and finally.....here's Gypsy Queen (part 2)

If you missed the first half of this post, you can find my autographs and relics here.  Again, I am a little bit behind with some of my posts, so thank you for bearing with me on these posts this weekend.  Today I am going to look at the base set and parallels in this year's Gypsy Queen.

Base Set

The base set is the usual:

• 300 cards with 50 short prints for a total of 350 cards
• There is one mini per pack which follow the same pattern as the base set. 
• Each box of cards has a pack of minis.  They contain the variations of the minis
• Base set has photo variations- We are dealing with Topps 

Overall I am not a huge fan of this design.  I usually like the dark colored cards, a little bit more condition sensitive since chipping shows easily, but these do not do it for me.  It's an odd and unattractive color of brown.  The shape of the window around the card is also odd.  What in the world is that shape?  What's that thing in between the Gypsy Queen label and player name at the top of the card?  

It kind of looks like the Ashoka Chakra on the Indian flag......

 Anyway, I am not a huge fan of the design.  Topps has now made the Gypsy Queen for the last five years and has kept the design close to the initial release in 2011.  Perhaps next year they will come up with something different without losing the feel of the set.  I understand, it's a fine line to walk.  

Parallels

The big parallel set in Gypsy Queen is still the framed cards that are numbered out of 500.  These have always been popular cards with collectors.  I like the looks of these and will probably try to find a few of these with Cardinals and Rays players.  Nice cards.....

The minis also have parallels.  The most common are the silvers which are numbered out of 199.  I pulled a total of five, but they generally run about three per box.  I almost like the coloring on these minis better than the base set.  I did not pull a black parallel out of my box, but they are numbered to just 5 this year, instead of 25, and feature red letting.  Sharp looking cards.  

This red mini of former Cardinals/Angels shortstop David Eckstein was my best parallel pulled.  It's a red mini numbered out of 25.  Again, the coloring on this card is better than the coloring on the base set cards.  I really like the looks of this card, and while it shows Eckstein on the Angels, it's still a keeper.  

Inserts

Which brings us to the inserts.  There are a few different in the set, but I am going to focus on my favorite two insert cards from this set: Glove Stories and Walk Off Winners.  

The Glove Stories inserts feature players who made great defensive plays last year.  There are some different names in the set and you don't see too many too often in inserts.  Yes, there is Trout in there, but there are also cards of Dustin Ackley, Steven Souza, and Peter Bourjos.  I did not get a Souza, but one is on it's way.  I do like the Ackley, even though he was a Tar Heel, making this cool catch.  

The Walk-Off Winners set is similar to the Glove Stories.  Sure there are a few more big names thrown in there, but lots of cool cards.  There are three Cardinals for me to chase down, but I did land this sweet Longoria which shows his walk off from the last day of the 2011 season.....