2015 Gypsy Queen First Look

My collecting tendencies come and go, sometimes it's hockey, sometimes it's football, sometimes it's base cards, sometimes it's higher end, sometimes it's Ramon Hernandez. The one constant since getting back into collecting has been Gypsy Queen. I have finished 2011-2013 and 2014 is getting closer. Every year since 2012 I have bought 2 boxes, I love Gypsy Queen.

Jonathan Gray - Bowman Black Collection 2.0

A while back, my top collecting goal was to get all the Rockies from the multi-year, multi-brand Bowman Black Collection Autograph series. This past winter I managed to track them all down, but a new year means new cards, although always new players. In March of this year, my redemption for the Jonathan Gray Bowman Black Collection from 2013 Bowman Draft came arrived, then in June I noticed Jon Gray was again listed in Bowman Inception as a part of the BBC checklist. My first reaction was annoyance at re-using a player from last year instead of another prospect, but after receiving the card, the photo selection on this one is way better, and the prospect I really wanted Topps to use, Raimel Tapia, got a Black Collection card in Bowman flagship this year.

Recent Pickup (or why I don't break high end)

There are few things about Topps high end products such as 2014 Triple Threads that confuse me. One being why there are even base cards in the first place, do we really need another 100 card base set of the same players that are in every base set. Limit high-end to just autos and relics like Inception and be done with it. The second is why players like Mr. Franklin Morales here are included. While having and interesting career, coming up as a rookie starting pitcher for Colorado's World Series run in 2007. Later spending time as the Rockies closer and eventual World Series champ with the 2013 Red Sox, Morales is back with the Rockies as a 6th starter/longman, which in this season from hell puts him second on the team in starts and innings pitched. While this is a nice card, numbered to only 9 copies, even as a die-hard Rockies fan a collector, I only bought this card because of the spring training hat in the photo. I can't imagine the disappointment of a non-Rockies fan, pulling a Franklin Morales card out of a high-end product and selling it, to me, on ebay, for $3.26. Right now you can pick up a box of 2014 Triple Threads at Blowout for 164.95. Keep in mind that only gets you 14 cards. I hope that whoever pulled this Morales, the rest of their pack went a little bit better.

Maybe Topps Bunt Isn't All Bad

Things are very slow in the card front around here, so after scrambling through the scanned folder I found something that I had totally forgot about. Back in June I downloaded the Topps Bunt app, the virtual trading card game and starting messing around with, buying packs, making a few trades, and it turned out to be a fun little time waster. Then I heard people were actually selling these digital cards on the secondary market. So after pulling an Xander Bogaerts insert I put it up on ebay to test the waters. The auction ended at $7.56, almost 8 bucks for a card that does not actually exist! So with a basically free $7.56 in my paypal I added the card below to my collection.

Are you ready for some football?

Week 1, at time of hope and optimism, were every team coming into the game is in first place with an undefeated 0-0 record, and a time for me to post some cards that have been sitting in the scanned folder for far to long. Starting with a black bordered parallel ,numbered to 35, of Sean Taylor from 2004 Skybox LE. I have grown tired of die-cuts, but I actually like this set. I usually don't like training camp shots either, but the trees in the background make for a nice photo.

2014 Bowman Platinum Group Break Results

In deciding not to spend over $100 on a box on 2014 Bowman Platinum, I decided to try and jump in on a few box breaks to pick up some Rockies. I have done two previous box breaks, 2012 Archives and 2012 Heritage, both went poorly for me, but that was largely because I joined before I realized how poor the Rockies checklists for these sets were.

I was hoping this one would be different, but it was not. 6 boxes of Bowman Platinum yielded me very little. I did watch the break, and the breaker ran a good honest break. It was just the packs that were against me. I did get the base team set, but that is only the two cards to the right.

Zistle Hockey Trade

There is starting to be a little more hockey finding it's way into my collection. The most recent Zistle trade was all hockey both ways. Most of my hockey cards are still at my parents house, probably including a couple copies of the card above. The Sharks were always my second team, after coming home from playing games over the winter, I could usually catch the end of the late west coast games, and I got a soft spot for the teal jerseys and the weird Latvian goalie with the equipment that looked like second hand store rejects.