Checklist Chipaway: 2011 Gypsy Queen

More tiny hits to my master checklist:

I knocked off 2 of the cool green paper framed parallels, and the last expensive base card from 2011 Gypsy Queen.

Here's what I need for the green paper framed cards:

32 Carl Crawford

66 Sandy Koufax
75 Albert Pujols
78 Ryne Sandberg
87 Clayton Kershaw

89 Mickey Mantle

97 Stan Musial
99 Ozzie Smith
100 Nolan Ryan


I only need 9 more from this 100 card set, but most of these will hurt a little to purchase. 

I'm close on the base cards too, needing only these six:

#38 Walter Johnson
#76 Felix Hernandez
#113 Jose Bautista 
#207 Kyle Drabek
#264 Jeremy Hellickson
#290 Jake Mcgee

I suppose I should get off my butt and order these last six off sportlots, but if someone has them available for trade, I'd love to work something out!

Checklist Chipaway: 2011 Gypsy Queen Green Paper

Who has two thumbs and was the first blogger to post about 2013 Topps? 


.....this guy….(I’m pointing at myself with my thumbs right now).   I even had my post retweeted by Nightowl and Cardboard Junkie.  That’s like getting retweets from Magic and Bird.  Oh, the life I live.  I wish I could explain how it feels, but words don't suffice.

I see a lot of other folks are on the bandwagon now that I’ve single-handedly launched 2013 Topps.  I would talk about the set more, but that would be sooooo January.  January is done dudes.   Let’s talk about something more relevant, like 2011 Gypsy Queen green paper framed parallels:

  
WIth these two I now only need 11 more to wrap up this beautiful set.

 

Gypsy Green

Boy, oh boy, am I getting close to finishing this Green Paper parallel set from 2011 Gypsy Queen.  COMC.com had a post-holiday free shipping promotion, and I knocked these beauties off my checklist:

I'm now 88% done and only need 12 more!

Black Friday COMC Spoils Part 4: Gypsy Queen Green Paper Framed Set

I’m 75% done with this set, and they look fantastic in the binder (strangely enough even at 75% complete, I don’t have one single page that is complete yet).  I snagged these three at great prices:

Checklist Chipaway: 2011 Gypsy Queen Green Paper

Since I'm spending my morning fretting about how bad Alabama is going to destroy my Hogs, I don't have much to say about these other than they are beau-ti-ful!

I got this lot of 8 off eBay, and am now 72% done with the set.   

Wantlist Help From Another World

I received an awesome package in the mail today from Dan of "The Other World" blog, a great read, especially if you are a Phillies fan, which I am not, but I like his blog anyway.

He contacted me about helping out with my 2011 Gypsy Queen set and sent a huge group of cards for it, as well as an unexpected stack of 2011 Kimball Champions cards.

Here are some of the Gypsy Queen highlights:

These are awesome!  I'm going to start fining people who don't like Gypsy Queen, especially the 2011 set.  How could anyone not like that Bob Gibson card?  The Valencia card up top is a SP, too.  The Speaker "Great Ones" insert gets me to 93% done with that set, and thanks to Dan's shipment, I now only need 32 more of the base set (not including SPs).

My momentum on the Kimball Champions set had pretty much stalled out, but Dan gave it a nice kick start with these:

Yeah, these are pretty darn cool, and I'm going to have to jump back on building this set since I now can see the finish line.

Thanks for the great cards Dan!  For those of you looking for a different kind of box break, check out his high end offering that is filling up now.  Tell him Napkin sent you and you will get a $0 discount, and a "who is that?" response, but you should say it anyway.

Big Fun Game Pick Number 1

With the first pick, Ryan selects Prize # 7:

Lot of 6 2010 Gypsy Queen Green Border Parallels.

Eric L is up next and can steal or pick another prize.

Gypsy Queen Life Vest: Courtesy Reader Adam

I now have a passing C grade (70% complete) on my Gypsy Queen Green Border set thanks to a nice little trade with reader Adam:

That Tris Speaker card is a tiny work of art.  I wish Gypsy Queen had made large cabinet cards of these.  I would have been all over them.

70 down, 30 to go!  Thanks  for the trade Adam!

Piddly Card Show Post

Almost once a month there is a "card show" in Northwest Arkansas, either in Fayetteville or Rogers.  It's almost always pretty weak, with 3-5 dealers at the most.   One dealer sells mostly DVDs so I shouldn't count him.  These shows are usually so uninteresting, I skip going altogether much less posting about them.   Today's show was nothing less than ho-hum, but I did find a few things from one dealer.  He had a chunk of Gypsy Queen base cards in a dime box.  I went to the show unprepared with my checklist so I wasn't sure what I needed.  Since they were only a dime each, I just bought them all and hopefully will be able to make some headway on my Gypsy Queen set.  There were also a few Gypsy Queen minis that I thought I should grab at $.10 each:

 
 The same seller had a $.25 box for vintage stuff, and I found a few things that I liked:

These will either go to my sampler album, or hopefully to Cardboard Catastrophes.  I know he is collecting the 1976 set, so maybe I can help out now.

