2019 Gypsy Queen Box Break (1 of 2)

  Rockies, Redskins & Gypsy Queen. These have been the constants since 2012, although the last of three has been not as constant the last couple years. 2015 was hideously ugly and full of posed non-action photos. 2016 was a return to the classic style and well liked by me. 2017 was the big one. Out with minis, in with feathered photos and a weird, disjointed design. 2018 was an improvement, but with the bad taste 2017 left in my mouth, I didn't buy my yearly two boxes for the first time since I returned to collecting. This bring us to 2019, and as the photo above indicates, I jumped back on the bandwagon with 2 boxes.

Cards from Doug

Another great package from Buckstore Cards, as always filled with great stuff, like the above Harry Giles auto-relic-rookie card from Spectra. Shiny, on-card and team color swatch, hard to beat that.

A Couple Football Trades

A couple smaller trades merged into one post. The obvious highlight is the above, I am thrilled any time I can add a new Sean Taylor in a trade, this is the Topps Collection gold foil version that I believe was released as a complete factory set.

3 From The 'Bay (aka Joy of a Completed Set)

IT'S DONE! Time to take a big black sharpie, cross off the short prints and toss the 2015 Gypsy Queen wantlist in the bin. A rare 'bay seller with reasonable shipping to Canada and a Hoyt Wilhelm in stock crosses the last one off and finishes the Gypsy Queen run from 2011-2016. 

RLC Custom Card Project: Joe Grahe, 1972 Topps

The Player: Joe Grahe is best known for his time with the Angels from 1990-1994 in which he split time between the rotation and bullpen, saving 45 games with a career high 21 in 1992. Grahe signed with the Rockies in 1995, beginning the season in the bullpen, then starting 8 games before going on the D.L. and returning to the bullpen in September. He would then miss 1996 due to injury, then spend two years between the Independent Leagues and AAA before returning to the majors with the Phillies in 1999.

The Card: Not my favorite design of the 70s, but it is always interesting to see how these vintage designs work with modern expansion teams. This one is borrowed from the 2013 Topps Archives set which saved starting the design from scratch as the team font looks pretty daunting.

The Project: The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

My kind of Diamond Rings

It hard to believe it's almost 10 year since the Bruins last won the cup, and just as hard to believe that I haven;t picked up more of these cards. This recent lot of 2 brings me up to an unimpressive 4. Gregory Campbell was one of those players that don't show up on the statsheet, but was huge in the Bruins Playoff runs, most famously breaking his leg blocking a shot, then finishing the penalty kill against the Penguins in 2013.

First Comc Mailday of 2019 (Part 2)

I passed on buying a couple boxes of Panini Revolution and instead just bough the two autographs I really wanted, along with the Bogdanovic I found for cheap as a pending redemption. It's so nice to see Jason Williams on-card autos with the Kings in modern products and having one in Revolution, my favorite NBA product is about as good as it gets. 

First Comc Mailday of 2019 (Part 1)

There were some things sitting in my account that I really wanted in hand (the previously posted Sammy Baugh coming through the mailbox program being the main one) that led to requesting a shipment without a ton of items. Starting off with some shiny gold, inspired by this post on The Collector blog I picked up some gold 2002 Pristine and wow, they are nice. More modern, but just as nice is the Gold Trevor Story from 2017 Stadium Club.

Another Big New Addition

First off, thanks for all the Congratulations on the previous post. Secondly, back to the cardboard and a pretty huge addition to the Redskins collection. An on-card signature of Sammy Baugh, Hall of Famer and pretty much the first NFL superstar with the Redskins from 1937-1952 winning two NFL Championships, 6x 1st Team All-Pro, 2x 2nd Team All-Pro, 2x NFL Player of the Year and was the career leader in Passing yards and Passing Touchdowns when he retired.

It's A Boy!

A couple quick points, a new addition on Feb 8th, our second child and first boy, everyone is doing well. That explains the lack of action here, as well as a few packages that never got a post, including one from Sportscards from the Dollar Store with a lot of my favorite 2018 release, Panini Chronicles. Hopefully back to normal soon.