2013 Panini Golden Age - Box Break Part 1

I shared a single pack of this earlier. I decided I liked it enough to buy a box. This set is a lot like Upper Deck Goodwin Champions (and Allen and Ginter for that matter) in that it doesn't just feature baseball players. In a set like this I usually don't pick just one card to put in the reference book but a selection of cards from the set that reflect the variety. If there are clear subsets, I'll go with them.  Here are the base cards I picked for my reference book.  I did pertty well with the box, getting at least one of each insert set, except for the three that are 1 of 1's.

Of the 103 base cards, 36 featured baseball players.  As in other sets, Panini has chosen to use the Photoshop option and remove logos.

 11 cards featured either football players of coaches.

I don't know what kind of license Panini has with the NFL, but the football players all had scrubbed uniforms and no team name mentions. They did, however, sport the NFL logo on the back.

7 cards featured horse racing, either jockeys or horses.

 

 18 cards featured actors, actresses or entertainers. There were a few child actors, especially kids from the "Our Gang" series and the "Bad News Bears" movies. But I'm going with:

The "Bad News Bears" is an actual subset.

I'd pulled one of these in the single pack as well.

There were also enough American Presidents to include in the reference book.

I have more than half of the US presidents on some kind of card now.

And finally, boxers:

There are two full-sized parallel sets, Black (1 of 1) and White. I pulled one of the White;

The rest of the cards are a hodgepodge of golfers, artists, famous objects (the Edmund Fitzgerald, Apollo 11), gamblers, wild west lawmen, etc.

And it would be this kind of set without mini tobacco cards.  There was one in each pack.

I'll feature the insert sets later. Some of the themes I've shown here, carry into the inserts.

Oh, and I got the Mike Schmidt card.

Random Cards From My Collection #27

Card #24102
2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club #184 Shane Reynolds

Donruss, apparently believing that they could never underestimate the obsessiveness of baseball card collectors, released their Fan Club set in 2002, followed up with Best of Fan Club set. The difference? None, except Best of Fan Club was printed on foil board.

Card #23014
2006 Sweet Spot #64 Bobby Abreu

I got this card from a group break run by fellow blogger Thorzul Will Rule in 2009.

Card #3113
1993 Fleer Final Edition Diamond Tribute #9 Dave Wingfield

This 10-card set was only available as part of the 1993 Fleer Final Edition factory set, which I did not buy. I have the whole set but I don't remember how or when I got it. A Player I Collect.

Card #6847
2006 Topps Turkey Red White #440 Brian Giles

The white bordered parallel, inserted 1 in 4 packs. I got this is a blaster box.

Card #21286
1995 Upper Deck #144 Kevin Stocker

Nice action shot. I wish I knew who the sliding player was. It looks like an Oriole. In 1995, that would mean this photo came from a spring training game.

Card #409
1989 Fleer For The Record #5 Greg Maddux

In 1989, you would get one card from this 6-card set in every rack-pack of Fleer you bought. I got the entire set on eBay for $3.29 in 2003. A Player I Collect.

Card #32062
2012 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-13 Dinger

A purple triceratops as a mascot? Why not?

Card #1038
1996 Select Certified #58 Carlos Baerga

In 1996, a 6-card pack of this would set you back $4.99. I bought the entire 144-card set on eBay in 2004 for $12 (including shipping). The cards came with a peel-away protective cover.

Card #23792
1999 Bowman #313 Carlos E. Hernandez

Even as far back as 1999, Bowman had already established Red/Black for veterans and Blue/Black for rookies. Hernandez, a second baseman, played 16 games for the Astros in 1999 and 2 games for the Mariners and that was his major league career.

Card #4592
2005 Topps Opening Day #6 Mike Cameron

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Hobby Box

OK, this will probably be my last Gypsy Queen post. I got my hobby box a week or so ago. Between the blaster, the rack pack and the hobby box I'm pleased with the overall selection of cards. By the way I count, there are 31 different cards in the set (counting the base, the base parallels, the inserts, the insert parallels, the relic and the auto cards). I've pulled all but 10 of these and the ones I'm missing are the most difficult to get. I've priced some of these on eBay and probably won't be chasing too many of them. I did buy a Gypsy Kings card on eBay which is at the end of the post.

I managed to avoid a large number of duplicate cards. I've got 177 out of 300 base cards. I'm not a set collector so that's plenty. I know full well, if I buy another blaster or two, I'll get mostly duplicates. If I go through with another Summer Clearance trade this year, the Gypsy Queen dups will be available.

I managed to pull a few more of the short print cards, so now I have a few of the short print/regular print pairs. For example, here's the regular print Carlos Gonzalez:

and here's the short print:

I don't know how "short" the short prints are but since there are 50 of them, the odds of getting any one of them is pretty good, I think. I had pulled the Mike Schmidt short print from the blaster and pulled the regular print, and another short print from the hobby box. Here's the regular print:

I managed to pull most, if not all of the Phillies. Oddly enough, I didn't get a single Astro.

I pulled two of the Topps Gypsy Queen Blue Framed Paper parallels. These are numbered to 599. Here's the Babe Ruth card.

I had the green mini parallel and pulled a black mini Tony Gwynn

and a sepia Ryan Braun

These are numbered to 99. Three of the inserts have mini parallels
Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Glove Stories

Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Moonshots

And I couldn't be happier with the Howard Ryan mini. And finally, Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Sliding Stars

I already had the full sized version of Reyes.

The box promised 4 hits (relic, or auto).
Topps Gypsy Queen Relics

I had pulled one of these from the blaster but this is a home jersey and the other was an away.

Topps Gypsy Queen Framed Mini Relics

I kinda wish I gotten a mini auto as these seem to be getting a much higher price on eBay than the mini relics.

Topps Gypsy Queen Autographs

An on-card auto, very nice. For some reason the backs of the autos are much yellower than the base cards.

And finally, Topps Gypsy Queen Autographed Relics

On-card auto, relic, serial numbered to 25. I'll say this is the best hit I pulled.

I never even saw any of the "Gypsy Queen" inserts from last year so I don't know how ridiculous they were. Here's the Gypsy Kings card I bought on eBay. It's plenty ridiculous.