I'm back... with some Queens!

I have to be honest. I know nothing about Gypsy Queen.  If you've followed this blog, you may remember that until 2012 Heritage, I had been pretty much a Topps flagship collector only.  Not for any reason other than keeping track of all the other sets was just mind-blowing.  I didn't get it.

But now, I'm starting to.  I LOVED Heritage, and I still have 22 more high-numbered short prints to track down.  And now, I went to target and dropped thirty bucks on Gypsy Queen.  I was going to hold out and just wait till Archives (is that the name of it?) in late May, but perhaps I was swayed by the fact that the Mets collapse hasn't begun yet, so I still look at baseball with a hopeful eye.

This first post will just feature the three cards on top, which are some kind of "framed card" - these were in a target pack that cost either 9.99 or 9.49 - I can't remember.  The pack contained three regular packs, and then these three "framed cards" - and I'm not sure if they are some insert or sub-set or target exclusive thing...  but I do know this - they look and feel VERY nice in my hands.

My apologies for the blog absence, but I am now "in-season" with coaching, so my free time becomes quite limited.  I will continue to read everyone out there - and will pay special attention to Gypsy Queen!

2012 Heritage - Scoring some SPs

Sadly, my free time is not what it used to be.  I guess that's good, from a work point of view - but unfortunately my blogging had to take a back seat this past week.  But there is good news - a card show on Sunday yielded a Heritage score!

First, I was able to pick the 71 Heritage cards (and one checklist) that I needed to complete my regular set (1-425).  I was then able to look over the high-numbered SP's that the table had, and I was able to grab 24 different ones for $40.  I'm not sure what you think about that price, but I was definitely happy. 

I currently need 34 more to complete the set, cards 426-500.

I am psyched!

I am going to try to hit a card show in the next week or two, and see if I can close these out.  If you have any high-numbered SP's that you are willing to part with, PLEASE post below!  I'll let you know if I need them, and then I'll try to work something out.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to get back to blogging more regularly by mid-week!

Oh, and by the way, the picture above is a collage of 9 of the "best" high-numbered SP's that I now own!

2012 Heritage - Hobby Box Stats

So let's take a look at the second box:

1 Clubhouse Collection relic - Sandoval
3 Stickers - Longoria, Stanton, Carpenter
8 High Number Short Prints
2 Baseball Flashbacks - McCover, Koufax
2 News Flashbacks - Penn Station, MLK
1 New Age Performer - Votto
2 Then and Now - Aparicio/Bourn and Mathews/Bautista
1 Chrome Refractor - Masterson
2 Chrome - Morse, Jeter
1 Photo Swap - Lee

some good news:  I have 17 different high-number SP's - no duplicates.
some bad news:  than means I have 58 to go!

more good news:  I have no duplicates on any of the above-mentioned inserts, either.
more bad news:  I am still missing checklist 1 (I have dupes of 4 and 5)

stat-wise:  192/425 of the base card set, 200/500 if you include SP's.

I'll be combining the two hobby boxes today, so I'll post on that soon...

2012 Heritage - The Final Five

The final five packs of my Hobby Box are upon us, and I kick it off with my THIRD Mets high-numbered short print!  Jason Bay.  As a Mets fan, I could write an entire blog - never mind just an entry - mulling the Mets career of this guy.  Let's just move on instead...

Here's two more high-numbered short prints - these seem to be buried at the bottom of both of my Hobby Boxes - I always closed out the last several packs with a number of them.  They seem to be coming 8 per hobby box, so it's funny that I pull these four in a row.  Does anyone know how Hobby Boxes are packed?  I'd be curious to find out how much human involvement there is in loading the hits and inserts.

So now I have my 8 SP's - and have also hit all my insert numbers (baseball flashbacks, news flashbacks, etc.) - so what could be waiting in my final pack?  Something cool?

Yup!  I'll say!  I like these photo-swap cards alot - and now I have two, Chris Carpenter and Cliff Lee!  I haven't seen too much in blogs about these cards, so I am unaware about how truly rare they are - so perhaps someone out there can inform me? 

Also, I would like to thank those of you who followed the 20-or-so posts I shared on 2012 Heritage - it made me look forward to opening packs even more, and I appreciated every comment!  I will update this further as I figure out how to chase the set - and if you are interested in becoming a trade partner to exchange duplicates in order to complete your own goals, please don't hesitate to contact me!



2012 Heritage - A Sleepy Review of Five More Packs

These five packs were opened late tonight, and after opening them I will have just five packs left in my second Hobby Box.  I'm having some box fatigue, and no sight of a Carl Yastremski relic to cheer me up, but I'll try to work through it!

In these five packs I found my dud pack - the only pack in the Hobby Box without an insert or short print.  I'll have to look closely to make sure I'm not missing a color-swap or something similar, but I think it's just a dud.  I did get an Ike Davis high-numbered short print, so with he and Wright I have nailed a couple of the harder-to-reach Mets.  Wilpon friend Koufax is always a nice card to see in a pack, as well.

I figured I would scan a couple of backs since I don't have as many cards for this post.  My apologies for not tilting the Ike Davis - remember, I did say this was "sleepy!"

My final two cards of this post are both high-number short prints, including "the Omega" - a great name for Cuddyer's card 500.

2012 Heritage - Hobby Box Two - 8 more packs

Box two continues with a trio of stickers, including Mike "Giancarlo" Stanton!  Now sure what I'm going to do with these stickers.  Probably they go up for trade, since I've already had a couple of posts asking about them...  anyone have any Mets stickers out there to swap me?

MLK news flash joins a McCovey baseball flashback, two nice cards.  And then the weird New Age Performer insert which just plain continues to look weird.  I wonder if LifetimeTopps has his eye on this Votto card?

I'm curious about Jose Bautista.  I think alot of people expected him to crash after the stellar season two years ago.  Instead, he seems to be announcing himself as a late-blooming superstar.  The Kotchman card is a high-numbered short print.

In other news, I seem to be getting many cards that look familiar - this hobby box seems to be producing a bunch of duplicates.  And when you see what Lifetime Topps Project was able to pull in his back-to-back hobby boxes, I bet you'll allow me some jealousy!

2012 Hobby Box TWO!

No advertising panel this time!  When I opened this Hobby Box, I found the Original 1963 Buy Back Card, featuring Joe Cunningham.  I don't think I own any 1963 cards, so this probably counts as my first; even though it has that stamp in the upper left corner, I still like it!

I decided to open six packs tonight - and I will try to do that all week to speed the process a bit - though I do love taking my time.  My first problem, though, was unrealistic expectations - when I saw that LifetimeTopps was able to open two hobby boxes without pulling a single duplicate I was stunned - and then immediately hopeful.  But when I started opening mine, I found no mojo hit, and plenty of doubles.  Oh, well - perhaps I will have to venture into the trade market, even though I am not too skilled at that!

I did land a Chrome Jeter, that's a pretty good pull, as it's numbered /1963.  My refractor is Justin Masterson, /563, not that special of a player, though.  The other chrome is Michael Morse.  Eh.

My box hit is another Clubhouse Collection, and it's another Giant, Pablo Sandoval.  Anyone know a big Giant collector out there?  I nabbed another News Flashback and a Then & Now card.  I also got all three checklists in these six packs, and sadly two of the three I had already...