Tulowitzki 1/1 Addition

While not an active collector of printing plates, the odd one shows up that I feel the need to add to my PC, the most recent being a Troy Tulowitzki Magenta plate from 2012 Gypsy Queen, only my seventh printing plate and my first from 2012 Gypsy Queen.

GQ From COMC: 2012 Completed

The biggest part of a recent COMC order, over half of the 48 card order was Gypsy Queen, and a large part of that was finishing the photo variants from 2012 (not including the Yu Darvish card). There was also some 2011 & 2013 short prints as I slowly chip away at those sets.

I managed to gather a couple nice Rockies cards as well, the 2013 Tulo short print, a 2011 Printing Plate of Jorge de la Rosa, relics of Jordan Pacheco and Carlos Gonzalez, a 2013 Black Mini Cargo, the last 2 Drew Pomeranz mini's I needed for the rainbow and a mini autograph, numbered to 10, of Wilin Rosario.

Full Trade and Want lists below if anyone is intrested in trading
2011 / 2012 / 2013

Trade with Dutch Card Guy

Everyone's favorite European baseball card blogger recent posted his side of our trade and after getting the post today here it's my turn. Upon opening the package I got thinking that American baseball cards coming from the Netherlands to Canada, these cards might have had a more adventurous life than I have. Starting off with an autograph of Greg Smith who was traded with Carlos Gonzalez among others from the Diamondbacks to the A's for Dan Haren, then traded with Cargo and Huston Street to Colorado for Matt Holliday. Smith went 1-2 with the Rockies in 2010 posting a 6.23 ERA, but probably provided more value with the bat, going 4-13 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Smith recently signed with the Phillies and is pitching in Double-A. The trade came to be based on 2013 Gypsy Queen, in return for a stack of minis, Jeroen sent me 19 base cards, leaving me 13 short of the base set. (Want/Trade list here if you can help me out).

Seriously Topps?

Not an April Fools joke, although I wish it was, here we have 2012 and 2013 Gypsy Queen Yogi Berra. I noticed Topps used the same couple photos for a bunch of 2012 Drew Pomeranz cards, but they at least were cropped a little different, but using the same photo of the same player in the same brand is seriously ridiculous. I also noticed the Tulowitzki card looked familiar.WTF.

Small Sportlots Mailday

The ongoing saga of the 2013 Topps Ramon Hernandez rainbow continues with a reasonably priced camo parallel numbered to 99 from sportlots. Along for the ride were a few randoms for the wantlist to make shipping cost per card a little more reasonable. A Drew Pomeranz numbered to 199 from Bowman Sterling, I really like the looks of this set, they don't scan great but look really nice in real life, Chris Cowell and Jordan Pacheco go into the Rockies Catcher collection, Pacheco is a part time catcher so it's nice to get a card of him in catcher gear, even if it's a spring training shot from the terribly ugly Finest set. The Neely is a throwback to my youth as he was the first player I ever actively collected, and finished off with some 2012 Gypsy Queen photo variants that I already had, but were too cheap to pass up and are added to my GQ tradelist.

Carlton Fisk Mailday

A couple cards from a recent COMC order, a project that I have been ignoring is trying to get a bat relic card of the top 10 home run hitting catchers. The 1977 Topps Carlton Fisk is one of my favorite cards of all time so when I saw this card from the 2002 Topps Archives Reserve Bat Relics set, I knew I needed it. I also added the 2012 Gypsy Queen jersey relic as part of a larger offer as I am always a sucker for GQ cards.

Another Zistle Trade

One of my goals for 2013 was to trade more and so far it's off to a good start. Another trade with LV's TTM autographs and Baseball Cards through Zistle featuring some of my favorite sets. Starting off with the first tall-boy baseball card to enter my collection, a Howard Johnson 1994 Extra Bases card, I know I bought a bunch of hockey cards this size as a kid so I must have some 6 pocket pages somewhere. Also some Rockies minis and a Yorvit Torrealba who is back with Colorado on a minor league deal. The rest included some 1992 Pinnacle series 2 and 1995 Upper Deck, two sets I love, but have so few of I haven't really thought about finishing them. A 1971 style Ryan Zimmerman and some Gypsy Queen minis, I love the black borders and the Carlos Ruiz is one of my favorite cards of 2012. The whole thing finished off with a lone Redskin, Sultan McCullough who played one game with Washington and I think finished his career in the CFL.

Contest Winnings

Just getting around to post a mystery package that came in the mail, and judging by the address must be contest winnings from the "card back contest" over at Cardboard Heaven. Pretty nice bunch of cards with a my first Tulowitzki relic showing a little bit of a pinstripe. Gypsy Queens are always appreciated are here, but even more so when it's an photo variant I need, and this Votto brings me up to 38 of 50. Among the Rockies we have a Cargo mini and blue framed out of 599, some serial numbered Helton cards, a high ranking prospect in Trevor Story and a gorgeous Wal-Mart Black Eric Young, Jr.
Thanks for the cards!

Goals for 2013

I wasn't going to do a post on this, but reading a few other list got me thinking about what my goals are as far as collecting so here it is.

1. Keep the blog active, the minimum I have set for myself is 2 posts a week but I hope to stay more active than that.

2. Complete more trades, in little over a year I did 15 trades, so about one a month, not bad but a few more would be nice.

3. Finish the "One of every Rockie" collection. After a COMC purchase yesterday I am down to 9 players from 1993-2012. The remanining 9 are Gary Wayne, Aaron Ledesma, Ross Gload, Justin Speier, Chris Richard, Adam Melhuse, Edwin Bellorin, Rob Scahill and Thomas Field. The list will grow once the 2013 products come out but I want to focus on these ones first.

4. Complete a 2013 set, I will be buying 2 boxes of 2013 Gypsy Queen which should get me close to the base set leaving me to work on any short prints.

5. Complete 2 older sets, right now I am looking at 1992 Pinnacle and 2012 Gypsy Queen short prints, or at least all of them other than the Darvish.

6. Get my 2011 GQ set above 50%, right now I have 147 out of 350 (42%) including 33 of 50 short prints (66%).

7. Acquire at least one more 1977 Topps Mexican NFL Redskin, I am down to 7 for the team set with mostly expensive short prints left.

8. Get a TTM autograph, I was going to try this last past year, but the NHL lockout put this on hold, I will try a few over the year and see what happens.

9. Get an in person auto, more on this next week hopefully.

10. See a pro baseball game, this might be a small goal for some, but with the closest MLB stadium over 850 miles and an international border away, it's a big deal for me. Any planned trips look like they will be to a minor league stadium so we will see what happens there.

11. Buy a box of cards other than Gypsy Queen, last year I was all set to buy a box of 2012 Update or Bowman Draft, but I blew my budget on two cards costing around $80 combined in Tim Thomas and Daniel Paille autographs.

12. Add to my Rockies autograph cards, Matt Holliday, Larry Walker and Andres Galarraga top this list.

The list ended up longer than I thought, so it seems like a worthwhile effort and if you made it this far into the post thanks for reading.

COMC Black Friday Order Part II: Minis

The mini portion of my big COMC order, starting with my first Black Mini from 2011 Gypsy Queen, Jorge De La Rosa. A couple Mini's you don't see a lot of, a 2001 PS-206 Private Stock Jeff Cirillo and a 2000 PS-2000 Private Stock Larry Walker. A Black Border Ginter Pomeranz along with 3 different Gypsy Queen Pomeranz Minis. The big highlight for me was a last few cards to finish off the Rockies team set of 2012 GQ Black Minis, by far my favorite cards of 2012.

COMC Black Friday Order Part I: Gypsy Queen

A Christmas present to myself, my big COMC order finally arrived giving me enough to post about until the new 2013s hit the shelves. The first batch of scans is pile of short prints including a few of the more expensive ones checked off the list and a Ty Wigginton SP to complete my Rockies team set. Freddie Freeman 2011 Rookie for 1.50, Babe Ruth short print for under $2 and a Hank Aaron SP for $1.85 all good deals in my eyes. A small pile of 2012 Photo variants bring me to within 14 of the set.

I still have lists for 2011 (here) and 2012 (here) if anyone is interested in a trade.

Eutaw Street Cardboard Mailday

Just a quick post showing of some finds from the Eutaw Street Cardboard "Selling out for the National" sale he did.It's not a secret that I love Gypsy Queen so I jumped on the chance to add a new black and green mini, the black minis are my favorite cards from 2012 so far by a long ways. Also got a couple Rockies catchers, who doesn't love Jayhawk Owens,  and a former Rockies catcher in Blanco, one of my favorite cards of 2011 looking really good as a red bordered D-Backs card, and a couple young Rockies pitching prospects in Tago and Matzek. The Cal Ripken leaves me 45 cards short of the 1992 Pinnacle Series 1 set.

COMC Haul

Destined to be lost in the swell of Ginter posts just showing off some cards from a recent COMC order. First some auto's, Current Oakland Athletic and member of the 2007 National League Champs Seth Smith, followed by prospect Tyler Anderson, probably the worst looking auto in my collection and left handed specialist Mike Munoz rounded out with bat cards of Andres Galarraga and Matt Holliday. I think this is the only "relic" card of Galarraga with the Rockies.

Custom Card: 2012 Gypsy Queen Larry Walker

Something I have been working on for a while is to try and match the filters Topps uses for Gypsy Queen. After some messing around I am getting closer so I decided to share the first version I feel ok with. So here it is, Larry Walker in the "so terrible they are awesome" 1999 Turn Ahead The Clock jerseys. The Rockies have been fairly conservative with their jerseys since 1993, but this one is way out there. The photo might be a little over-processed, but the jersey looks pretty close. I am not totally satisfied with it so there might be new versions in the coming months.

Trade with The Dimwit

This was a straight Gypsy Queen for Gypsy Queen trade with The Daily Dimwit, an bunch of mini's his way, and coming back was the rest of the base singles to complete my set and a pile of SP photo variations, a Juan Nicasio mini for the Rockies collection as well as the only sliding stars I needed, the Elvis Andrus. I won't overload you with GQ scans, I just wanted to thank Dimwit for the trade and to mark my first set completion since starting this blog. I still need a few mini's and assorted other cards if anyone is interesting in a trade my updated list is here.

2012 Gypsy Queen For Trade & Needs

2012 Gypsy Queen Wants  

Updated May 9, 2016

Base

Completed

Photo Variants
288
Framed Blue
69
Framed Gold
69, 142
Mini
142B
Mini Black
41, 113, 293

2012 Gypsy Queen Box Break 2 Results

Box 2 has been cracked and I will not break it down as much because I mixed the minis up. The hits improved on the box big time, Carlos Gonzalez was on the top of my "guys I need auto's of" list that that pull was nice, I don't collect Lincecum but probably would if he wasn't a Giant, I despise Upton, and the Heisey is a lame pull, but a fun box overall. The real highlight of this box was no one double, in the whole box, there was not two of the same card, awesome.

Over two boxes I am only missing 18 cards from the base set with 77 doubles. I really like this set, scans don't do the cards justice.

2012 Gypsy Queen Box Break 1 Results

Box one of 2012 Gypsy Queen has been broken, my hits were nothing special but it was a fun box to break and the cards look awesome, on card auto's, the frame parallel are nice, not a huge fan of the inserts but the glove stories are cool. Here is a rundown of what I pulled

Base Set: 167 of 300 (55.6%)
Rockies: 4 (all base cards)
Base Doubles: 15
Photo Variants: 6
Autographs: 2 (Kyle Seager, Jon Niese)
Relic: 1 (Billy Butler)
Framed Mini Relic: 1 (Andrew McCutchen)
Moonshots: 8
Glove Stories: 4
Sliding Stories: 8

They Are Finally Here!!!

2 Boxes of Gypsy Queen, I had these pre-ordered but the problems with living in the middle of no where is that you have to wait for think to come in the post. My nest couple days are set with sorting this out, I will post the boxes separately to show off the spoils.

Mailday and Lazy Topps

 Another one card mail-day as I wait for my 2 boxes of 2012 Gypsy Queen to show up in the post. After checking out the Museum Collection checklist the only card I really wanted was the Pomeranz auto, I found one that shipped from Taiwan, I get nervous ordering from that far away, but the card came in 10 days and was packaged well. Nice high end card, really thick card stock, sharp auto. The thing I noticed with this is that Topps used the same picture for 3 out of the 5 Pomeranz cards they have produced. 4 out of 6 if you count Opening Day as its own release. Heritage got a different photo and there is a photo variation of the museum auto. They altered the GQ card to a road uni, but if you look at the crowd in the background, it's the same shot. Oddly enough it is also the same photo Cards from the Quarry used for a custom back in November.