Birthday Cards Part 2

As I stated in a post a few days ago, it was my birthday on Wednesday. I always enjoyed buying cards on my birthday, because it truly is the perfect gift for me. It's my main interest, cards are something I can always enjoy.

That's why I was so excited when my dad told me we were going to our local card shop on my birthday to pick out a box of cards. I had so many ideas on what to get, but no clue what was available.

After talking to the owner for a few minutes I began to narrow my focus to Gypsy Queen, and the Gypsy Queen set I had the least of, 2014. With a promise of 2 relics and 2 autographs it was a no-brainer and I chose that box. 

I'm not going to go pack by pack but rather show you the big hits, and there were a lot of them.

The first hits were the blue framed cards. These are all numbered /499 and were a Gypsy Queen staple for years. I was able to pull 2 of these, one of Adam Jones, a player I collect.

And one of Harmon Killebrew, another player I collect. Yes, I know the Killebrew is a bit mis-cut, but I don't really mind. I'm too intrigued by the blue borders and how well they work with the card. It leads me to be baffled as to why Topps didn't bring these back in this year's Gypsy Queen set. I personally love these especially since I got 2 of players I collect.

The next hits were cards that have also been in Gypsy Queen until this year and that is the minis.

Gypsy Queen took a page out of Allen & Ginter's book for their first 6 years and included 1 mini card per pack.

I pulled 3 of these in the hobby box and each one is numbered /199. This is proof that yet again Topps can make black borders work, therefore they need to bring those borders into a base set very soon.

The backs also embrace the all-black theme and swaps the text and background color to make one of the coolest card backs I've seen in a while. Getting Jake Marisnick is okay, just because the orange jersey goes well with the border.

But getting a player I collect like Starlin Castro, and a Jed Lowrie card with one of the most colorful jerseys in baseball history is even better. To me, the black borders work well with everything. From an exciting picture to a not so exciting picture. They add to the card, without taking away from it which I appreciate.

The final numbered mini was the sepia, a color that Gypsy Queen uses year after year.

This Chris Archer sepia mini is numbered 38/50 and was by far the best mini of the box. The sepia color is perfect for this set, and the image they chose of Archer also works really well. Archer reminds me a lot of Nolan Ryan in terms of his ERA and strikeout totals. Through 6 seasons Archer has an ERA of 3.63 which isn't that good, but his 1044 strikeouts more than make up for that. He has the potential to be great, if he can improve his ERA and get some run support.

Now I'm going to move on to the relics and autographs.

The first relic is a pretty standard one in Domonic Brown. He, like Archer, played for 6 years, but has not played in the MLB since 2015. He hit .246 in these 6 seasons for the Phillies, but has had just one good season. In 2013 he was named an All-Star and ended up hitting .272 with 27 homers and 83 RBI. He's currently a free agent and he's still just 30 years old. He could bring the experience to a young team that needs it.

I'll get to the other relic later, here are the autographs.

These autographs are also pretty good. Leonys Martin played for the Cubs this season and helped lead them back to the NLCS. He previously played for the Rangers and Mariners and originally played in Cuba. Jake Odorizzi is also a great autograph to have of an up and coming player. Odorizzi is just 27, but already has over 600 strikeouts and a reasonable 3.85 ERA for Tampa Bay. Since the Rays are known for creating great pitchers, don't be surprised to see Odorizzi become a 20 game winner in upcoming years.

(Apologizes for the photo quality this card is too thick to scan)

Coming out of one of the final packs was this beautiful black framed Eric Hosmer relic card. The mini features a black border, as does the frame of the card itself while the relic is a dark blue, a perfect combination.

And if that wasn't enough, the card also has a black card back and is numbered 7/10. This is definitely one of the best relics in my collection. At this point I thought the box couldn't get any better.

Well, I was wrong.

Yes it is smudged due to usage of the plate itself, but this Debut All-Stars Prince Fielder magenta printing plate was the crown jewel of this box. This is the 3rd printing plate in my collect, and the first non-yellow one so I will gladly keep this card in my collection. I am quite annoyed that it's smudged on the right side, but I got so many memorable cards in this box that there's no way I'm going to let this discourage me. This was by far the greatest hobby box I've ever opened.