Box Break: 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen

Several months ago when Topps released 2019 Gypsy Queen, I found myself with enough eBay sells to afford a hobby box from my LCS, Grand Slam Cards and Comics. However due to work and well, life in general I haven't been able to sit down and really break down the box. I've been off all week for vacation and I'm trying to make the most out of these last few days so I grabbed the box, a new binder and some Ultra Pro pages and went to work.

While I did share the highlights on Twitter the night I opened the box, I still like to do these Box Break type posts. Gypsy Queen is a set I look forward to every year and build yearly asd well. This year's design is one of the best since the set's inception in my opinion. The colors really pop and look nice in hand. If I have one critique it's that the card number font size is way too small for my old eyes. I'm sure if you're over 40 like me you've noticed this too! Other than that, it's a beautiful set and one I look to put more of a dent in this summer.

As a Braves fan of course I was hoping I'd hit some of my guys and some of the first Braves pulled were Johan Camargo and Kyle Wright. Camargo was relegated to being a utility player and pinch hitter with the signing before the season of Josh Donaldson, but he has so very few cards that I was happy to see he was included in the set none the less. Wright had a few opportunities early in the season to show his stuff and looked mostly good. Perhaps he'll be recalled in September?

I also ended up pulling base cards of Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna Jr, Ender Inciarte and Sean Newcomb of the Braves.

I have a love/hate relationship with SPs being part of the base set. I love pulling them, but I hate how difficult it makes completing the set. By now you'd think I'd be use to this practice in Gypsy Queen since Topps does this every year. My hobby box yielded one lone SP, but at least it was a good one in Jackie Robinson. Now to find the other 19 SPs...

I really don't care for the various parallels in GQ, such as this GQ Logo Swap of Met's pitcher Zack Wheeler. 

The Missing Nameplate parallels don't do anything for my neither. Who thinks up this stuff? The Wheeler from above and these two parallels are available for trade by the way.

The colored parallels, like this blue version of Joe Panik look good in hand. The card fronts are already colorful and the colored border just adds a little extra flair.

The red parallels were 1:563 packs so I beat the odds with this box. Numbered to just 10, I would've thought I'd found a trading partner by now. Then again, I guess I haven't "shopped" this card around much either. The red looks nice, but I think the blue parallels blend in better with the other colors used.

I forgot to photo the Fortune Teller inserts before I put the cards in pages earlier today, but I ended up with 4...the other was from a blaster. These are annoying in 9 pocket pages, but I like the idea behind the theme so I keep on collecting them.

The Tarot of the Diamond inserts from 2018 were nicely done and were a lot of fun. This year's version is more of the same, but with more color. Ended up with 3 from the hobby box and 1 from a blaster.

Each hobby box is supposed to yield two on card autos and I did pretty good. The Khris Davis auto is still available for trade (or sale?), but the Brad Keller has since been traded.

The GQ on card autos always look nice and this year is no different. I still don't understand why Topps insists to use sticker autos so much with other product when the annual GQ set shows they can pull off some beautiful on card autos.

The other bonus of buying a hobby box is the inclusion of a box topper pack. This time I pulled three Chrome cards. It wasn't long before I found a trading partner on Twitter and set them off to their new home. Beautiful cards...reminds me that I still need to track down at least the Freddie Freeman card in this set.

I ended up with 179 base cards (17 dupes), 1 SP, 1 GQ Logo Swap, 2 Missing Nameplate, 1 Blue, 1 Red, 4 Fortune Teller and 3 Tarot of the Diamond.

I finally got a Want List (added it to my Trading Card Database profile too) made for this set as well as adding everything I'm not keeping to my Trade List. If you think we can help each other out please leave a comment or better yet hit me up on Twitter (@flywheels).