2015 Topps Gypsy Queen

Given a choice of spending money on Topps Gypsy Queen and Topps Allen and Ginter, I'll spend more on A&G. That said, I gotta have some so I generally buy a blaster and a value pack (to get the white framed cards).

I was pretty disappointed in the card selection I got. Paying 45 cents/card I'd expect to see more big name players in the box. I'd have liked to have seem more cards like Bryce Harper and less like Mookie Betts. Also, there were no Phillies and only 1 Astro in the 54 base cards I got.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #155 Troy Tulowitzki

This is the 5th year for Gypsy Queen and there are some notable changes. The front borders which up to now have been a beige or light green color are dark brown this year. The photo cutout has a peculiar key-hole shape. The backs are a light gray same as last year. The first 4 years were some shade of yellow. The backs and fronts are a bit less ornate than last year. I've always sort of liked Gypsy Queen and sort of like this year as well.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #55 Robinson Cano

A big change this year is in the number of posed photographs. In past years I've seen 2-4 posed shots. this year, more than half of the cards feature posed photos.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #127 Dee Gordon

And many of these posed photos remind me of Topps Turkey Red cards.

There is the usually assortment of mini-cards, one per pack. I pulled on serial numbered mini.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Silver #119 Clayton Kershaw

The mini silver parallels are numbered to 199.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #324 Bruce Sutter

Cards numbered 301-350 are short prints inserted 1 in 8 packs. That should work out to one per blaster. 1 in 8 packs works out to 1 in 48 cards so the short print count must be about 2% of the normal print run.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Framed White #2 Hank Aaron

This is one of the white framed parallels. Only 100 cards from the set have the paper frames parallels (bronze, black or white). The white framed cards are only available in the retail 3-pack value packs. For some reason neither basebalcardpedia.com nor beckett.com lists these cards as part of the set.

Of the numerous insert cards I got three.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Walk-Off Winners Alex Gordon

What's more exciting than a walk-off home run?

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen The Queen's Throwbacks Rougned Odor

Can you believe that this guy's nickname is "Stinky"?

2015  Topps Gypsy Queen Pillars of the Community Yadier Molina

I have two problems with this card. For one thing, I don't believe that the definition of "Pillar of the Community" is "he hit .300+ in four straight seasons". Molina does have a charitable foundation which raises money for kinds with cancer in Puerto Rico. That's an activity which leads to being a pillar of the community. A look at Molina's stats shows that this isn't even true. Molina has hit .300+ in 4 of his 12 years, 3 of those years in a row. There were two years of sub-.300 hitting between his 1st and 2nd year of performing this feat. Maybe they mean he has hit .300 in four seasons in a row while batting in St. Louis but that's a pretty liberal reading of the back of the card.