2013 Topps Gypsy Queen 2-Pack Break

With all the hype that the new Gypsy Queen had been getting (and because I have the previous two master sets of GQ in my collection), I had been dying to get my hands on a couple of packs of this year's edition. When word was spread that the retail big box stores had gotten their hands on the stuff a week earlier than the actual street date, I would take detours to the local Target to see if they were on display. Alas, they were not.

Master sets on the Bay (which would consist of the 300 cards, 50 short prints, and 70 inserts broken into five unique themes) were going anywhere from $149.99 to over $250. Now, I'm not about to spend over $200 for this or any master set, but so I'm going to bide my time for now and hope that the price of the sets go down (like to about $130 or so...yeah, that's the ticket).

So anyway, my son and I had a bit of free time as both the ladies of the family had their own parties to attend. And since it was the first Sunday of the month, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, that normally means there are hotel card shows happening. The bad news is that thanks to the economy, these shows are down to once a month (they used to be held once every two weeks), so I've normally missed them. Not today.

But by the time I got to the one card show that was actually "on," the vendors were packing up for the day. Yikes. After breezing through a couple of tables, I bought a couple of packs of Gypsy Queen from the guy that runs the show and took off for home. When I got home, my son and I opened the packs. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

The first thing I noticed was that the card that was in front of the mini insert card was facing the opposite direction from the rest of the cards in the pack. That would mean (to me anyway) that either those cards were special or possibly short printed. And boy was I happy with what I found.

So below are the results of my two-pack Gypsy Queen break (in the order that they appeared in the pack):

• #064 Joey Votto, Reds
• #056 Jason Heyward, Braves
• #041 Dylan Bundy, Orioles
• #110 Buster Posey, Giants
• #011 Anthony Rizzo, Cubs
• #320 Roberto Clemente, Pirates (this card was facing the opposite direction from the rest of the pack)
• #135 Ryne Sandberg Mini card
• #261 Vance Worley, Twins
• #321 Robinson Cano, Yankees
• #112 Paul Goldschmidt, Giants

Thoughts: Awesome pack. Superstars, Hall of Famers, rising stars...what more could you possibly ask for in a pack??! Oh, and that Clemente...

IS A SHORTPRINT!!!

Now that I'm calmed down from hyperventilating, here are the results of pack #2:

• #175 Brandon Moss, Athletics
• #217 Neil Walker, Pirates (ironically, the bio on Clemente's card actually mentions Walker...)
• #242 Asdrubal Cabrera, Indians
• #104 Paco Rodriguez, Dodgers
• #091 Matt Holliday, Cardinals
• #GQA-JS Jean Segura, Brewers (this card was facing the opposite direction from the rest of the pack)
• #121 Rickey Henderson Mini card (gives us two HOF player mini cards...sadly, this was not the mini SP variation)
• #074 Josh Rutledge, Rockies
• #102 Tyler Colvin, Rockies
• #145 Ryan Ludwick, Reds

Thoughts: Not too bad, a couple of all-stars, another HOF mini card of a player I grew up watching, a couple of Rockies. Normally, this would be just your run-of-the-mill, average, everyday, "ehh," pack of cards. But this one card...

makes it all better. So what if he's autographed tons of cards in 2013 already. It's an actual on-card autograph of a guy that should have been on my Topps "Chase" team. I rarely, if ever, get autographs from a pack of cards...EVER!!! So regardless of the player, this is pretty cool (you have to admit, this is better than a redemption).

Overall, I like the look of this set. The picture quality is unique to this set (as in, it isn't the same as what you see in Allen & Ginter or Turkey Red). It's dark (lots of shadows), but not so much that you can't appreciate how the pictures look like painted portraits.

And again, as if I can't state this enough, my mini cards were of two HOF players. Eh, who cares if neither are SP's? They look great in mini form, and that's probably the point. While I don't really collect mini cards, I'll add these to my collection, unless someone really wants them.

Speaking of wanting them...you know what I have realized? In my almost five years on the blog, I have not once put a card up on the Bay to sell. I have bought tons, but not sold any. When my kids were little, I had more time to sell cards on eBay, and I did pretty well selling inserts and commons for $1.00 plus at a time. But as the kids grew older, and our lives became more hectic, there was less time to list. What better way to dive back into the selling pool than to put the Clemente and Segura cards on the Bay and see what happens. I better re-learn how to list online...it's been a while.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama