Set Building Success

One part of our great hobby that I really paid no attention to before starting the blog was set building.  When I was actively opening boxes in the mid 2000's I would pull out the Pirates and the "hits" then box the rest of the cards up.  Since starting the blog along with hosting a monthly box busting party at my house I started fooling around putting sets together.

With all that being said I had my first set completion this past week.  2013 Topps Gypsy Queen was a tough set to build, but with the help of the blogging community and my friends Keith and Micah from the box busting parties I was able to do it.  The hardest part was obtaining all the sp's but thankfully Keith and Micah were open to trading.  With their help I was able to complete close to 90% of the set (we each opened 3 boxes over the last handful of months).  Keith is trying to complete the Triple Threads Amethyst set so I was able to send some his way and Micah is a Pirates guy like myself so it was easy to get his SP's.   The rest of the set was completed through some blogging trades and a small Sportlots pickup.

While my focus is always on collecting the Pirates and WVU Mountaineers this was a nice change of pace.  I will probably continue to try and complete sets as long as our once a month opening continues. Plus this opens a few more trading possibilities.  Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to showcase some more finished sets as I'm nearing completion on two more!

Thanks for reading.

Box Break: 2013 Gypsy Queen X 2

Today my friends Micah and Keith (The Home Run Apple) came over to my place to open some Gypsy Queen.  Normal protocol is that we open a box a month but we got a little behind schedule so we each busted 2 boxes.  I actually did pretty well for a change and got the biggest hit of the 6 boxes opened.

 This was the big hit as it is numbered out of 5.  Weird card, but I'll take it.

My friends and I have each opened 3 boxes of 2013 Gypsy Queen and each of us has pulled a Matt Carpenter and Garrett Richards.

I guess this counts as half a Pirates auto since Brock Holt was traded last year as part the Joel Hanrahan/Mark Melancon deal.  He had the game winning hit for the Red Sox today.  I hope Anthony Gose becomes a superstar because I have some good cards of his.  He is one of those guys that follows me when I bust a box.

 Run of the mill Markakis jersey.

 Addison Reed and Buster Posey framed jersey.

 Dan Uggla and Jacoby Ellsbury blue parallels.

 Sabathia and Scutaro minis /50.  Josh Willingham /99.

Black minis including Ralph Kiner!

Pretty good break overall.  I also traded Keith and Micah some cards to get some sp's as I'm really close to completing the set.  I'm only about 10 cards short.  Keith also traded me two Pirate black minis (Walker and Martin).  Always a blast to get together and open some cards and talk baseball.  

Thanks for checking out the blog.  

Box Break: 2013 Gypsy Queen

Tonight my friends and I each busted a box of Gypsy Queen.  From the pictures above you can see that I did not get a major hit, but we a great time opening the packs.  Our once a month routine usually turns out to be an all night affair where we talk baseball, order some food and drink a few beers.  My favorite hits were probably the numbered minis in the middle picture.  The Bench and Rizzuto were numbered to 199 and the Votto to 99.  At the very least I accumulated some trade bait for my new blog friends.

My buddy Micah was the big winner tonight.  He pulled a Miguel Montero printing plate.  This was cool because it was the printing plate for the collision insert set.  He wasn't done yet. Micah also pulled a Wade Boggs jumbo jersey /25 and a nice Matt Carpenter auto.  He definitely had the hot hand tonight.  

Overall Gypsy Queen is a fun break.  Running us a little over $60 a box you get two on card autos and two relic cards.  Plus you have the nice numbered cards and a boatload of minis.  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we think we may do another round next month.