to add because they played in the “decade” but didn’t have any regular Topps cards.  On the flip side, there are 8 players to subtract who had regular cards but didn’t actually play in the decade.  You can see the details of who they are in my earlier post.

Those 1,827 players represent 75.8% of the 2,411 players from 1979-1989.

Last active player from this decade: #122T – Omar Vizquel, 1989 Topps Traded

Vizquel played his last game for Toronto on October 3rd last year, the last game of the season.  The Blue Jays moved him back to short for one last game after he’d only played 2-3x a week at 2B or 3B over the final 2 months.  Unfortunately, he didn’t turn a double play that game, though no player in history has turned more.  He went 1 for 3 to finish his career with 2,877 hits, the most of any player from Venezuela.  He has over 400 stolen bases, and over 1400 runs.  Possibly the greatest defensive shortstop in history, he has the highest fielding percentage of any MLB shortstop, he’s played in the most games at that position, and his game on October 3rd is the standard for the oldest player to play that position (a record he’d broken earlier in the year).  He beats out Jamie Moyer, the only other player with a Topps card from the 80’s to play in 2012.

Player with the most cards in the set: Pete Rose – 33 cards

Take a look at the post for the details and the card pictures, but he had 8 base cards, 1 Topps Traded card, 5 Manager cards, and 19 subsets (6 from the 86 Tribute).

First Card and the Hundreds: George Brett – 9 cards

I actually didn’t do this in an earlier post, but George Brett has the most “special number” cards.  He has 9, which is one more than Reggie Jackson and two more than Mike Schmidt.  Reggie had a special number in all 8 years he had a card – but didn’t have a Topps card in 1988 or 1989 after he’d retired.  What puts Brett over the top is 1981 – he had a League Leader card as #1 with Bill Buckner for winning the batting title, so he had 2 “special numbers” in that set.

Highest book value: 1982 Topps Traded #98T – Cal Ripken RC

Books for around 150 bucks.  To find a really good copy, it might cost even more than that…

Most notable card: I had to go with a 3-way tie here.  All of these are fairly significant cards in the history of the hobby.

• 1982 Topps Traded #98T – Cal Ripken RC (see above)
• 1980 Topps #482 – Rickey Henderson RC (see below)
• 1985 Topps #401 – Mark McGwire OLY RC

Best card (my opinion): 1980 Topps #482 – Rickey Henderson

Second best card (also my opinion): #1989 Topps Traded #41T – Ken Griffey Jr.

I like that this also serves as the “best Traded card”.

Best subset card: 1988 Topps Record Breaker #4 – Eddie Murray

Favorite action photo: #111 – Carlton Fisk IA

Favorite non-action photo: 1980 Topps #400 – George Foster

My Favorite Reds card: 1986 Topps #206 – Pete Rose RB

Back to the basics – Recap – best 10 Topps cards of the 1980’s

As the title implies, I’m going to make a bit of a change in focus for this blog.  I think for the better.  I started this blog to be my own personal “Lifetime Topps Project”, which meant that I was going to collect every Topps set (& inserts) from the year I was born – 1980 – until the year I started the project – 2009.  And I’d fill in 2010 and later along the way.  But I’ve also gotten really interested in retro sets and that’s sidetracked me from the main project.  I want to start making a better dent in the main project, and I think the blog will flow better if I stay on track.  I’ll still do posts when I complete any insert sets (retro or Topps flagship), and I’ll continue to do some Saturday Suds posts here and there.  But I’m gonna stay away from buying new retro set releases for a while.  That means no Archives in 2013 (or at least not right now), but I guess I’ll live!

Before I recapped my purchases of Turkey Red, Topps Heritage and Gypsy Queen, I had done a bunch of look backs to the 1980’s Topps base sets.  This was because I had finished the base sets for the entire decade.  I looked at everything from who was the last active player to what percentage of players from the decade was represented in those 10 years of sets.  And I did a top 10 list of cards from the decade.

To get back into the swing of things, here’s the full list of those top 10 cards from Topps sets in the 1980’s.  Tomorrow I’ll do a recap of all the other stuff I did, but this first one is to show all of my top 10 cards in one post.  Here they are in order, from Honorable Mention to #1, with no words, just pictures!

