Quick Glance At 2015 Topps

It's like the start of a brand new school year, or being the first kid out in the snow.  The beginning of the "new" card year is always a really exciting day.  All week on Twitter I had heard about collectors finding retail packs at Target or Wal Mart, but I had not been successful myself.  Honestly, I was not really trying that hard.  However, while I was at Target picking something up for a meeting, I saw this glorious sight......

The card section at my local Target is a hot mess.   This was tucked into a corner along next to all of the odds and ends of the card aisle.  I picked up a few packs along with a bundle of bananas and bottled water to help pull me through an awesome staff development at work.  Here's a quick glance at the cards and a few thoughts on their design and the whatnot.

A lot of the initial talk with the 2015 Topps set has been focused on the design.  It's different from the white bordered designs that has ran with for the better part of the past decade plus.  2007's black border and the blue borders in 2003 are the last two non-white borders that I can think of off the top of my head.  This is a quick post, so perhaps I am wrong.  I spent a little bit of time talking about the design with Jimmy, the owner of a local card shop, and we both agreed that the bottom is a little bit different.  However, some of the parallels look really nice.

The gold parallels in particular are very nicely done.  Clearly the patterns within the design are the same on the base and the gold parallel, but there is something nice about the color scheme on the bottom card.  Topps also made a really nice home-like parallel for the 2015 set, but I am not sure how well this card shows up on the scan.....

The scan seriously does not do this card justice.  The Topps Chrome product might be really nice this year.  There are also some really nice insert cards in this the 2015 Topps set.  The Opening Pitch set has been a pretty popular topic on Twitter and in discussion rooms, so I am going to leave that set alone until I show off the hits from a jumbo I am opening at my local card store.  Here are a few other cool inserts.....

First, I have to say that any insert sets that highlight defense are always first rate.  I pulled two of these out of retail packs last night and they are both outfielders.  One centerfielder and Hamilton in left.  Not sure if these are just outfielders or if they have them for all of the positions.  Again, this is a quick right up and I am not going to go and look stuff up at the moment.  Just remember, defense always makes a great insert set.

This set about Free Agents reminds me a little bit of the 2011 Topps 60 set.  Really nice looking set and I like the cool picture on this card of Carlton Fisk in the 1980s White Sox uniform.  Maybe this will end up being the coolest set in the bunch, but I am going to say this is going to be a winner of an insert set.

I almost made it through a post with no Rays and no Cardinals, but I am not passing by a Stan Musial card.  Topps did a bunch of stuff last year with the World Series, but it appears that the theme might spill over into this year's set.  This insert set is Highlight of The Year, many of which probably happened in the World Series, so again this is a set I will give a little more feedback to when I open a box of the product.  

and my last one just because I like the look of these cards.   This Carlton card has a blurb on the back about him learning to throw his trademark slider after taking a trip to Japan.  I have high hopes.  More on 2015 Topps in a cool post this weekend.  

Amazing Day of Gypsy Queens

I stopped by my favorite local card shop in Raleigh, Big D's Sports Cards, to open up some Gypsy Queen boxes.  Topps released Gypsy Queen this past Wednesday, but with family in town, it took me a few days to make it into the card shop to check out the newest version of this annual popular Topps release.  Jimmy at Big D's picked up a pair of cases of Gypsy Queen.  My two boxes were pretty amazing.  Small details first:

The base set is the typical Gypsy Queen product that Topps has issued over the past several of years with this product.  The base set is 350 with about 50 short printed cards which are generally the high numbered cards and a few singles scattered throughout the set.  The shortest of short prints appears to be the Tanaka card.  I did not pull a copy of the Tanaka rookie card, and out of the boxes that had been opened in the card store, only one copy had been pulled.  The Gypsy Queen set also features it's usual run of minis.  I pulled six black minis and a sepia mini in my two boxes. 

All of the Black Minis are numbered to 199 and the Sepia mini is numbered to 50.  Jimmy also traded a few minis with me and I also picked up a nice copy of the black Stan Musial and the Adam Wainwright.  I will probably try to pick up a few more of the black framed minis of the Cardinals and maybe a few of the Rays. 

On to the good hits.  Each box of Gypsy Queen should have four hits: two autographs and two relics.  I definitely beat the odds with my box.  Here are my autographs from my first box:

Nothing too great there.  KIckham and Hefner might both potentially be Major Leaguers at some point, but they are not probably going to be anything too great.  Kickham did go to Missouri State.  Connection, kind of...  I also was happy to pull a copy of a Bourjos jersey card with a picture of the Cardinals new center fielder in his new jersey. 