I also got a couple of 1975 Topps Minis and  a Kelloggs all star card of Larry Bowa.  Again, the minis will be part of the sampler album unless the Night Owl can use them.  The reason I picked up the Bowa escapes me at the moment.  Surely I had a reason....

Checklist Chipaway: Gypsy Queen Green Paper Frames

I now have a D- on my Gypsy Queen Green Paper Framed Set, or more precisely I'm 62% complete.  62% still feels like it's a long way to go.  

I got this lot from a fantastic eBay seller named lilbumblebeee03.  Not only did they send these beauties quickly after purchase, check out these "filler cards" that were sent along:

Trout, Hosmer and Stanton rookies? Thank you very much!  I guess the Hosmer isn't technically the 2011 Rookie of him, but his "Rookie Debut" card.  It's all good to me.  I'll definitely be watching bumblebeee03s store going forward.

Taken to the Woodshed By Crinkly Wrappers

I recently sent Ted from the supreme blog Crinkly Wrappers a single card.  It was a nice eTopps T206 card of Christy Mathewson, and I kind of hated to part with it.  But he had a real T206 card of Mathewson, and wanted to display the cards side by side.  I thought that was a nifty idea, and I was glad to be able to send the eTopps version to someone who would really like it.

It was a nice card, but it was one card.    Ted said he would send me a lot of stuff in return.  He wasn't kidding.

Today I received my part of the trade.  It came in a box.  Holy schnikes, there was a lot of great stuff in that box:

To start, he sent me over 70, yes I said 70, Gypsy Queen base cards. 

Did I mention I sent him ONE card?

He told me he had a "bunch" of GQ cards, and I said I'd take whatever he thought was fair.  My base checklist went from 50% to 73% complete just like that.  That would have been more than enough for what I sent, and would have left me feeling guilty enough on its own.  But there was more in the box:

There were a couple of awesome Nelson Cruz numbered cards.  That Marquee Cruz may be my favorite card of 2011.  My scanner frustrates the hell out of me.  Sorry about the weird scan.

And a Finest Alexi Ogando, and a Marquee Ian Kinsler with Ichiro trying to hog the spotlight.  Again, sorry for the weird scan.  Again, I just sent him one card.

And he sent a bunch of 2011 Topps parallels.  Did I mention I only sent him one card?

And finally, a handful of 2010 finest base sets, a couple of Turkey reds and some Attax Rangers.  Actually, he also sent a couple of A&G code cards and two other Rangers cards that I wanted to scan but when I went to our bedroom to scan them, I saw that the lovely wife (who is sick) was already asleep.  I didn't have the heart to crank up the scanner again and risk waking her up.  But the code cards are very nice, I assure you.  Speaking of the lovely wife, she was being nosy and checking out my box of cards from Ted.  When I assured her I wasn't spending money and that this was a trade, she looked at the amount of stuff I got for one card and said, "What the hell did you send him?" 

Not nearly enough lovely wife, not nearly enough.  Ted, thank you so much for the awesome trade.  I won't be able to get over my guilty conscious for this lopsided trade until I even it out at least a little.  Be on the lookout for another package.  You didn't get confused and think I sent you the original T206 Mathewson did you?

Checklist Chipaway: Gypsy Queen Green Paper Frames

I am now 58% done with this set, which I find very exciting.  50%+ completion means that the cards can go in pages now.   Let me not waste more time with words.  Just take in these beautiful cards:

Those Are Nacho Cards!

They're my cards!  I'm sure Chris from Nachos Grande just loves that gag and has never heard it before.  I try to be as original as possible with my posts you see.
I did a small little trade with the famous Nachos Grande blog and received my cards this week.

The big one for me is the Jeter Sticky Fingers set from Gypsy Queen.  That card has been a thorn in my side for a while now.  I guess it's Karma for me giving a copy I had away in a Big Fun Game  long before I fell in love with Gypsy Queen and decided to build a set.

Chris is also one of the only other folks I know that collects the Topps HD sets from the early 2000s.  I think they are fabulous cards, and am always glad to peck away at my set.

Thanks for the trade Chris!

Checklist Chipaway: Gypsy Queen Green Border

I recently won a nice little eBay lot of 7 Green Framed Gypsy Queen, pushing my checklist to 47% completion.  I'm actually on a faster pace to compete the Green Paper parallel set than the base.  I imagine when I get to about 80% it will start to bog down and get tougher to complete though.  At the same time, I picked up a few Red Paper cards on sportlots.com that a guy had for only $.18 each.  One of them was Ian Kinsler so I REALLY had to have it:

These are just beautiful cards.  And that Kinsler card is fantastic.

That's all.

Gypsy Queen Life Vest: Courtesy Reader Ryan

When I started this blog, I had no preconceived notions about the level of trading in which I would participate.   In fact, I don’t think trading was on my radar at all as I timidly stepped into the blogging waters. But lately, it seems like that’s all I’ve been doing,  and I’m happy to say it’s been a blast.  But how can you not enjoy coming home from a hard day of reading blog posts work and finding a nice padded envelope with your fake name on it.  That’s just what I got from reader Ryan L.  the other day.  He sent a very nice stack of cards and yet again pushed my GQ master set toward completion.  I’d spend a minute extolling the virtues of his blog, but as of yet, he doesn’t have one.  Based on my correspondence with him, I think he should.  He’s got some really nice collecting goals and it would be cool to follow his progress.  Just do it Ryan, quit screwing around.  What, do you have a life or something?  Anyway, onto the goodies:

 12 Base Cards including some SPs.  I'm now at 53% complete for the base set.

Ryan also snuck in a couple of Green Framed cards of two superstars, and minis of 3 of my favorite players.  I suppose if I really wanted to have a master set of GQ, I should build the minis.  After looking at these, I just might.

And finally, a few other cards of some of my favorite players.  The Halladay is a numbered refractor. Sa-weeet.

Since Ryan doesn’t have a blog to cover his end of the trade, let me do it for him.  Actually, I don’t even remember what I sent him, but I’ll cover the gist of what I think he would have said about me:

“I’m sure by now you are blissfully aware of the highly entertaining, edgy and relevant ‘The Adventures of Napkin Doon.’  If you haven’t read his blog yet, what the %@*% are you waiting for?  Imagine if Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon and Mark Twain had a baby and that baby grew up to write a baseball card blog.  That’s the essence of Napkin Doon.  But be warned, unless you are prepared to be challenged mentally, don’t read his blog.  Certainly, the subject matter of his blog is baseball cards, but if you read between the lines you realize that he is actually holding a mirror up to society and saying “This…. This is what you are society.’  Plus he held a tournament for hot dogs too.”

Thank you for the kind words Ryan.  I’m blushing, but I graciously accept what your post about me would have said.

Black Friday Haul From COMC Thanks To CCC

Lest anyone say we are all just a bunch of goobers showing each other our baseball cards, ponies, chippy notes from Hall of Famers,  and mustaches, I'm grateful to say that because I read other blogs, I was alerted to the Black Friday sale at Checkoutmycards.com on, well, Black Friday.  Cheap Card Collecting was diligently posting the Black Friday deals as they went live, and because of this, I was able to get some good stuff at at good prices.  I love Checkoutmycards.com, but shipping can add up quickly since there is a $.25 per card processing fee.  On Black Friday, they ran a special for $4.95 for the first 20 cards shipped, plus $.11 each additional card.  It still was kind of expensive shipping, but if you found a card that was already heavily discounted, the shipping wasn't such a big deal.
I jumped on and was able to chip away at several sets, and picked up a few cards outside my master checklist.  Of course I grabbed some Gypsy Queen:

I was very pleased to get the Ruth Home Run Heroes, and am now only 2 cards shy of knocking out this insert set.  I was even more please to get the last 2 Future Stars I needed, completing that set.

I am also now only 3 away from finishing the Bowman's Best prospect set. One of those 3 is NOT Bryce Harper, so it won't be too difficult to finish.

As for older-ish sets on my list, I edged a little closer to finishing my 2002 Stadium Club Master set.  "Capture the Action" is now complete, and the lovely "Diamond Pearls" set is 65% done.

I also dinged my 2005 Topps Gallery Artist Proof set and Topps HD master set with a couple of onesies.
Finally, I picked up a couple of single cards of sets I'm not building, but really liked:

This Bob Feller Sterling card was only $1 so I jumped.  I much prefer 2009 Sterling over this 2010 design, but it's nice nonetheless.

 I hadn't yet seen any of the 2011 Topps Tribute in real life yet, so I grabbed this Tony Gwynn priced under $1.  These are super nice cards.  I may have to get a few more.

Finally, this Topps T205  Honus Wagner was under $1 too, and it is a beautiful card in hand. It's glossy and shiny and thick.  I'll definitely try to get more from this set.

All in all, I was very happy with my Black Friday purchase, and again thanks to CCC for the good work on the alerts!

Gypsy Queen Life Vest- Courtesy Lifetime Topps Project

I've been a big fan of the the blog "Lifetime Topps Project" for a while now, and was thrilled when Charlie, owner of the blog, reached out and said he could help fill in some of my Gypsy Queen needs.  Charlie's blog is  informative and so thorough, it's a definite asset to the collecting world.  He just posted an overview of 1984 Topps, and reading it reminds me what a cool set that was.

He sent about 25 GQ cards I needed, including several SPs, helping take my set to above the magic 50% completion mark.  Once I get past 50% it's time to start putting the cards in pages!  Here were some of my favorites that he sent.  I was especially glad to get the Moreland and Andrus SPs:

Thanks for the trade Charlie, and keep up the great work on your wonderful blog!