The Henderson card ranks #6 on the Topps 60 list.  Here’s the cards from the 1980’s that are on that list, and where I ranked them in my countdown (if I did) in parentheses.  Since my selections weren’t rookie card heavy until the very top, I only have some cross over at that point.

• #5 – 1989 TRADED Griffey Jr. RC (#2 on my list)
• #6 – 1980 Henderson RC (#1)
• #8 – 1986 TRADED B. Jackson XRC (silly, the 87 Topps card is much better!)
• #11 – 1985 McGwire OLY RC (honorable mention)
• #12 – 1982 TRADED Ripken (#4)
• #17 – 1987 Bonds RC
• #19 – 1984 Mattingly RC
• #21 – 1984 Strawberry RC
• #28 – 1982 Ripken RC
• #32 – 1985 Gooden RB
• #38 – 1985 Puckett RC
• #39 – 1985 Clemens RC
• #42 – 1983 Gwynn RC
• #45 – 1987 McGwire
• #53 – 1987 TRADED Maddux XRC
• #54 – 1989 R. Johnson RC
• #59 – 1983 Boggs RC

Completed insert set – 1996 Classic Confrontations

I completed an insert earlier this year from 1996 Topps – Classic Confrontations.  This one was completely from “other” means – as in none of the cards came from packs.  That’s because these were only available back in 1996 through special retail packs in Wal-Mart, and I certainly wasn’t opening any packs that specialized in my quest.  Plus, I like Target better anyways!

Info about the set:

Set description: Inside white borders, the fronts show player cutouts on a brownish rock background featuring a shadow image of the player. The player’s name is in gold foil across the bottom. The backs of the hitters’ cards are aqua and present headshots and statistics.  The statistics presented are what get into the “confrontation” theme of this set – the cards show how the player did against the best pitchers / hitters in the game.  The first 10 cards are hitters, the next 5 are pitchers.

Set composition: 15 cards, 1:5 odds (1996 Topps Wal-Mart series 1 retail packs only)

Hall of Famers: 7. Ripken, Gwynn, Puckett, Thomas, Maddux, Glavine, Johnson

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from a trade
• 14 cards from Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  These are so-so.  I don’t like specialized retail-only inserts. The design on the front isn’t anything spectacular, though I do appreciate the backs.  It’s pretty neat to see how someone did against the best in the game.  For example, Ken Griffey Jr. is pretty bad against all the aces they put on the back of his card, except for Roger Clemens.

Card that completed my set: #CC3 – Edgar Martinez

I had this down to 1 card for quite a while, and I got the card for Edgar in February this year from Sportlots.

Highest book value: #CC2 – Cal Ripken, #CC6 – Barry Bonds

This isn’t the most valuable set – just $1.25 per Beckett for these two guys.

Best card (my opinion): #CC11 – Randy Johnson

When in doubt I usually default to Griffey, but I like the shot of the Big Unit following through on a pitch.

My Favorite Reds card:  #CC7 – Reggie Sanders

The only one in the set.

Saturdays Suds: Baseball & Beer #31 – Burger Beer

On to my next “Saturday Suds”, which I’m posting about every other weekend these days.  This is where I post about a beer that has something to do with baseball (or at least I’ll try to figure out some way to correlate it with baseball).  I’m going to start doing some beer from my hometown Cincinnati, and Burger Beer is a great place to start.

Brewery:  Christian Moerlein Brewing Company in Cincinnati, OH (formerly by Hudepohl Brewing Co. in Cincinnati, formerly by Burger Brewing Co. in Cincinnati, OH)

Beer:  Bürger Classic Beer

Description: Bürger Beer looks and tastes similar to what you’d expect from an american pale lager. It has a golden color, though it’s a darker, fuller gold.  You can taste the grain and malt, and it does have some bitterness to it.  Overall, it’s a great beer to drink while watching a Reds game on a warm summer day!

Medium:  I bought a 12-pack of cans in Cincinnati (actually – from the Party Source in Northern Kentucky).

