2013 Gypsy Queen box break #1

I pre-ordered two boxes of Gypsy Queen and they came in about a month ago.  I haven’t gotten to it on the blog yet – partly because I was finishing up Heritage, partly because I was sick and also because I’m just busy.

I’ve liked this product in the past, but to be honest, I don’t know if I’m overly excited about it this year.  It’s kind of jumped the shark.  I probably should have waited to just buy Topps Archives when it comes out.  But, I made the plunge, and here’s what I got.

The box itself is again pretty nice.  You get 24 packs and a mini box with 10 mini cards.  I didn’t do particularly well with either of my 2 boxes – maybe that’s why I’m not as excited about the product.  After some great luck in Heritage retail, maybe I’m just spoiled :).  I did get one very rare relic – and a Red no less – so I guess I can’t complain.  This is a jumbo swatch of Mesoraco, numbered out of 25.  These are pretty cool in person.

I only got one auto in this box.  That’s one less than you’re supposed to.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned – I’ve been busy and I’m too lazy to go through the hassle of sending in packs to Topps.  Plus I’d likely spend $2 shipping to get a $5 auto.  At least this one was Vida Blue, which is actually one that had caught my eye when I saw some of these on the blogosphere.

I also got one mini framed relic.  I like the regular Gypsy Queen relics better.  Mini relics seems like and Allen & Ginter thing.

I didn’t get anything of the currency parallels – those seem kind of cool, but are super rare. I got no dupes, always good.  I still like this product, though I liked the first year the best when it was truly based on the original design.  I likes last year that there were no SP’s for the set, though they went back to SP’s this year – and they mixed them throughout as opposed to just doing them at the end.  I think this will likely make some set collectors go away from this product, because you can’t really collect just the regularly produced cards.  I just don’t like that they do that – it’s hard to know when you’ve got regular cards or SP’s!

Here’s the Mini cards I got from the 10 card mini box.  These are all photo variations, of which I think there are about 100.  Unlike the photo variations from the regular sized set, these aren’t all that rare since in theory you could get them all in 10 boxes.

Here are some of the parallel minis I got.  I’m not going to scan all the minis, just the black parallels, which are numbered this year (/199):

and any other parallels.  I just got a green one here (#/99).

One neat thing about Gypsy Queen – they get a few interesting retired players in there.  Hal Newhouser is a cool addition.  The only pitcher to win back to back MVP’s for you history buffs!

Here are the the inserts.  First is no-hitters, probably my second favorite insert set this year.  I say this quite frequently – but I prefer it when a set has a legitimate definition for including players.  Not just “the Great Ones”.

For instance, “Dealing Aces” is the next insert set.  Less defined.  Some definition – pitchers.  But basically, they’ll just put good pitchers in here.  I do like the design on these cards, however.

Next up is the one I’d call my favorite – Collisions at the Plate.  Now there’s some serious criteria necessary for this set!  And Play at the Plate loves these, too, as I’d expect!

Two inserts are back from last year – Sliding Stars, which I also really like.

And Glove Stories, which I’m ambivalent on.  I do like how these show a specific the Blanco card – it’s cool they captured his catch that saved Matt Cain’s perfect game!  However, it looks like they doubled up on a Bryce Harper photo – that’s the same one from his out of bounds variation in series 1.  They do this with a couple others as well.

Last is the blue framed paper card.

I like the framed paper cards, but this is one area I wish they had kept as is.  The framed paper cards keep getting lower (999 to 599 to 499).  I like these cards, they’re really nice.  The retail ones are white, and look really nice.  I’ll have more on that when I post about my retail purchases.

Below are the “stats” for the box.

24 packs per box * 10 cards per pack + 10 card mini-pack = 250 cards

189 of the 350 card base set (54% set completion) – 6 of which are SP’s

31 Minis (21 regular, 10 photo variation)

3 Mini Parallels (2 Black #/199, 1 Green #/99)

1 Framed Paper Blue

6 Dealing Aces, 6 No-Hitters, 4 Sliding Stars, 4 Glove Stories, 3 Collision at the Plate

1 Jumbo Relic, 1 Framed Mini Relic

1 Autograph