Good things comes in 3's

Unfortunately due to high International shipping costs I have to turn down a trade every so often, sometimes it is just not worth even a PWE for a couple junk wax cards both ways, but this 3 card trade was totally for it. One of my favorite parallels, the 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil, or Raining Blood parallel of a pre-beard Charlie Blackmon.

1st COMC of 2018: Baseball

No "saving the best for last here", we are going to lead off with my favorite baseball card of the package, a Cooperstown "Dufex" card of Dale Murphy. The good old Foilly Dufex from 90's Pinnacle, this is a pretty sweet card now, I bet it was a big deal back in 1993. As far as the Cooperstown part, I feel Murphy is HoF worthy, more so than a lot of recent guys that have got in.

Check Out Everything Else

I already went through the Basketball and Rockies card, so here is the rest out of the scan folder. If you are will to put some serious time in trading you can get some decent card from the Upper Deck e-pack program, this Tokarski is the Gold version, I really don't want to do the math, but 10 Base = 1 Blue, 5 Blue = 1 Red, 5 Red = 1 Gold.

Check out my (Mosty) Shiny Rockies

My collecting goes in phases, sometimes with the season, sometimes it's not. Most of the time I don't realize it's happening, but when a COMC package come that has around 4 months worth of purchases, including stuff from the mailbox program, I tend to see a trend. The trend here seems to be shiny. See above, 1998 Flair Showcase, beautiful cards that actually scanned well. I love the looks of these and will have to pick up more

Remember the Astrodome / TCDB Trade

A Trading Card DB trade that I didn't realize until later was with Remember the Astrodome, giving my first taste of 2017 Heritage. I will probably never be a huge heritage fan (unless they start the use in-game photo's, or until we get to 1971) but I always like the expanded checklist that give players like Saskatchewan born and Team Canada vet Dustin Molleken cards. I also get to check Cristhian Adames' weirdly spelled name off the One of Every Rockies checklist.

Small Zistle Trade

That's right, there are a few stubborn zistlers still around, and a few trades being made. If zistle does indeed one day go to that big web server in the sky, these are the trades I will miss. Random stuff that wasn't really even on my wantlist but found browsing peoples tradelists. Weird stuff like 1991 Leaf catchers, the veteran Jamie Quirk who has a Rockies connection as a former coach and even more veteran Rick Dempsey with a very oddly cropped card.

Check out my Cards from COMC

COMC package day is always one of favorite days, I usually only make an order every 4 months or so, and not only do I get the COMC cards I picked up, I also get my "Shipping to Canada is Crazy" Mailbox cards, including, yes, another 2013 Ramon Hernandez, the last non-printing plate needed, the mini black numbered to #5.

Gyspy Queen Pick-ups with Some 1/1 Action

I'm getting really bad at not scanning and posting thing, so I am making a point of getting back to it, starting with a compilation of recent Gypsy Queen additions. I am pretty excited about the above card, a Charlie Blackmon 1/1 Framed Black from this years GQ. I got this for $11 plus shipping probably due to the auction being listed with an un-descriptive title. I think this is only my second "true" 1/1 as I don't really count printing plates.

First 2016 GQ Trade

My first set help from 2016 Gypsy Queen comes from Judson over at My Cardboard Habit, but the coolest part wasn't the set help, it was the Mini Foil. I don't get a chance for much retail, and I think these are retail only. The shiny foil look is something different for Gypsy Queen and is a nice change of pace.

2016 Gypsy Queen Box 2

Box 2 is torn apart and sorted and won't be posted in as much detail as box one. Above we have the short prints, all the short prints this year are retired players other than Kenta Maeda, The Killebrew being the highlight of these with a bat barrel photo. Surprisingly, two boxes completed my base 300 card set and left me with 69 doubles. Just out of curiosity I checked previous years two box totals. 2014 gave me 298/300, 2013 gave me 268/300 and 2012 gave me 282/300. I didn't keep track in 2015, but seeing as I still need base it doesn't seem close.

2016 Gypsy Queen Trade/Wantlist

Want-list
Updated June 10, 2017

Base: Complete!

SP: 307, 328, 350

Mini Retail Foil: 302, 303, 305-307, 309-316, 318, 320, 322-328, 330, 333, 334, 336, 338-341, 343, 344, 345, 347, 350

Framed Green: 24, 76 (Jon Gray)

Framed Blue: 24, 76

Framed Purple: 6, 17, 24, 76

Mini: 76

Mini Gold: 24, 76

Mini Purple: 24, 210, 244, 272

Mini Variations: 76

Autographs: DJ LeMahieu

Autographs Orange: DJ LeMahieu, Vinny Castilla

Trade-list

Base:
2, 4, 9, 24, 25, 32, 39, 45, 52, 59, 60, 68, 73, 74, 77, 87, 93, 94, 100, 102, 117, 123, 124, 126, 129, 131, 140, 148, 155, 161, 162, 166, 173, 174, 178, 180, 194, 199, 204, 206, 207, 208, 236, 238, 243, 269, 284, 288, 299

Autographs: Brian Johnson, Rob Refsnyder

Autographs Green #99: Ketel Marte

Photo Variation: Paul Goldschmidt

Full Sized Relic: Matt Carpenter

Mini Relic: Shelby Miller

Mini Relic Gold #50: Javier Baez

Framed Purple: A.J. Pollock

Mini Base: 4, 15, 50, 56, 67, 70, 75, 82, 83, 105, 111, 136, 156, 170, 175, 178, 182, 204, 219, 238, 245, 249, 251, 265, 273, 274, 283, 289, 295

Mini SP: 317, 343

Mini Photo Variations: 1, 5, 15, 18, 34, 44, 57, 61, 71, 88, 90, 105, 125, 138, 155, 158, 163

Mini MVP: Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Stan Musial, Buster Posey

Glove Stories: Mike Trout, Juan Perez, Kevin Pillar, Billy Burns, George Springer, Freddy Galvis, Joey Votto

Power Alley: Willie Mays, Jose Canseco, Carlos Delgado, Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson, Stan Musial, Eddie Mathews, Babe Ruth, Eddie Murray, Albert Pujols

Walk-Off Winners: Eric Hosmer, Manny Machado, Andruw Jones, Jackie Robinson, Josh Donaldson, Wilmer Flores, Kris Bryant

Ancient Era Remnants: Player's Cigarettes

2016 Gypsy Queen Box One

Base Cards 183 of 300 - No doubles, 61% of the base set. I wasn't sure about the design at first, but now that I have them in hand, I really like this years design. Simple and the red text really pops against the light background, a huge improvement over 2015. I won't flood you with base, but a few stood out.

The Signs of Spring

Snow melting, leaves coming out, baseball on TV, NHL playoffs and my annual 2 boxes of Gpysy Queen. Full review, breakdown, want and trade lists to follow.