2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Box Break & Review

Posted on April 16, 2016 by sportscardinfo

photo 16toppsgpbbbox_zpscdo4hwmn.jpg

Topps releases a bunch of popular baseball set building products every year. The top ones in my book are the three flagship brands – Series 1, Series 2, and Update, all the Heritage sets, Allen & Ginter, and Gypsy Queen. I think Gypsy Queen is very underrated which is why I consider it one of my personal favorites even though I’m not a full blown set collector. All on-card autographs, retro theme, and that painted filter Topps uses on the photos has always drawn my attention.

Dodgers fans should enjoy 2016 Gypsy Queen quite a bit considering it has the first autographs of rookie pitcher Kenta Maeda. He’s been doing well so far. Maeda won in his MLB debut and even hit a home run. That was enough to get him a Topps Now card the next day. But to call his acquisition a total success is a little too early. The value of his cards will remain high as collectors speculate about his future. Its been this way for a lot of highly anticipated rookies since the beginning of time.

On a broad scale, I’d have to say the on-card autographs are a favorite of mine. Especially the ones from that mini short print pack that comes in every box. I just like the way they look. All of the autographs look nice from the base level all the way to the fancy hard-signed patch booklets.

There is however a group of cards from Gypsy Queen that I hold above everything else. I’m talking about the Original Art Patch Cards. These pieces are stunning. Monty Sheldon is the artist behind all (37) this year. Consider yourself extremely lucky if you pull one. Not only are they difficult to find, this is the only product you see cards like this in. Its a once a year thing. Card companies doing something once a year is almost unheard of today. Usually if something catches on, it gets mass produced. Not these though. Topps has kept it this way since 2011. Perhaps one of these years Topps would consider making these into a booklet. I think it would be cool to have the hand-drawn piece on one side, and a jumbo patch on the other. Just a thought.

Outside of the traditional “hits”, Gypsy Queen has a ton of short prints and photo variations. These are easier to spot with the return of different codes on the back. The last few sets Topps released all had the same code making them harder to find. Base end in 25, photo variations in 59.

Gypsy Queen is just a great all-around content rich product that has that high-end feel. One of these days I’d like to own a Phillies Original Art Patch Card. Generally speaking I wouldn’t mind pulling any of them.

Here is what I pulled:

Auto/Relic