How it’s related to baseball: This beer was the sponsor of the Cincinnati Reds for nearly 25 years back in the days of Crosley Field and Waite Hoyt.  Hoyt became the Reds broadcaster in 1942 and held that role for the next quarter century.

Early on in that tenure, Bürger was the sponsor of the Reds – and Hoyt as the broadcaster was associated with the beer.  When a Reds player would hit a home run into the right field Sun Deck at Crosley Field, Hoyt would chime “he hit it to Burgerville!”.

Burger seems to have gone all out as the Reds sponsor.  There are oversized black and white baseball cards they sponsored that were issued in the late 50’s and early 60’s:

I’ve seen them advertising in score cards dated as late as 1966.  Burger Brewing was the largest local brewer in Cincinnati for most of this time.  However, in 1973 they abruptly went out of business and shut down.  Competing Cincinnati brewer Hudepohl purchased the brand names and recipes, however Hudepohl itself eventually went out of business, so fast forward again about 20 years.  A local Cincinnati resident purchased the Christian Moerlein brand and successfully brought that back.  He then began purchasing many other Cincinnati beer brands, including Hudepohl and Bürger.  Bürger was brought back – and the initial kick off celebration of the brand reintroduction was actually held at the Reds’ Hall of Fame on May 29, 2009.  Fans who attended got Bürger Beer, eat hot dogs, and watch the Reds away game at the Palace of the Fans theater in the Hall of Fame!

Here’s the description from the Bürger website:

“Bürger’s history started in Cincinnati when the Bürger family established a malting business to supply fine malted barley to breweries throughout the Ohio Valley. After the repeal of Prohibition, the Bürger family took those same fine ingredients to produce their own brand of high quality beers in 1934. A Cincinnati tradition was officially born in Bürger Classic and Bürger Light beers.

Bürger beers became legend as the beer of the Cincinnati Reds with famed Reds radio broadcaster Waite Hoyt appointing the storied Crosley Field sun deck as “Burgerville”. Bürger beer also became an American legend as one of only a few beers shipped in olive-drab cans to Army troops during World War II.

Following a brief hiatus, Cincinnati’s original Bürger Beer and Bürger Light are back! The crisp, clean, and refreshing beers you grew to love are now available in both six and twelve can packs. This is your grandfather’s beer! And let’s face it… your grandfather was cool.”

Gypsy Queen retail purchases

I bought a few different types of retail packs for 2013 Gypsy Queen as well.  I purchased a blaster, a single retail “loosey”, and one of the 3-pack jumbo / rack packs that have the white border parallels.

I didn’t get any more SP’s toward my set, but I did get to check out the white parallel cards, which are very nice.  So nice, that I kind of wish this was closer to the border color that Topps went with for the regular set.

I also did pretty well getting “hits” from these purchases – though it was of the relic variety, not the autograph kind.  I got a framed mini of Eric Hosmer, a relic of Mitch Moreland.

And I also got a blue framed paper (#/499) of Carlos Santana – who is doing very well for my fantasy baseball team!

But the bigger pulls for me were from a team that is slowly becoming a rival (or at least potential competition) to the Reds in the Central division.  I got two minis of Pirate players.  One was of Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski – the man with the biggest hit in Pirate history.  And, in my opinion, the 3rd biggest home run in baseball history (I’d go with Thomson and Aaron above his).

Pretty nice there.  But, the last pack I opened from the jumbo netted me the best pull from 2013 Gypsy Queen.  Far better than anything I’d pulled in the hobby boxes.

Yes, this probably qualifies as BIG MAJOR MOJO BEDONK-A-DONK!!!!

A newer Pirate, a guy who will very possibly win an MVP someday – Andrew McCutchen.  This is the wood minis, which are numbered out of 5.  Very cool!

Gypsy Queen – retired players new in 2013

Continuing the show of Gypsy Queen retired players.  Here’s the stats again of retired players in each set.  This was in my post yesterday:

In the 350-card set from 2013, there are 260 current players and 90 retired players.

In the 300-card set from 2012, there are 246 current players and 54 retired players.

