One pack of Gypsy Queen to sneeze at.
I've made no secret of not being into the Topps Gypsy Queen set. Each design has been unique, which is nice, but it's just never really done anything for me. It seems unnecessary, expensive, and mundane all at the same time. If I'm going to make a stupid decision and buy expensive cards, I want to be impressed by them. And with 33% less product at the same price point as Heritage, it's definitely not in my budget unless I make a special exception.
Let's check out my one and possibly only pack purchase, APTBNL style.
144 - Odubel Herrera - Herrera was an All-Star two seasons ago, but I don't know that he's really played at that level since his selection.
67 - Ketel Marte - The former Mariners prospect is still very young, but has yet to break out.
39 - Kendrys Morales - And then there's Kendrys Morales, who I remember seeing in Portland playing with the Salt Lake Bees a number of years ago.
118 - Eric Thames - After some years away in Korea, the league seemingly figured out Thames again by the end of spring last season.
147 - Jason Heyward - Annnnnd... this guy.
104 - Felix Jorge - Well, let's get back to my original point and check out the card design. It's not Panini Donruss awful, but it's not great, either. This is the same "arted up" photo design that we've seen on a lot of recent Topps products. It's fine for what this set is trying to be, I suppose. It's just not all that exciting. Kind of like this pack.
On the back, there's a lot of unused space. When Topps does this, it would make a lot more sense if they did what they did with Turkey Red and actually used a larger font to fill up the space. This set can't really decide if it wants to be Allen & Ginter or it wants to by Turkey Red, so it comes across as sort of a wannabe-mishmash of both. The frame and Gypsy Queen nameplate looks like it could have been incorporated better into the design instead of being left to the back of the card like it was outvoted by a committee.
And that's it. Six cards, all from the base set, apparently. No inserts, no team swaps, no super rare legends, no capless balding guys, no face swaps. It's about what I expected.
Ugh. What a mundane pack. Like you, GQ is one of my least favorite sets of the year, and it's at the bottom of the list of those sets that I can afford.
ReplyDeleteI miss the GQ framed parallels. They were some of the nicest cards around. These days I'm pretty much only interested in their on-card autographs and the occasional A's/Padres base card I receive from fellow bloggers.
ReplyDeleteI like the design but won't collect it. Jason Heyward. I so want him to succeed. He just doesn't look right at the plate. I'm sure they'd know this but it looks like he need glasses.
ReplyDeleteWish they had a designated fielder.