By the page: 2012 Gypsy Queen

2012 Gypsy Queen was the first of the Topps old time releases that I dove into upon starting this blog.  It wasn't as popular as the inaugural release the previous year, but I still enjoyed collecting it.

The past couple of years I've stayed away from GQ, mainly because of my desire to cut down on the modern releases that I wanted to build.

I did manage to dig 9 cards from the 2012 release out of the Blue Jays box, which provides another page to show off.

Top row:  Pitchers 

A lot of promise in this row.  Sergio Santos is the only one that is still pitching this year, and right now he's doing that in AAA Buffalo.  Morrow's days in Toronto are likely numbered, his inability to stay healthy will probably lead to the Jays not to pick up his 2015 option.  Ricky Romero had surgery on his knees in June, ending his 2014 season.  The stats down in AAA Buffalo didn't look good there, he does have one year left on a 5 year $30 million deal.  Hopefully he can regain the form he had between 2009-2011.

Middle row:  Joey Bats and Colby

I don't have the Jose Bautista SP version that shows him hitting, so I replaced it with the Moonshots insert.  I love the wine (?) colored border, so for me it was an easy choice as a replacement.  Rasmus is another player I could see the Jays letting go in the off season.  Anthony Gose is a suitable replacement in center in my opinion.

Bottom row:  Out of town

Upon seeing Arencibia and Escobar's cards, I wondered if there was a 3rd player that I could slot in with those two.  Thames was traded to Seattle for Steve Delabar back in 2012.  I wondered where he's been, because I haven't heard his name the past couple of seasons.   A little digging and I found out that he's playing for the NC Dinos in the Korean Baseball league. 

Put them all together, and you have this:

Not a bad looking page, the greyish green borders kind of get monotonous.  The Bautista Moonshots card in the center actually makes the page look a bit colorful.

I'm up to 112 cards out of the box, into pages, and displayed on the blog.  I actually have quite a stack on my desk that are ready for pages, so I'll probably be mixing  more of these posts in during the near future.

Try to keep the groaning to a minimum....please!

thanks for reading, Robert

The Human Vacuum Cleaner and other cards from the Commish

One thing that the "What's Next?" tournament has given me is the opportunity to deal with other collectors/bloggers that I haven't had an opportunity to talk to in the past.   One of those is Commishbob, who runs the Five Tool Collector blog.  If you don't follow it, I suggest you do, because Bob has recently posted a great variety of cards, including flag and plane cards (which were fabulous), along with a few Baltimore Orioles from his collection.  Bob also has a retired vintage blog, '59 Topps:  one f/g card at a time, which was one of the first vintage card sets that I started following.   Bob has lobbied for the '59 set in the tournament a couple of times on his "retired" blog, which is really appreciated here. 

Bob sent me an email last week asking for my address, because he had a few cards he felt would be good additions to my collection. 

He hit so many want lists, it's tough to start somewhere. Let's start with another piece to the SNI puzzle, Miguel Tejada.

A shiny and colorful way to start off, no?  Miguel is serial # 1252, and is the 37th Astro card for the set.  The SNI is down to 249 cards remaining, and the Tigers still are the team with the lowest number of cards for the set (33).

What would a package that arrives at my house be without a few Blue Jays inside.   Here's a card that I've never seen before.

I can only recall a couple of Al Oliver cards in my Blue Jays collection, so this is a welcome addition.  I took a little digging, but I found out that this is from the Woolworth's Topps set, a 33 card release in 1986.  Oliver is the only Jay featured, making this one of the easiest set completions that I've had. 

A bit of the old and new here.  I was just able to put together a Dave Stieb page for the Jays collection, so this card will have to wait.  When I first saw the 2012 Opening Day Stars card of Jose Bautista, I thought that I already owned it.   Wrong again!!  Another great add to the collection.

A couple of more jersey cards to add to the collection!!  I'm realizing that Vernon Wells has a boat load of jersey cards, many of which I saw at the National a couple of weeks ago.  It was amazing how fast the star of J.P. Arencibia fell in Toronto, and it doesn't appear to be rising at all down in Texas.  Not hitting your weight will do that for you.  

Bob didn't hesitate to knock off cards from my 60's want lists as well.

2 each from the '62 and '68 sets was a great start...

The '68 and '62 sets both have a very long way to go for completion, but each are 2 cards closer now.   I regret not hunting for a few '62s at the National, since I still am 21 cards away from my goal of 30% completion by the end of the year.  Hopefully I can rectify that when the monthly mall show returns in September (at least I hope it returns).

Finally, as the post title indicated, the best card of the bunch, Brooks Robinson.

A fantastic card!!  It's in great shape, an absolute beauty for my '64 set.  I didn't even have to pry it out of Bob's hands!  This card brings me down to 113 left to go for the set, and now I have a little more hope that I can get that number below 100 by year's end.

If you haven't voted yet for this week's match between 76T and 67T, please take a moment and leave  a comment on the post (67 is out to an early lead, but that could change by week's end).

Bob, thank you very much for the cards, they are greatly appreciated!!!

thanks for reading, Robert

What's next? Quarterfinals (4) 1976 Topps vs (5) 1967 Topps

I made a small mistake on yesterday's post.  I said that if '76 wins this weeks match we would have two 70's sets vs two 60's sets in the semis.   '59 Topps is still in the battle, so this weeks match will determine which decade will have 2 sets left in the hunt. 

How they got here:

1976 defeated 1970  16-4
1967 defeated 1962  16-9

How big a head start do I have on these sets?

1976 Topps:  Very Good  375 out of 660 (with a few needing upgrades)
1967 Topps:  Minimal        22 out of 609

Favorite card that I own from each set so far:

1974:  # 554 Ray Fosse (A great look, almost as if he's nailed a runner trying to steal second)
1963:  # 129 Phil Roof  (combination of old time glove, sleeveless jersey and what appears to be a jacket under his jersey is a weird but great look in my opinion).

25 votes last week, a great turnout, thank you!  We already have one blog pushing for one of these sets....read here for further details.

thanks for reading, and voting, Robert