2017 Topps Gypsy Queen

According to baseballcardpedia.com, Topps was trying a lower price point for Gypsy Queen this year. I paid $0.47/card this year for a blaster and a couple of packs, which is the same as I paid last year, and pretty much for every year of this product.

Topps did revamp the product. There are no mini cards in this set, which is OK by me. There are also very few insert sets (in fact only two) which aren't either parallels or autos/relics.

I've not been much of a fan of the Gypsy Queen designs over the years.

There are some nice design features this year. I like the lighter borders, the way the photo fades into the border, the curlycue things on either side of the city name, and the player name plate. I even like the fake age burn. But, the bottom part of the card is just horrible. I like the ornate Gypsy Queen logo on the back but it just takes up too much room on the front. There is also no team name on the front and no team logo anywhere, which I don't like.

Topps maintained, what I believe, is the main Gypsy Queen feature, the treatment of the photograph. This feature I've always liked, regardless the rest of the design.

I pulled two Astros (of 12 cards in the set) and two Phillies (also 12). I guess I'll buy the rest on eBay. Both teams are a bit over represented in the set.

There aren't a lot of cards featuring players in the field.

I guess this photo is from last year's All-Star game or it's a joke. In the back ground we can see various team caps (Mariners, Blue Jays, Indians, Phillies) and several team shirts (Brewers, Dodgers, Padres, or maybe it's the Nationals All-Star shirt). Even though the game was in the Padres park, the American League was the home team. Arenado was hitless in 3 ABs.

Randy Johnson rocking an Expos uni. Gypsy Queen always included a few retired players. This year they collected the retired players as cards 301-320 and made them short prints. The box proudly proclaims "1 Short Printed Base Card Guaranteed!".

I pulled two of the 10 different parallels. Can you spot the gimmick in this one?

It's apparently supposed to have been printed without the black printing plate. I don't know why the name plate is black however.

This one is a little easier.

Here are the 2 non-auto/relic inserts.

This is called the "Fortune Teller mini". It's as tall as a regular card but thinner.

Looks like 2009 Upper Deck Goudey, one of the creepiest issues of the past 20 years.

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Discounted Blaster

While out looking for 2017 Topps I came across a discounted blaster of 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen. I'm not in love with this set and only bought a few packs last year but the blaster was only $11.98 and promised "1 Exclusive Short-Printed Mini Base Card Parallel Inside!"

It turns out that I'd pulled one of purple minis these from one of the 3 packs I bought last summer but this still goes in the reference books since it's the retired players subset.

I also pulled this from the box, a foil-backed mini I didn't know existed. Apparently these are only available in blasters. It's a 50-card set, numbered 301-350. As usual with this kind of card, I'm happy I have it but who was asking for foil-backed Gypsy Queen minis?

I'm always happy to pull a relic card from a blaster.

And another card for the reference book is this insert I didn't have.

Many baseball cards have a few sentences on the back highlighting something about the player. I guess these little paragraphs are probably difficult to write, not because it's hard to think of something to say about a player but because there is so much that could be said. Sometimes these read like they were plucked from a bucket of random stats for each player but a few of these Gypsy Queen backs stood out for me.

So Familia was pitching a save while his wife was giving birth. His bad luck, I guess, that he couldn't be there with her. But what is that opening line "His wife Bianca didn't need labor induced" supposed to mean? His Wikipedia page wasn't much help beyond saying she was his fiancée at the time and that he was arrested last October on domestic violence charges. 

Here's another one.

Why exactly is it strange that Turner hit .323, .322 and .322 in his first three professional seasons? And where is the twist? There were no clues on his Wikipedia page.

Players I Collect 2016 - Part 3

Continuing on with the Players I Collect who had cards in 2016. Or at least the cards of them that I have.

Dwight Gooden
After a 6 year gap, there have been no lack of Dwight Gooden cards since 2012. Overall I have 106 Gooden cards, most of them from his 16 year career.

This is a reproduction of Gooden's 1985 card, which is the year I started collecting. I don't have the original of this but there was a Gooden "Record Breaker" card in 1985, which I do have.

Another insert in Topps. My first Gooden card is from the 1984 Topps Update set.

Goose Gossage
Although his best years were behind him, he still had some good years left in him when I started collecting in 1985. Oddly enough, however, I only have 23 Gossage cards, and 9 of them are post career.

