Gypsy Queen Retail Rush!

Hey everyone, Drew back here. So, last weekend, I took a trip to the mall, to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I must say that it was a really good movie, and if you haven't gone to see it yet, you really should make some time for it! Also, in my mall we have a Target, one of the greatest homes of retail wax. I've bought an awful lot there in the past, but try not to anymore. But, from what I've seen, retail 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen has been a major "hit"... literally. Hobby boxes are finding missing autos, and I wonder if the retail cards had anything to do with that! With that in mind, I purchased 4 single packs and a rack "value" pack with 3 packs and a bonus pack of green parallels. Let's see how I did:

This has been my first taste of this product of yet, and I easily chose it over 2011 Bowman, in my mind the most boring product of the year, year in and year out. That product is only fun when you pull anything of Bryce Harper. Other than that, I would choose literally anything to get away from Bowman. 

The base cards in this product are very sweet, and have never been done before, so its pretty fresh. The pictures has used a sort of photoshop trick to them, which makes them almost look like a painting. Out of the base cards I pulled, I really liked the A-Rod card as well as the Babe Ruth card, even though he's pictured as a Red Sox. 

Something that has been used almost too much is the mini concept. In every pack, you get one mini card, and I got my share. The Drew Stubbs and George Sisler minis are the red back versions (pointless gimmick), and the rest are base minis.

 I pulled a lot of insert cards as well. The inserts are fairly different, as they divide a lot of guys in the product into different groups, such as: Wall Climbers, Sticky Fingers (what kind of name is that?), The Great Ones, Future Stars, and Home Run Heroes. I pulled at least one of each, and by far my favorite insert was the Thurman Munson "The Great Ones" card. Sure, the photo has been used a lot for his cards, but it still looks great!

The bonus 3 green paper parallel card pack didn't really disappoint, as I ended up pulling Ubaldo Jimenez, Andre Dawson, and Kevin Youkilis. I love the Dawson card, can care less about Ubaldo, and can't stand "Youk", so please note that if you're curious in trading for these. They aren't numbered but they look great!

In the packs I also pulled this Carlos Santana copper paper parallel numbered to 999, which was a pretty cool pull. It's for trade if anyone wants it.

Finally, I did indeed pull an auto, that of Chris Sale, reliever for the White Sox. Could've been a lot better, but then again, I could've not pulled an auto at all. My goal was to pull an auto and that's exactly what this is. He is 4-1 this season with a 3.40 ERA and 6 saves as the "next in line" closer for the Sox. He's been highly touted as a prospect, so I'll wait and see how the hype goes. But if anyone is interested, please shoot me an email to yanks1996wsc@gmail.com and offer me an auto in exchange.

That goes for all the non Yankees cards I pulled as well. If anyone is interest, send me an email. Other than that, everybody have a good Saturday!

See Ya!

Couple packs from Target

Hey guys, finishing yesterday's stuff with a couple packs I got from Target before the movie. So, I got a pack of Updates & Highlights, SP Authentic, Ticket to Stardom & O-Pee-Chee, here's the results:

2009 O-Pee-Chee:
- Randy Winn
- Jhonny Peralta
- Jacoby Ellsbury
- Josh Willingham Black Border
- 2008 NL Home Run Leaders (Howard/Dunn/Delgado)
- Miguel Cabrera
- Josh Bard

Thoughts: Now I have the black border and regular stinkin Josh Bard mugshot card. Want it? All for trade, no intentions of building the set.

2009 Topps Updates & Highlights:
- Guillermo Quiroz
- Ivan Rodriguez
- Lance Broadway
- Ichiro All Star
- Ted Lilly All Star
- Matt Cain All Star
- Michael Young All Star
- Daisuke Matsuzaka Turkey Red
- Zach Greinke Topps Town
- Ken Griffey Jr. Season Highlights
- Ryan Hanigan
- Javier Vazquez

Thoughts: Not bad, I hate Dice-K after drafting him as my ace in fantasy last year, and he sucked, man, if I didn't have Cliff Lee & Justin Verlander. The Greinke is decent but the insert is not, the Ivan Rodriguez is nice, the Ichiro & Griffeys are cool too.

2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom:
- Hunter Pence
- Carlos Delgado
- Alex Gordon
- Andy Sonnanstine Perforated
- Alex Rodriguez Seasoned Veterans
- Jorge Posada
- Hanley Ramirez
- Felix Hernandez

Thoughts: Awesome pack, likin Ticket to Stardom so far. The funny thing is before I left to go to the movies, I was working on my wantlist, and I just put on the Posada & A-Rod seasoned veterans when I left. The A-Rod is nice, cool insert, but the only flaw in this is the stupid perforated cards. If this is a ticket brand then every card should have a ticket feel, not just one card per pack. I like the perforated's a little more because of that, but every card should be like that. Nice pack though

2009 SP Authentic:
- Matt Holliday
- Ryan Zimmerman
- Kevin Slowey SP Authentic Signatures Autograph!!! :)
- Tim Lincecum
- Alex Rodriguez

Thoughts: This was some steroid usin/free agent/pot smokin/horrible team good player pack! And an autograph! The A-Rod is cool to have, and the Slowey is an awesome pull, although it probably only sells from 5-10 bucks. It doesn't say the odds on autographs on the Upper Deck packs, so that stinks, but it isn't too easy to pull an autograph in retail!

Overall a pretty good purchase, happy with the results, I opened them in the movie theater. For $10 or so it was a steal. I beat the packsearcher!

Drew: 1
Packsearcher: 0

Lastly, you know the Topps complete sets they sell at Target with the Mickey Mantle memorabilia card staring at you in front of very thin plastic? Well, some idiots stole them all at my Target! I don't buy full sets but you must be kinda desperate if you're stealing baseball cards. Arg! See Ya!

*click to enlarge, sorry for bad pic*

All For trade except Yanks