Friday, March 31, 2017

Gypsy Queen: Printing Plates & Other 1/1s

Gypsy Queen offers a variety of non printing plate 1/1s.

By far my favorite 1/1 Gypsy Queen is this original hand drawn sketch and prime patch card.


The art is by Monty Sheldon, who has been doing sketches for Topps Gypsy Queen the past few years.



This mini features a penny from Cutch's birth year (1986).  The penny itself looks like it was chewed by a dog.



Another non printing plate 1/1 I have is a silver frame from 2013

And a black frame from 2016


Now for the plates in order from oldestrelease date (2011) to newest (2016)

This is a very nice plate where the border matches the color of the plate.  The mini plates were produced in a similar fashion.  They weren't put in frames as you will see in later years.

2015 is the only year I don't have a printing plate of Cutch.






Thursday, March 30, 2017

Gypsy Queen :The Big Hits!!!

The past few years, Topps has provided fans with some incredible hits in their Gypsy Queen release.

First up the autographs


One of the hardest cards for me to track down in my early days of Collecting Cutch, this on card autograph also features a plain relic.  A few people were trying to put the set together and with only 25 produced, it is almost impossible to track one down now.


This dual auto/dual relic of Hall of Famer, Ralph Kiner and Andrew McCutchen is one of my first Cutch dual autos I added to the collection.

The 2012 card is limited to only 15.

I have gotten the jumbo patch cards in each of the past two years and both cards feature really awesome patches.

The 2015 patch features a massive swatch from Cutch's number and is limited to only 5 copies.


The 2016 patch features the Majestic Logo from the sleeve of a Crawford Grays jersey worn by the Pirates in the 2012 season.  It is numbered to 10 copies.



Easily one of my top 10 favorite cards is this dual button card of Team USA teammates Adam Jones and Andrew McCutchen.  I'm sure there is an Adam Jones supercollector out there who has one of these making the rarity of one of these hitting the market soon very scarce.

Only 3 exist.


While it's not in my Top 10 cards, this Laces Around The League card gets an honorable mention because it is a super thick card that has a massive chunk of a baseball on it.  If it was labeled similar to the Topps Tribute moment cards where you can see the authentication or determine what game it is from, it would be a top 10 card.


Only 5 exist.

To wrap things up is an extremely limited manufactured flag patch.  I am not a big fan of manufactured relics, but I got this for about 75% of the average sale price of these.

Much like many of the other hits on this post, it is numbered to only 5 copies.


Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Gypsy Queen Photo Variants

Some photo variants can sell for big bucks.  Prior to 2016, the photo variants were EXTREMELY hard to get.  The 2013 variant is by far the hardest to track down.  Often times it will sell for $50+ and has even reached near triple digits.
 The 2013 variant features Cutch celebrating with Neil Walker and Garrett Jones.

The code on the back differentiates the base from the photo variant.

The 2015 is fairly hard to find and is normally a $30+ card


Unlike the 2013 and 2016 variants, the codes match and don't have any distinguishing features on back to signify it's a variant.

Topps has been making more and more photo variants as they realize there is a market for these short prints.  The 2016 version is only a $10 card at best.  The photo used for the variant features the same image as the base Allen & Ginter.

The photo for the variant features the same fielding image used for Allen & Ginter.
The back does have a different code for the variant in 2016.

It hasn't been announced if Cutch will have a Short Print photo variant this year or not.  Early signs point to yes though.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Gypsy Queen The "Boring" Hits

This post probably won't get many hits because of the title I chose, but it's going to help build up for the posts later this week.  You won't want to miss those.

Hailing from 2012 is a pair of plain color swatches and a framed mini relic.  I always prefer the jersey swatch to match the pictured uniform so even though I had the white originally, I was happy to add a plain grey swatch to the PC.


Some more mini relics.  This time from 2013.  The patch is numbered 10/10



I just won a player group break of Cutch for 2 cases of 2017 GQ.  The break will be tomorrow (release date!!!). Here's hoping for some good fortune to come my way.

The rest of the week's posts will play out as following:
Wednesday-Photo Variants and Short Prints

Thursday-All the /25 or less hits (This will be some insanely awesome cards highlighted)

Friday-All the 1/1s

Saturday - Colors!!!

Monday, March 27, 2017

Gypsy Minis

With Gypsy Queen set to release this week, let's take a look back at some prior years cards.  All week I will be showing Gypsy Queen cards including some super rare and mega (and mini) hits.

One thing I always liked about Gypsy Queen was the minis.

I won't get any satisfaction from the 2017 release because Topps has pulled minis from the release.

Here are all my Gypsy Queen releases by year

2016


The red is by far the rarest of my minis I own for this year.  It is numbered to only 5 copies.  I also have the gold/yellow on it's way.  Still need the regular and green though (/99).


2015

I really liked the design for this year.   In terms of the minis I have the base, silver, and photo variant.

2014

Another year with photo variants.  I also have the black, regular, and sepia variant.

2013

This year's collection I have so far features a black, sepia, base, and photo variant of Cutch.

2012

I have the most minis from 2012.  The base, Straight Cut back, sepia, black, and photo variant along with

The Sliding Stars insert mini

2011

The begining of it all.  Only a Gypsy Queen Red back and base have entered my collection so far.


Here are the backs of all the base minis




Will you all miss the minis from Gypsy or do you prefer minis to only be in Allen & Ginter?

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Need Help Finding Ginter 10th Anniversary

Hi guys.
I have been adding some buybacks more frequently because, well...there's not many Non 1/1s of Cutch I need.

Here are the 10th Anniversary Buybacks I have
 The above is stamped 1/1.  No other 10th Anniversary Die-cuts are.  If you know anything about this please leave a comment below.  I have included a scan of the back as well.

Here are some of my other A&G Anniversary buybacks restamps.




If you see any of buybacks of Cutch at a show, LCS, or pack pulls please let me know.  I am willing to buy or trade for them.  Thank you so much.