In the 350-card set from 2011, there are 297 current players and 45 retired players, plus 8 players who have a second card showing them in a different uniform.

Of those retired players, 21 are in all three sets.

Of the remaining 69 retired players in 2013 Gypsy Queen, 5 had cards in the 2011 set and 25 cards in the 2012 set.  That leaves 39 retired players who are new to the Gypsy Queen set in 2013.  I’m scanning their cards here.

Cecil Fielder, Bert Blyleven, Bill Buckner, Enos Slaughter, George Kell, Billy Williams, Joe Morgan, John Kruk, Monte Irvin, Phil Niekro, Rickey Henderson, Early Wynn, Hal Newhouser, Vida Blue, Don Mattingly, Whitey Ford, Bruce Sutter, Will Clark, Don Sutton, Tony Perez, Al Lopez, Goose Gossage, Fergie Jenkins, Rick Ferrell, George Brett, Harmon Killebrew, Hoyt Wilhelm, Jim Abbott, Jim Rice, Jim Bunning, Bobby Doerr, Lou Boudreau, Bob Lemon, Paul O’Neill, Robin Roberts, Robin Ventura, Ted Williams, Bill Mazeroski, Phil Rizzuto.

I don’t have every single one of these yet, because some of them are SP’s.  But I’ll scan the ones I do have.  The Ted Williams card is probably the most notable.  Jim Abbott is also a very cool inclusion.

I have no clue why this interests me, but it does for whatever reason.  I think it’s the auditor in me that needs to reconcile this somehow.  If you’re curious about other “combinations”, there are 14 retired players with cards only in the 2011 set.  There are 3 retired players with cards only in the 2012 set.

2011 has 45 retired players (14 only in 2011 + 21 in all years + 5 in 2011 & 2012 + 5 in 2011 & 2013)

2012 has 54 retired players (3 only in 2012 + 21 in all years + 5 in 2011 & 2012 + 25 in 2012 & 2013)

2013 has 90 retired players (39 only in 2013 + 21 in all years + 5 in 2011 & 2013 + 25 in 2012 & 2013)

2013 Gypsy Queen – retired players in all three sets

Up front – if you want to skip reading and see something fairly interesting scroll down to the Seaver card.

OK, on to show some posts of actual Gypsy Queen base cards.  Gypsy Queen, like some of Topps’ other offerings, combines current players with retired players.  I decided I’d take a look at the retired players in this set.

In the 350-card set from 2013, there are 260 current players and 90 retired players.

In the 300-card set from 2012, there are 246 current players and 54 retired players.

In the 350-card set from 2011, there are 297 current players and 45 retired players, plus 8 players who have a second card showing them in a different uniform.

Of those retired players, 21 are in all three sets.  Most of those are on the same team for all three years, but Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan and Frank Robinson are shown on different teams in one of the three years.

Andre Dawson

Gary Carter – and the same picture in back to back years.  D’oh!

Reggie Jackson

Nolan Ryan

Frank Robinson – by the way, the picture used in 2013 is actually the same picture as Robinson’s second card in the 2011 set – he is one of the 8 players with cards from 2 teams.

The other 17 players are all shown on the same team each year.  And as you’ll see, sometimes the same photo.  Those players are: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Tom Seaver, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Ryne Sandberg, Frank Thomas, Al Kaline, Sandy Koufax, Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Johnny Bench, Lou Gehrig, and Tony Gwynn.

Ruth – Ruth also has a card in the 2011 set where he’s pictured with Boston.  I think the Ruth cards are some of the best in the whole Gypsy Queen product.

Cobb – Cobb also has a second card in the 2011 set.  He’s pictured with the Philadelphia A’s, who he finished his career with in 1927 and 1928.

Ripken

Seaver – oh, Topps.  For shame!  Same photo 3 years in a row.

Brooks Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Snider

Sandberg – fielding, running and hitting in the 3 years!

Thomas

Kaline

Koufax

Musial

Gibson

Bench

Gehrig

Gwynn

So a few duplicate pictures, with the Seaver being a pretty egregious error on Topps part.