Really happy to pull the Bourjos card.  I had seen a few of these floating around this week and was really eager to add one of these to my collection.  Always nice when you can just pull one out of a box.  Now, for my good hits from the first box which more than make up for the fact that I did not get a second relic card. 

This is the first of my two good hits from my first box.  The plate is the mini Cyan of Dodgers right handed pitcher Zach Greinke.  Pretty nice looking card, but I actually landed a nicer card than this one in my box. 

This Shleby Miller Texas flag patch was my favorite card I pulled out of this box.  The card is serial numbered out of 5 and features a cool flag patch of Miller's home state.  Gypsy Queen has done a few insert sets with flags before in the past, but never with patches and never limited to just 5 copies.  Throw in the fact that the card features a Cardinals player and I am extremely happy with this pull.

Now, I did get a second box of cards, and while the first box was really good, the second box was really cool too.  In fact, the Miller card was the highest serial number (out of 5) of any of the extra hits I landed in my two boxes of Gypsy Queen.  So, my first move in opening my second box was to bust open the small box of minis on top of the box.  My second box was a little short on mini because this card was in the box...

 

I have never pulled a button card, so landing this Greinke was really sweet.  The card is limited to just 3 copies.  Just really really cool.  After landing the Greinke I went through the box and pulled my two autographs and my two relic cards.  My autographs were Steve Delbar and Adam Eaton. 

 

Ironically I returned home sorted out my base set cards and minis and witnessed Eaton hitting a home run yesterday against the Indians.  Eaton is now on the White Sox.  My two relics....

 

After pulling the two relics I was really happy with my second box and would have been more than satisfied with two autographs, two relics, and a button card limited to just 3 copies.  However, I managed to pull one more cool hit out of my box...

I am not a huge plate person and I rarely seem to pull them, but two in a day is a personal record for me.  Plus I managed to land two pretty good players with Greinke and Utley.  Overall, my two boxes of Gypsy Queen were pretty incredible.  Four autographs, three relics, a button card, and two printing plates is a pretty good day at the office.  In fact, Big D's had a great weekend with this product.  In addition to my good pulls customers in the store also pulled.  Here are four other customer's hits that Jimmy posted on his Facebook page including a Yogi Berra 1/1, Reggie Jackson 1/1, Puig Printing Plate, Dual autograph of Julio Tehran and Mike Minor, a Minor printing plate, and a jumbo Stanton.   I actually picked up the Porcello patch from Jimmy in the third picture down.  I will post it at some point. 

30 Year Top 50: 2001 Bowman Heritage

#5- First of the Top 5 sets, in my opinion, tonight starts with the 2001 Bowman Heritage set.  The Bowman Heritage line started in 2001 and ran until 2007 when it was discontinued.  If there is one set I miss putting together every year it's this one.  The set had a similar concept to Topps Heritage and I know that many collectors felt like two Heritage sets was too many, but they had entirely different aims.  The Topps Heritage set used a previous Topps card design and focused on established players.  The Bowman Heritage set used a previous Bowman card design and focused on prospects and draft picks.

2001 Bowman Heritage Derek Jeter

This set is winner all around and it starts out with the design.  The 2001 Bowman Heritage set borrowed its design from the 1948 Bowman set.  The black and white photography with the white border is a great look and these cards do a great job of imitating the original classic Bowman set.  Topps, which produced this set, did change the size of the cards to the standard card size from the undersized original set.  

2001 Bowman Heritage Albert Pujols

The 2001 Bowman Heritage set had a total of 440 cards with the high numbered cards being short printed, just like the 1948 Bowman set.  The high numbered cards included a few important rookies including my favorite of Cardinals great Albert Pujols.  I've always thought this Pujols rookie was classy looking and I've managed to stash away a couple of nice copies of the years.  As a Cardinals fan, I unloaded parts of my Pujols collection after he signed with the Angels, but held on to my Bowman Heritage cards.  If you do not own a Pujols rookie and are thinking of adding one, this would be my first choice hands down.  

2001 Bowman Heritage Ichiro Suzuki

Of course, if it's a 2001 baseball card set, it would not be complete without an Ichiro rookie too.  This, again, is my favorite rookie of Ichiro.  I believe he might have a few more to choose from than Pujols, but I love the black and white look.  Add in the fact that this card is also apart of the high printed short prints and you've got a great card worth owning.  

2001 Bowman Heritage Chase Utley 

2001 Topps Heritage Miguel Cabrera

Beyond the typical Pujols and Ichiro rookie cards which were common in the 2001 baseball card sets, the Bowman Heritage set also put out the first cards of Chase Utley and an early card of Miguel Cabrera.  The Cabrera card is not a true rookie card, but it's a popular find among his card collectors.  The Utley card features him wearing a Futures Game jersey, Topps did not airbrush this product, and is one of a few rookie cards he had in 2001.  

