Monday, April 8, 2019

Fortune Teller


Gaze into the crystal ball with another #crackinwaxmailday featuring Gypsy Queen. 

Back for its ninth iteration, the Topps Gypsy Queen set is by far my least favorite of their products of the many in its price tier. Sometimes, the cards do look nice, but it feels so unnecessary. Of course, I've heard of some of the same complaints about Topps Archives, mostly due to their endlessly recycled designs. The only time I've really paid full price for more than a couple of packs of this stuff was back in 2015, when I was temporarily hooked by Ozzie Smith on the pack wrappers. Still, I was more than willing to take the Cardinals slot in the Crackin' Wax group break. I ended up with multiple team sets (sans the short printed Mark McGwire) and some extra goodies.


There's a lot of tiny writing on these cards. I'm not sure what else to say about the design itself, though, but this indigo colored parallel (numbered to 250) does look nice.


Like most Topps cards these days, they take a closely cropped photo and apply some photo software filters on them to get the final product. This gets most of the Cardinals shortstop in frame, but unfortunately cuts him off at the ankles.


Box toppers are normal sized Chrome versions this year, but there's something strange about DeJong's card. They used an entirely different photo for it. This wasn't the case for the other Chrome box topper, which you'll see in a bit.


The reverse of the card that led off this post was Daniel Ponce de Leon's rookie card... except that it was actually this rarer parallel Bazooka back version. Neat.


This and its base counterpart are my first official Paul Goldschmidt Cardinals cards, which is pretty neat. I won't say the 'P' word, because I'm trying to keep things positive here.


I'm not a big autograph seeker as most of you probably know, but the autos in this set do look pretty spectacular. This makes me wonder if this was a rejected alternate design for the base cards. In any case, I was pleased to snag this Jose Martinez card as the centerpiece of my case break haul.

7 comments :

  1. Nice cards of Cards! I had the Cubs in the same Crackin' Wax group break. I think you did better than I did.

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  2. I like GQ this year, and usually prefer it to A&G. It's wildly colorful! I thought the auto design would've made a nice base as well.

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  3. Pretty wild that those two DeJong cards have different photos...that are somehow close to identical. Great haul!

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  4. I enjoy this year's design... but the small text kills me. Maybe I'm just getting old and need something to complain about ;)

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  5. I like this set but my old man eyes can do without that small lettering.

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  6. GQ has been plagued by small lettering for a couple of year now (duplicating Panini's problems is not the way to go!)

    GQ fails to capture my interest every year. Their designs have improved a little the last 3 years or so. However, with the three circles at the bottom, I keep thinking it's a Topps Attax card or some other game card and I can't unsee it.

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