Gypsy Queen Baseball 2015 Box Break

Way, way back in the day there was a saying about the selling of older cards which still rings true to this day. The two easiest types of vintage cards to sell are the ones in really nice condition (even if they bring a premium) and the lowest end varieties which appeal to those collectors on a budget, The most difficult cards to sell are those in the middle grades and there are more of those cards available then the other two types.

It may be slightly apples to oranges as a comparison but to me, the best current era box breaks for overall value and chances of receiving a decent hit come in many of the mid-level brands the card companies produce. Usually the cost isn’t prohibitive and the content can often be surprisingly good. Sometimes those mid-level boxes are truly collector based such as Heritage and sometimes they’re a mix of collector-focused and hit-focused. Topps Gypsy Queen seems to fall into the latter category.

Each box of the 2015 product promises four hits of which two will be autographs (ours were both on-card) and two relic cards. In addition, there are four short printed cards in each box which come out to a ratio of one in six and that doesn’t include the mini parallel cards or other inserts.

Gypsy Queen is a throwback brand, but unlike Allen & Ginter, it’s once again all baseball.

The base cards feature brown borders surrounding the player photo with the name and team in the upper right. The backs have a quick note about the player. The base set is 300 cards and 50 short prints. There are 50 cards with variations.

Triple Cards here in the Dallas area reported decent but not overwhelming sales at slightly under $115 per box while leading online retailers are currently at $90-100 before shipping. Each box, including the one we received from Topps, contains 24 packs with 10 cards per pack.

So how did we do from our “mid-major” box?

Base Cards: 186 of 300. That is slightly more than 60 percent. We did not notice any of the pose variations.

Short Prints: Dustin Pedroia, Mariano Rivera, Phil Rizzuto, Jackie Robinson, Koji Uehara, Fernando Valenzuela

Framed Silver Parallel (#d to 499): Chris Carter

Mini Parallels: Elvis Andrus, Wade Boggs, Nick Castellanos, Tony Gwynn, Jesse Hahn, Josh Harrison, Catfish Hunter, Ian Kennedy, Ralph Kiner, Greg Maddux, Willie McCovey, David Ortiz, Tanner Roark, Trevor Rosenthal, Nolan Ryan, Chris Sale, Anibel Sanchez, Jered Weaver, C.J.Wilson

Mini Silver Parallel (#d to 199): Yoenis Cespedes, Corey Kluber, Hunter Pence

Basics of Baseball Mini: Squeeze Play

Mini Parallel Variations (These are all from the “mini-box” included in all hobby boxes: Jose Abreu, Javier Baez, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Carlos Gomez, Gio Gonzalez, Willie Mays, Devin Mesoraco, Jorge Soler, David Wright

Glove Stories: Dustin Ackley, Alex Gordon, Billy Hamilton, Aaron Hicks

Pillars of the Community: Jose Bautista

Throwbacks: Jose Altuve, Ian Kinsler, Jason Kipnis, Andrelton Simmons

Walk-Off Winners; Ken Griffey Jr; Derek Jeter; Evan Longoria, Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, Mookie Wilson

Framed Mini Relic: Michael Wacha

Relics Red Patch (#d to 5): Shelby Miller

Autographs: Juan Lagares, Dalton Pompey

Pompey is a 22-year-old prospect just getting his first taste of big league action with Toronto.

Gypsy Queen stays pretty much along the same lines of previous releases. The new ‘Walk Off Winners’ set is unique, focusing on game-winning homers throughout history. There were some notable omissions but it’s a nice idea. Pillars of the Community honors players’ off-the-field works. However, Topps has chosen not to tweak GQ too much. The product has been out for a couple of weeks and we’ll see if that’s a wise move or whether collectors are ready to move on.

We didn’t make any huge scores but in my opinion, there is enough here to make the cost per card and the cost per hit seem fairly reasonable compared to many issues.

Click here to see 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen on eBay.