2001 Topps Heritage Barry Bonds Autograph

Beyond the base set the 2001 Bowman Heritage set has a great run of insert cards.  They include a set of 1948 reprints featuring some of the era greats.  You can also find the reprints with stadium seat relics.  Sorry, no scan of Ferris Fain.  My favorite insert in this set is the run of autographs.  First, since the cards are black and white they offer a great background to sign over.  There are many collectors who assembled the base set just simply to use the cards for autographs.  The actual certified autographs from the set are low in number.  Topps only placed three modern and four 1948 era players in the autograph line.  The cards all ran at over 1:1000 odds except the ARod autograph which ran slightly below 1000. The fourth vintage autograph, a Ralph Kiner, is not officially listed on the checklist.  However, I assure you that it exists, is very difficult to find, and quite pricey.  

30 Year Top 50: 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter

#19- When the 2006 Allen & Ginter set was released many people thought that it was going to be another in a long line of retro products that Topps seems to issue each year.  However, in its first year, the Allen & Ginter set ended up being one of the most popular sets of the past thirty years.  Unlike some products that are widely available on the shelves of hobby shops for weeks at a time, the Allen & Ginter packs and boxes were snapped up in bunches early and often which lead to steep prices.  Even today, boxes of 2006 Allen & Ginter sell easily for north of $200.

Why the craze over this product?  Non-baseball autographs which are, in 2012 the seventh year of Allen & Ginter, now commonplace with this product.  The 2006 set featured Leon Spinks, Bruce Jenner, Jennie Finch, Danica Patrick, John Wooden, Hulk Hogan, and Randy Couture among others.  Of course, there were also great baseball autographs.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Chase Utley Autograph

Now, before some of you get excited about seeing non-baseball autographs you need to think about this:  In nine months of blog posts how many non-baseball cards have appeared on my page?  The answer is zero.  Honestly, if I had opened a pack of Allen & Ginter and found an autograph of one of the non-baseball personalities above it would have, at worst, ended up on Ebay.  It's not my thing as a card collector and probably never will be.  However, those cards are a huge reason this set is as popular as it is and also a huge factor in the successful run of Allen & Ginter sets for the Topps company.  

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Prince Fielder Autograph 

Back to baseball cards.  The autographs in this set, that are of baseball players, are great.  Really nice pinkish banner across the middle of the card for the player to sign.  I am not sure I've seen an unattractive Allen & Ginter autograph.  Some of the players in the set are harder players to find signatures of, like Chase Utley, while others are a little more common, like my Prince Fielder.  Even though a player might have a large inventory of autographs, the demand for the Allen & Ginter autographs from this set drive the cards a little bit higher.  

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Huston Street Autograph 

The set can be found for sale without buying a box, but it runs a lot higher than the normal Allen & Ginter set from more recent years.  The set, with short-prints, can easily run a collector $100.  The option of buying the set is cheaper than finding the packs, or buying the box, but if you would rather buy singles I have a few recommendations.  

First, there are many common autographs in this set which can be picked up for less then $20.  My Huston Street autograph above is a great looking autograph from an All-Star caliber player, but buying the single card saves you the expense of paying a premium for the non-baseball autographs in the set.  Besides, if you spent $200 on a box and your autograph was Huston Street you'd be completely disappointed.  If you trade another common autograph for one, or picked one up on Ebay or COMC, you'd probably not mind the cost.  

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Collection Albert Pujols

My final suggestion is to check out the insert sets.  The inset sets are smaller and more manageable to put together, but offer some of the same great aspects of the base set.  My favorite from the Allen & Ginter set is the Dick Perez Collection.  The set is only 30 cards and features the art work of renowned sports artist Dick Perez.  Love this Pujols card above.  

Like the 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown is the 2006 Topps Turkey Red set.  This set is cut from the same retro mold as the 2006 Allen & Ginter set, but is a little bit more sane to collect.  The cards, like the Allen & Ginter, are based on an older issue of cards.  

2006 Topps Turkey Red Matt Holliday 

One of my favorite aspects of this set is the fact that the base cards have different colored borders.  Each base card is available in grey, white, red, and black.  The set also featured jersey cards and autographs.

2006 Topps Turkey Red Garrett Atkins Autograph  

The set also featured blankets.  Hmm.  Anyway, the best autograph is the set is the Mariano Rivera.  I don't own it, but I do own this awesome Garrett Atkins card.  The autographs are all on card, but the texture of the cards, a bit grainy, can cause some of the signatures to look a little bit fuzzy/bumpy.  The set as a whole is much cheaper than the Allen & Ginter set with complete sets selling for around $30.