Other than that, I do like the three cards compared next to each other.  Gwynn has two from his later years, and the Thomas cards next to each other are pretty neat.

In my next post, I’ll show the cards of retired players that are new to Gypsy Queen in 2013.

2013 Gypsy Queen box break #2 & 1887 comparison

On to my second box of 2013 Gypsy Queen.  I got all the hits I was supposed to this time, but no crazy kind of pull to write home about.

First up, here are the variation minis I got from the mini box.

And here’s some of the rarer minis I pulled in actual packs.

An old Red, a new Red, and my favorite non-Red player ever.  Pretty good selection!

Here’s the inserts.  I didn’t get any doubles from my earlier box, so I’ve got to be happy with that!

Here is the blue parallel I got in the box.  Coco Crisp in a pretty interesting pose.

And here’s the two relics.  To be honest, I don’t know if I could really do much worse from my own perspective.  An outcast steroid cheat who necessitated the rules to determine a batting champion changed midseason in 2012, and whose own team didn’t even want him back on their road to the World Series.  And then there’s Adam Dunn – the holder of the lowest season batting average in history!  My fantasy baseball team name used to be “trade Dunn for Coneys”.

And here’s the autographs.  Two pretty good pitchers.  I pulled a Jordan Zimmerman auto last year – he’s turning out to be one of the best in the game!

My base set collation between the two boxes was as good as I could ask.  I didn’t get any doubles from the SP’s, and I’ve completed the non-SP portion of the set.

I’ll deviate a little there.  Why?  Because this wasn’t easy to figure out.  Topps decided to mix SP cards throughout the set.  This is confusing to the collector / consumer.  And it means you can’t really collect just the non-SP cards.  I would collect them anyways, but not everyone is the same.  I think this probably hurts people wanting to buy the product – not sure why they do it.  Anyways, that’ my rant.

I’ll note one other thing I pointed out each of the last 2 years – PUT IN SOME KIND OF TRIBUTE TO THE ORIGINAL SET 😉  I really think it would do well for the product!!!!  It can’t be that expensive to get some of the player rights from the original set and I bet some reproduction would do well.

Collecting the Gypsy Queen set in 1887

I do this every year, but it’s fun to look at.  Collecting 1887 Gypsy Queen would have been particularly challenging!  First, you’d need to buy a lot of cigarette packs!  I don’t smoke, so I guess I’d just be doing this for the cards.  I have a coworker who smokes a pack a day, so maybe I would have cut her some kind of deal.  I’m not sure where Gypsy Queen was distributed, but I’m sure the east coast was a safe bet.  It doesn’t appear that they created any type of checklist – and card collecting was in its infancy.  As most of the Gypsy Queen cards were the same photos as Goodwin & Co’s much larger “Old Judge” set – it’s tough to know now if their even was a way to know which cards were printed as Gypsy Queen cards.

“Suffice it to say” #1 – it would have been very difficult to collect the Gypsy Queen!  There were probably more cards produced than the world today knows of.

“Suffice it to say” #2 – I do think it could have been done – what’s more likely is that card collecting was in its infancy and people just thought having a card of John Montgomery Ward was cool – they didn’t think – I should really collect the 149 others!  “Suffice it to say” #3 – if anyone had done so, their descendant could make a killing today!

Back to my 2nd 2012 Gypsy Queen Box

Below are the “stats” for the box.

24 packs per box * 10 cards per pack + 10 card mini-pack – 1 card because of one of the relics = 249 cards

182 of the 300 card base set (61% set completion)

6 Photo Variations

19 Minis (10 regular, 7 photo variation, 2 SP)

15 Minis Parallels (4 Gypsy Queen back, 4 Straight Cut Back, 2 Black Border, 1 Green Border, 1 Sepia Tone, 3 Mini Inserts)

2 Framed Paper Blue

8 Sliding Stars, 8 Moon Shots, 4 Glove Stories

1 Gypsy King

1 Relic – (Longoria), 1 Framed Mini Relic (Rivera)

2 Autographs (Cano Redemption, Zimmerman)

Including the first box:

261 / 300 of the base cards (87%)

**For comparison purposes, I only had 235 / 300 last year!