Gossage retired in 1994 but there were no 1991 Topps cards for him.

Ken Griffey Jr.
As you might expect, there are plenty of Griffey post-career cards. He retired in 2010 and I already have 26 (out of the 459 total) post-season cards of his. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, his first year of eligibility, certainly won't hurt his popularity with the hobby.

One of the few recent Panini sets I actually like.

1997 Topps is one of my favorite sets from the 1990s. My biggest beef with this Berger's Best set is that I would have liked it to be more about the card design than the player.

Power Alley indeed with 630 career home runs. I was in Toronto for a conference and saw the Mariners play the Blue Jays in June 1997, when Griffey and Mark McGwire were both on a pace to beat Roger Maris' single season home run record. I'd seen a Blue Jays-A's game a few days before and McGwire had hit a monster home run. At the Mariners game, I thought that if Griffey hit a homer, and one of them beat the Maris record, I'd be able to say that I saw one of the record breaking home runs in person. Griffey had a disappointing day but managed to just clear the outfield fence in his last at bat. Griffey ended up with 56 that year and McGwire hit 58. So close for both of them.

Trade from across the sea

I haven't made a trade with John from England for awhile but I got an email from him last June proposing our usual trade, Red Sox cards for Astros cards. We finally got it pulled off. John writes a card blog "The Pursuit of 80's (ness)" but hasn't posted since earlier in the year. Come on John, let's see something new.

I always get a pretty varied collection of stuff from John and I always wonder where he finds this stuff in Kent.

Let's have a look and some of what he sent.

1965 Milkana Astrodome

This is a real oddball. Milkana is a German cheese company which apparently sold from a location in London. In searching for something about it the only substantial information came from a post John did in 2010. We both are guessing that the card dates from around when the Astrodome opened in 1965. The painting was done by someone who probably didn't know anything about baseball. Milkana is still around. They have a cartoon blue heart with hands as their mascot that goes by the name of Mr. Doo Dhu.

1976 Topps #171 Greg Gross

I don't actually collect Astros from before 1995, but 1976 cards are always welcome as I only have a few and most of them are Phillies. Future Phillie Greg Gross shows off the colorful Astros uniform in full splendor. The Astros have incorporated some of this rainbow goodness in their current unis but not like this. I assume that the '40' on the shoulder was a tribute to someone. His uniform number is on his pants.

1997 Score Reserve Collection #487 Chris Holt

1997 Score wasn't a very attractive set but they made up for it with a series of confusingly named parallel cards. This featured a silver foil background with raised silver foil rays behind the player.

Score Hobby Reserve #370 Brad Ausmus

This one featured an embossed gold shield conveniently placed for Ausmus to sit on.

2002 Donruss Fan Club #160 Lance Berkman

Donruss also issued in 2002 "Best of Donruss Fan Club" which had exactly the same cards as above but were printed on foil board.

2003 Upper Deck 40-Man #369 Octavio Dotel

From 2002 through 2005, Topps issued their Topps Total set which contained every player on each team's 40-man roster. Not to be outdone, Upper Deck did the same thing in 2002 and 2003. These sets were huge, with about 1,000 cards each.

2003 Upper Deck MVP #17 Lance Berkman

This was an inexpensive set which I never cared much for so didn't buy much of. This is now the only Astro from the set that I have. I only had one Phillie as well. This drove me to eBay where I was able to pick up the Astros and Phillies team sets for a couple of bucks apiece.

2008 Upper Deck Goudey Autographs J. R. Towles

As named by the Night Owl, the "Ken Griffey says" set. Pretty forgettable but still an autographed card and much appreciated. Towles (pronounced tolls) hit .375 in 14 games in his 2007 debut year and looked like the next big thing. In 5 total years with the Astros (155 games) he only hit .187.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Blue Framed Paper #256 Nolan Ryan

Another much appreciated card from the 2nd year of Gypsy Queen. I didn't get any variation of the Ryan card from that set. This is numbered 147/599.

2013 Triple Play #32 Matt Dominguez

If I were Matt Dominguez, I'd sue over this card.

2015 Donruss Studio #7 Jose Altuve

Panini's not entirely successful attempt to revive Donruss Studio.