Sunday, April 9, 2017

REVIEW:2017 Topps Gypsy Queen

The 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen has been highly reviewed by many who have busted it which has led to my curiosity of what the product looked like first hand. Well, I will let you know I tend to agree with the collectors who have busted it already. Pretty solid.

Let's see how the break went shall we?


Each box of 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen baseball comes with 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. You will find one GQ Glassworks box topper and 2 autographs per box on average. Boxes run roughly just under $100.

When you open up the box, the giant topper stares you down. I considered waiting on it as these can contain autographs, but, I couldn't resist...

 
Wow. Not autograph or a parallel,but man, these oversized cards look awesome!!! Great start to the box. Can you imagine these done as base set...maybe Gypsy Queen Chrome. Thoughts Topps??? You heard this suggestion from me first!
 
The box toppers can come autographed or with the following parallels,
  • Purple Parallel: sequentially numbered.
  • Red Parallel: sequentially numbered to 25.
  • Black Parallel: numbered 1/1.
The base set looks awesome. May be one of the best Gypsy Queen base designs yet. Has a throwback feel all around with texture and design.


Even the backs of the cards have that feel as well.

The base set consists of 300 cards of today's stars and rookies. Would be a fun challenging base set to try and put together as one box will not provide it.

And if you want an even bigger challenge, try doing the extra 20 Sp's to the base set as well. These are made up of legends.

Mine came with Phil Rizzuto. These fall roughly one-per-box.
 
 
This years Gypsy Queen said goodbye to mini's and hello to more photo variation and Sp content.
 
As with other Topps releases, the easy thing to define the difference between base and variation is the codes on the back of the card with the final four digits. However, Gypsy Queen offers an extra challenge due to the base sets rough surface as the numbers are hard to see. I have 20/20 vision and struggled at points seeing the numbers and had to go card by card with the gallery over at Cardboard Connection.

I didn't end up with any variations, but you might. Here are the codes so you can define them or if you want to put in more work go to Cardboard Connection card by card to see if you have one.
  • Base ends in 1904
  • Base SP ends in 1931
  • Capless Variation ends in 1937
  • Throwback Variation ends in 2100
  • Card Back Content Variation ends in 1886 or1986
 I did pull some Sp's however. These nameplates missing parallels fall 1:21 packs.

 
Purple parallels fall 1:13 packs and are numbered to 250.

 
Then there is Missing Backplate parallel. These are just faded looking cards easy to see in packs. They fall 1:9 packs.

 
This is a green back, that are not numbered but fall 1:63 packs, but are limited to just 50 each.



Other parallels include, 
  • Black & White Parallel are to 50
  • Red Parallel are to 10.
  • Black Parallel are 1/1.
These are Portrait Art Reproductions. Pretty snazzy and fits well with this years theme. These fall 1:8 packs.



 
I loved the Fortune Teller mini's.  So technically they didn't get rid of all minis. These fall 1:6 packs and give you a "predictions" of events that could occur in the 2017 season. These have very tough Red and Black parallels as well.
 
And now time for the hits. I can't say they were spectacular, but what I can say is that I really dig the on-card auto design on these.

Up first, Ken Giles.

 
Then Luis Servino that I got out of the first pack. He has a pretty solid sig.
 
These have parallels of  Purple Parallel, Black & White Parallel and Black Parallel which is numbered 1/1. 
 
Autograph Relic Cards, Autograph Autograph Autograph Patch Book Cards, Autograph Garments, Laces Around the League Autograph Relics, Mini Autographs and Portrait Art Patch Originals which are hand-drawn portraits featuring a game-used patch piece and are numbered 1/1. All of the hits have parallels as well.

Overall, my box was a bit of a tough break with price vs what I pulled, but there is a lot of cool stuff in Gypsy Queen waiting to be discovered. So I suggest you should go discover it! or at least build that solid base set.
 
You will see some of these cards in the MLB Pick Em Promo prize box so make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to host the nice giveaways with. Follow them on all social media sites and visit their site, HERE, as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment