Just For the Hell of it, a Blaster of 2020 Gypsy Queen

It's a weirdness I've never experienced because I wasn't alive in 1994, but...it's very weird having a moment in time where there's no baseball, but there's...cards on the shelves. Like, new cards.

It's slightly counterproductive. Successive card products being released for a season that's yet to start, and may be a little while away [had a dream it was pushed til September. The hell's the point of that? Snow-ball?].

And yet, I'm out in the aisles of a deserted Target to get some air, passing nonexistent other customers, and there are cards on the shelves. Gypsy Queen is out. Usually when Gypsy Queen's out, we're comparing the airbrushings on those cards to the real things playing their first round of new baseball. Now...we have nothing else to go by. The airbrush jobs are our reality.

So here's a blaster of 2020 Gypsy Queen, fresh off the shelf, adored by Philly hero (?) Bryce Harper. I'll tally up the airbrush jobs, and rate them.

GREEN PACK:
55- Trea Turner. I pull Trea Turner cards a lot.
267- Peter Lambert
300- Mike Trout. Well at least I pulled the big one.
15- Justin Smoak. Airbrush job #1- he's shopped into a Brewers uniform from a Toronto one. Not only that, it's a new Brewers uniform. You can see the patch and hat insignia slapped on, but it's not bad. 6/10
227- Oscar Mercado

Pack 1-
246- Brusdar Graterol, now on the Dodgers. Perhaps foolishly
66- Kirby Yates
286- Domingo Leyba [come and open the gate] [I don't care if it's an obscure reference i just watched that movie the other night and it's still great]
186- Evan Longoria BLUE BORDER NUMBERED TO 250. I have such weird luck with Gypsy Queen parallels. One time I pulled an Eddie Mathews mini #d to 199 out of retail. Coolest thing.
196- Mitch Keller
290- Tommy La Stella

Pack 2-
269- Jorge Soler, home run slayer and probable future bad Yankee investment
265- Sam Hilliard
115- Dustin 'Gingergaard' May
Fortune Teller mini of AARON JUDGE. GOOD GOLLY IT'S SOMEONE I COLLECT. YE GODS.
49- Brandon Crawford
118- Ender Inciarte

Pack 3-
134- Tim 'Taz' Anderson
257- Willi Castro. The other thing about GQ is they couldn't tell with Tigers were gonna catch on so they just made some educated guesses
169- ADAM OTTAVINO.
262- Andres Munoz
68- Randy Arozarena- airbrush job #2, in a Rays uniform from a Cardinals uniform. The uniform logo looks pasted in some points and adorned in others. The gloves are well hued though. 7/10
98- GERRIT COLE AS A YANKEE. Intriguing airbrush job (#3) this one, as he's not only in a Yankee uniform from an Astros one, but he's got a different, less wild back of the head, due to the Yankee freshening up rule. So they probably grabbed another Yankee scalp and put it on his, which is odd. Still, it works, and the uni is well hued to be blue. 8/10

Pack 4-
207- Paul deJong
5- Dom Nunez. Lots of Rockies rookies
63- Austin Nola. There's ONE Nola brother
109- Andrelton 'Simba' Simmons
259- Starlin Castro, Airbrush Job #4. This is a weird one, as it's a Nats uniform from a Marlins one. On the surface, it looks great, as it looks like a great uniform, which makes me think they pasted Castro's head and arm on there. I dunno if that arm tattoo is his. Very interesting. But, as for the airbrush/paste, 9/10
150- Cody Bellinger. The other big MVP to pull

Pack 5-
239- Nick Senzel
188- Matt Chapman
166- Max Scherzer. No shortage of star power in these packs
TAROT OF THE DIAMOND insert of Alex Bregman, aka THE JOKER. DAMN RIGHT. I like Alex Bregman as much as I like the 2019 film 'Joker'.
175- Hyun-Jin Ryu, airbrush job #5, which is an easy one, as it's Blue Jays from Dodgers. So, color is fine, uniform grey is fine, pasting is fine. Even the cap insignia looks natural. 9/10
264- Trevor Bauer as a Red, which is a welcome sight after UPDATE LAST  YEAR DIDN'T HAVE IT.

Pack 6-
232- Aaron Civale
62- Dylan Cease. Curious as hell that he would have gotten the 5th starter job over Kopech. Very curious
86- Anthony Rizzo
215- Anthony Rendon as an Angel, Airbrush Job #6, Nats to Angels, which would have been a perfect airbrush job had it not been for a uniform air-ruffle that the Angels logo is pasted upon, which takes me out of it a bit. 8/10
191- Victor Reyes
180- Keston Hiura

Pack 7-
206- Christian Vazquez
52- Brendan McKay
229- Emmanuel Clase, traded to in the Corey Kluber deal.
271- Michael Brosseau. Still confused at Topps' insistence of calling him Michael. Like calling Castellanos 'Nicholas' and Boyd 'Matthew'.
249- Luis Castillo
282- AARON NOLA. There we go. Both Nola bros in the same blaster.

Not a bad blaster of this. I'm not the hugest Gypsy Queen fan, but this has some nice elements this year, and I got some nice pulls and airbrush jobs, 6 in total.

Spring Samplings: 2019 Diamond Kings & 2019 Gypsy Queen

This is an odd time in the card-collecting year for me, because products are definitely being released, but I...really don't want to collect most of them. Diamond Kings I usually collect a little bit of and wait til the hobby box reaches an affordable price. Gypsy Queen...since they did away with all their great insert sets, I can't really get into.

Anyway, I had a spare moment, so here's a blaster of '19 DK, and a 'VALUE PACK' of Gypsy Queen. In that order. And I will try and enthuse some character into this, though don't hold me to it.

DK:

Bonus Pack;
HOF Heroes of Mel Ott, a worthy get
Blue-Bordered Parallel of Larry Doby. Photos and filtering look nice this year. Very colorful.
Blue-Bordered parallel of Cionel Perez. Neither of these are numbered, btw.
16- Lou Gehrig Artist's Proof. And neither is this.
Babe Ruth Collection insert of his pitching days in Boston. Nice.

Pack 1-
73- Matt Carpenter. Of course we start with a Cardinal. Of course
109- Steven Duggar. I believe this is a short print.
Team Heroes insert of Christian Yelich. These are very quaint and 80s'-esque.
80 Ichiro. A nice throwback uniform on his DK sunset card.
37- Tony Gwynn

Pack 2-
30- Charlie Keller
205 insert of Max Scherzer...blue foil. NUMBERED TO 25 COPIES. Holy crap. Low-numbered parallel of a future Hall of Famer. Fantastic. Not sure about the odds of pulling one of these, but I am impressed.
HOF Heroes of Ty Cobb
94- Jonathan Davis RC. Not especially the Toronto rookie I was looking for.
52- Garrett Hampson RC

Pack 3-
87- AARON NOLA. Nice
45- Kevin Kramer RC
Masters of the Game of Jacob De Grom. I really like these. These are similarly retro, and they're closer to what DK should be
76- Kyle Wright RC
33- Nolan Ryan

Pack 4-
3- Babe Ruth. Because of course.
112- Yusei Kikuchi IMAGE VARIATION SHORT PRINT. This is my second good pull of the box, and this one's also pretty impressive.
Team Heroes of Shohei Ohtani. I sincerely hope he wasn't the sole Angel in this insert set. You wanna talk about an Angels team hero? It's not Ohtani, that's for sure.
90- David Fletcher RC. It's not him either
48- Johnny Bench. Beautiful shot here.

Pack 5-
61- Kolby Allard RC
19- Joe DiMaggio. Nice
205 insert of Mookie Betts. I do like these.
6- Mel Ott
64- Ryan O'Hearn

Pack 6-
42- Max Scherzer
99- Christin Stewart RC
Squires insert of Jack Flaherty. These are so damn cool that I'm not even bothered that this is a Cardinal.
22- Ted Williams
79- Jacob Nix

Not a bad product. Very retro-oriented, which is a step in the right direction, I think.

Now for the Gypsy Queen:

Pack 1-
170- Lou Trivino. Design isn't bad, but I feel like every year this set gets further and further away from what the original Gypsy Queen sets were
158- Luis Urias RC
26- Dee Gordon
110- Salvador Perez. A lot of the good photos in this set are just of catchers.
239- James McCann. Case in point
43- Josh Rogers RC

Pack 2-
196- Tucker Barnhart. Another really good catcher shot
164- Jake Odorizzi
88- Tyler Mahle
156- Jake Cave
204- Josh Hader MISSING NAMEPLATE VARIATION. Man, the short prints just keep coming.
276- Rowdy Tellez RC

Pack 3-
94- Francisco Lindor
44- Jeimer Candelario
267- Alex Bregman
Fortune Teller insert of Javier Baez
59- Zack Wheeler
156- Javier Baez again!

Green Pack-
22- Ryan Borucki
36- Starling Marte
268- Willy Adames

Very blah set in my opinion. Base set isn't terribly interesting, nor are the inserts. Even the guaranteed green parallels are just border and not a framed parallel or anything.

DK wins here. More likely to get more of that than more of GQ.

A Blaster of 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen

I'll be honest, this has been a pretty solid year of cardboard so far. Topps flagship and Heritage which both were really good, solid upgrades from last year. I haven't had a ton of qualms about specific products. However...I'm going to be honest...I opened a blaster of Gypsy Queen today, and I wasn't thrilled.

Look, I'm actually one of the people that was a fan of the set even in its more dormant years, from 2013-2016, when nobody really cared about it. I really enjoyed the inserts, the degree of Spring Training shots, the detail packed into making the cards look vintage but distinct. Not a ton of that is still left in the 2017 edition, sad to say.

The main problem is Topps is trying to make Gypsy Queen into a cousin of Allen and Ginter, by sprucing up the backs and the card stock, giving it a classier, more artful feel that the set didn't especially need.

I'll present the blaster as is, but I wasn't the biggest fan of this set:

Pack 1-
226- Eric Hosmer.
297- Adam Lind, looking very tired on this card.
73- Brett Gardner. Okay, at least I pulled a Yankee.
162- AJ Pollock, in one of those newfangled, weirdly okay Diamondbacks uniforms.
264- Adrian Beltre, future Hall of Famer and...sadly currently on the DL.
246- Kole Calhoun

Pack 2-
2- Edwin Diaz.
200- Mike Trout. Again, I'll give Topps credit that I could actually pull a Mike Trout card without it being an SSSSP.
285- Kirby Yates. But...a knock against Topps for including a middle-reliever in a photoshopped uniform that didn't especially need to be here.
199- Jose Quintana
49- Kevin Gausman, one of two young O's pitchers who've FINALLY begun pitching well.
44- Kirk Nieuwenhuis. We...didn't especially need a card of him either...

Pack 3-
87- Jake Lamb, who should have another nice season this year, if the D-Backs platooning allows him to.
56- Yasmani Grandal
3- Marcus Semien, a surprisingly potent addition for the A's.
Fortune Teller insert of Ivan Rodriguez. Okay, to be fair, these mini-inserts are cool, but I prefer the Glove Stories/Sticky Fingers/Sliding Stars variety that we'd become used to.
269- Brian Dozier, Twins hero.
182- Sam Dyson.

Pack 4-
239- Asdrubal Cabrera
165- JA Happ. Glad to see he's reentering the spotlight.
282- Andrew Benintendi RC. If what I saw in Florida holds ground in the regular season...he's for real.
145- Zack Cozart
141- Adonis Garcia...only this is a Blackplateless- variation, so it's a lighter version of the card without black ink, and without a position. Weird, but cool.
206- Dustin Pedroia. Hate the team, respect the player.

Pack 5-
50- Anthony Rizzo. One of my favorites.
245- DJ LeMahieu, probably up for another big season in 2017.
125- Francisco Cervelli. Again, I'm glad people are rooting for him.
Hand-Drawn Reproduction of...Roger Clemens. Good enough idea, I just wish I would have gotten someone else.
80- Scooter Gennett. Now with the Reds.
103- Mitch Moreland.

Pack 6-
267- Zack Davies, who's become an apparent ace in a squad without many.
244- Ian Desmond. I'll admit that the photoshopping this year is a ton better, as Desmond does indeed look like he's wearing a Rockies uniform.
81- Starling Marte
299- Orlando Arcia
149- MATT HOLLIDAY IN A YANKEE UNIFORM...AND...Purple Parallel, #'d to 250. Again, I'm not loving this set, but this was pretty nice of Topps to throw this in, as if they knew. 'Yeah, he's not digging the set, maybe throw a Yankee parallel his way'.
210- Adam Jones. Baltimore hero.

Pack 7-
51- Kevin Kiermaier. Still fantastic, will probably be holding up the Rays this year.
82- Brad Ziegler
247- Charlie Blackmon
315- Rod Carew SHORT PRINT. Hey, this is a pretty nice one to pull, too.
75- Clayton Kershaw. Best in the game.
69- Randal Grichuk

Pack 8-
255- Matt Wisler
191- Marcell Ozuna, who should be back on the right track
184- Austin Hedges. ...Okay, Topps. If I don't know who someone is, they SHOULDN'T BE IN GYPSY QUEEN...
78- Robert Gsellman rookie.
284- Tommy Joseph. Jim Thome Part Deux.
111- Freddie Freeman.


Yeah, not a ton to talk about with this set. Just underwhelming, and not as good as previous issues.

(Not) JustSetNeeds

For once, I was going to JustCommons for a reason, other than getting countless player-collection crap.

Okay, I lie. Yes, I was planning on grabbing player-collection stuff, but MAINLY...I was trying to work on some set needs. You see, this summer I'm trying to do some major blog reconstruction, and one of the steps is getting back into trading. I want to complete some sets, and I want to have more specific guidelines for what I want, so I don't confuse prospective traders. But mainly, I wanted to see what I could do to some sets I was trying to complete.

Of course, I did get a little carried away with some other stuff, as you'll see, but all in all this was a pretty prosperous JC purchase.

Set Needs:

These three cards were the last ones I needed to complete the 1992 Stadium Club Series One set (spoiler alert for the box I've been busting this week). Including the Murph, which was one that was evading me as a player-collector as well- Phils Murph is pretty rare.

These were the tip of the iceberg, though...

My main area of damage, though, was 1993 SC, and I knocked a ton of those off of my wantlist (which is updated, and on the sidebar). These two shots were some of the better horizontals, especially Fielder.

Juan Gone was one of the few pricier base cards I got from 93SC, as he was pretty big in the early 90's. Mark Gubicza seems to be on the set of the latest Tron movie. I threw in Macfarlane for a nice catcher shot.

I'll finish with some of the goofier looks of '93. I still hold the teal Marlins uniforms near and dear to my heart. In terms of the shades battle in the other two, Cotto wins, but not without some serious competition from Oz.

I got a ton more 93SC, but didn't want to scan everything.

They only had 3 cards I needed from the 94 set, but they were pretty nice ones. The Big Unit is a beaut- just a lot of grace and poignance in there. Carter's has a nice amount of effort as well, with a very nice composition of background and foreground. I also needed Clemens.

Player Collections:

Yeah, you knew I'd go hog wild with this one. I figured I'd search for some players I collect in odder uniforms, or just ones I didn't have that looked cool. I don't have nearly enough Hunter Pence as a Phillie cards, so this '12 Heritage release certainly helped.

Three guys I collect that I didn't find too much of. A-Gon was in a few issues as a Ranger, and I'm currently looking for the last few of those. Dickey as a Ranger isn't too uncommon, but I didn't have the '04 Fleer Tradition one. And I can never turn down a Juan Pierre card. NEVER.

For some reason, these two '04 Update releases had evaded my grasp. The A-Rod is even more disappointing, as I should have had it years ago.

Also, the quest for more Tim Raines cards (from the 'I can't stay in one place for more than a second' era) continued, with a few more Yankees issues. 97 Circa is pretty crazy, but there's something very alluring about it.

Two late-era Derrek Lee cards I didn't have. I tend to forget he was an Oriole for a split second.

Sigh....

I bought these a week before the news came out. At that point, I was still trying to get as many Byrd issues that I missed into the collection, as I took him out in the period following his departure from Philly...and put him back into the binder when he returned and hit like hell in 2014.

Now...I don't know, keeping him in might be counter-productive.

Some early-era Brandon Phillips. I don't talk about this enough, but Bowman Heritage is probably one of the most underrated sets of the last decade. So many cool, retro cards. Gone way too soon.
Yeah, those Indians issues are pretty rare as opposed to the last decade of 'Phillips in Cincinnati' photos.

As you may have saw at the top of the post, I'm trying to boost up my Jayson Werth collection again, little by little. I have accumulated a few Jays Werth cards, from Topps Total, but I've recently been stocking up on Dodgers issues. The one in the middle is pretty nice. Then again, I can never have enough Phillies Werths.

The one guy I did end up getting a great deal of was Zack Greinke. I barely have any cards of him as a Royal, which is a shame, because he came up in the early 2000's, and a lot of non-rookie pre-fame cards of his have evaded my grasp, like this '08 A&G card of his.

The '05 Ulltra one was one I'm surprised exists, as I didn't think Fleer would take a gamble on him and put him in the base set, but it worked out, somehow. The '05 Tradition one is nice too, even if I'm not the hugest fan of that set.

2016 Needs:

This was also equally important. For a number of reasons, I haven't bought a ton of cards this year so far. I'm not a fan of Flagship, and while I do like Heritage this year, I haven't had a ton of time to get cards at Target or something, so I used this JC run to remedy that a bit. I figured I'd start with Donruss' umpteenth Ichiro, which is different, because they're no longer the official Ichiro suppliers in cards anymore.

From D16's '81s subset. One last card of Heyward as a Cardinal, and a pretty amazing card of Steve Carlton. They got around the whole 'no logos' thing by throwing in a hatless shot, and this one is really graceful, and well-filtered. Well done, Panini.

My main endeavors, however, were with Topps Products, specifically 2016 Heritage and Gypsy Queen. This Johnny Cueto, while mainly being one of the few mementos of his Royals tenure, also is a pretty sweet throwback to the '67 set.

I separated the bulk of the purchase into some major categories-

Yankees and Phillies: While the photoshopping on Chapman isn't great, this is still a pretty nice bunch. I appreciate the inclusion of not only Darin Ruf, though his time as a Phillie is probably going to end as Tommy Joseph seems to be the answer, but Aaron Altherr, the Phillies outfielder of the future who's gonna rule this lineup once he gets off the DL.

Guys that ended 2015 in different uniforms than they started 2016 in: This works out, because I definitely needed at least one Swisher-as-a-Brave card, and another J-Rol for the pile. Kazmir's Astros run at least got them to the playoffs, and should be remembered. Reyes...poor guy...

Guys that retired before Heritage was released- LaRoche at least looks pretty happy there.

Obligatory Cubs- Even if the PS'ing isn't great, the thought is still there, and these guys just look really happy- especially Lackey, as I'm assuming that's a genuine Cubs uniform.

Pitchers in new uniforms- The Heritage Greinke I knew was fake, because I made a custom with that exact photo last year. The Cueto, as I assume it's a PS job, is pretty damn good, as are most of these.

Batters in New Uniforms- Top half are doing some major damage so far. Bottom half have some progress to make. The Simmons is a pretty damn good one.

Guys that used to be Yankees- All very well regarded in my collection, even Utley. Grandy, of course, will never NOT be one of my favorite players, and Cano's a couple more awesome seasons like this one away from glory.

Assorted guys I collect. The A-Gons were a must, but it was nice of Topps to give Josh Hamilton a card here, as he deserved something. Cespedes and Sale because they're killing it right now.

And, of course, because I'm happy he's back with Topps...some Ichiros. Because how can you not love Ichiro?

Finally, I figured I'd throw in a few cards from First Pitch, because I love the set so much. Brownstein was a great one, even if I made a similar custom last year. Too funny not to pass up. And Hayley Atwell's a Marvel fan favorite in Agent Carter, so it was my duty as a geek to pick that one up.

Speaking of my geekiness...

Yeah, this was my favorite one.

Levar Burton, not only as Geordi LaForge, but as the host of Reading Rainbow, made a difference on my childhood. And I couldn't NOT pick this one up, on top of everything.

That was the geeky little cherry on my JustCommons purchase.

JustSplurging

(Blows dust off of scanner)

I did make a few JustCommons purchases during the school year, but due to my lack of a scanner, never got a chance to post any results. Thankfully, I got a nice sampling of cards today from JC. I'll say this is probably the most eclectic mix I've gotten from them. You can go wild on that site. I must have gone 'oh, they have some of THIS set?' about forty times (though a bit disappointed over the lack of 2010 National Chicle, as I need to complete that set ASAP).

I can separate these cards I got, which includes that awesome shot of Dave Stewart from '94 Score above, into a few very simple groups.

Junk Wax Era cards of players I collect:

Look at Orel.

LOOK AT HIM.

That's a pretty awesome card of a pretty awesome player. I'm just beefing up my Orel collection this year, as I have a ton of Orel Dodger cards, but not enough from the later half of his career. Also, the guy went to my high school.

He was one of the many guys I wanted to nab in terms of early 90's cards.

Molly was another one.

As a rule, anybody in the HOF automatically goes into my HOF binder, and I automatically collect any dufex-era-on cards of them that look cool. Molly is one of those guys I have a lot of respect for, and he's probably be in my binders even if he wasn't in the Hall. I also adore the 90's UD Checklists.

A bunch of early Vizquels. I forgot how cool the '94 Bowman design looked, especially in scans. Plus, the '93 UD one is a great shot.

The three stages of late-career Goose: Pre Japan, Post-Japan, and Somebody-Get-Me-Out-Of-Here.
Mariner Goose looks pretty horrified to be a part of the '95 Fleer design. He's not alone.

A rare card of Carlton Fisk playing first base. That's pretty odd. Great shot, though.

Two more natural positions for Carlton. Reminds me I need some more '92 Pinnacle in my collection. Such a cool set. So simple, too.

I've been collecting a lot more Jack Morris, too. Great pitcher. Veterans committee will definitely get him into Cooperstown. Because he deserves it.

In other news, Eddie Murray is freaking awesome. Yesterday was the anniversary of his 500th home run. I love all four of these sets, too. The Flair one actually came from another source (which I'll get to one of these days), but fit the theme.

One more awesome shot of Murray from a '92 UD checklist. Just awesome.

The three stages of early-era McGriff. Funny thing is I have a ton of Brave McGriffs, and not too many Blue Jay or Padres ones...for the binder that is.

Two horizontal Padre-era McGriff's. I love the UD checklist. So cool.

A quartet of Edgars. Yeah, if this guy doesn't make it to Cooperstown, then, to quote Russell Hantz, there is a flaw in the game. I do really dig the '93 Bowman one. Great shot.

Three Blylevens. I'm still a bit puzzled as to why he got inducted into the Hall of Fame, but I'm not arguing. I'll still collect his cards.

Topps' Final Tribute card for Blyleven. One I'd been looking for for a while. Great shot, too.

Gary Carter made a nice few appearances in my JC order. Interestingly enough I only got one card of him as a Met. I love getting cards of great players in unfamiliar unforms, which is why I wanted to get cards of him as a Giant and Dodger. I was looking for his '93 Topps issue for a while. And that Pinnacle one might be the best of his final year.

However, Lee Smith was definitely the star of this portion of the package. I've been collecting Lee Smith forever, and he's one of the greatest closers of all time (and a perennial HOF sunb). I got cards from every portion of the last leg of his career, from his Boston days...

...to his career-defining year or so as a St. Louis Cardinal...

...to the last legs of his career. That '97 Circa one is so frenzied that I love it. The '96 Score one is the best, though. He looks so happy.

Okay, now onto another part of the package:

Recent Sets I Thought Would be Cool to Get Some of:

I've always been a fan of Donruss' Diamond Kings sets. When I heard they'd be returning with Panini, I had mixed thoughts...and it didn't help that the reviews were generally meh. I still wanted to get a few cards from it, so I got a smattering, including this admittedly awesome shot of Robby Cano.

As you can see, the set loses a lot without logos, but it's still got the right Diamond Kings idea, and the cards still have that patchwork feel. Besides, there are some standouts, occasionally, like the Utley.

But still, as this was a Donruss product, there was really only one reason for me to venture in...

...and that's Ichiro Freaking Suzuki.

I think I heard somewhere that he's coming back to Topps, signing a new contract and all of that. I'm very happy about that, but still, I'm gonna sweep up as many of his Panini cards as I can, because...it's Ichiro. You have to. And for the record, this card looks pretty damn cool.

However, I didn't stop at Diamond Kings.

I heard some of the most glowing reviews about last year's Topps Finest, so I had to snap up some commons. And yeah, it's a pretty well-designed set, popping off with color and blending the shot into the design. Very, very impressive.

I got a little over 20 of these. These 9 are just the ones I'm showing. Very, very cool stuff. Probably the best Finest set in over a decade. Extra points for the Sale.

An Ellsbury because he's awesome.

That leads to our final segment for today...

Awesome Insert Roundup:

JC has a ton of nice  inserts from the last decade or so of Topps/Assorted other products. They had a slew of Gypsy Queen inserts, which, in my opinion, are the best part of that product. Nice to pull a Beltre-as-a-Dodger every once in a while.

I got nine inserts dedicated to awesome pitching over the years. Pretty nice that I could get a Bob Feller card for the same price as a Trevor Bauer card. What a world we live in.
Also, that Halladay is a nice one.

I've always been a huge fan of the Propaganda Posters from 2009 Topps. Probably my favorite insert set of the last few years. So, I got a couple I needed. Bottom row- Maryland special.

This is the nicest of the bunch. Best part is he's only gotten better since his monstrous 2009 season.

A trio of cards from my second favorite insert set of 2015. Those throwbacks are just too cool.

Oh, I bet you want to know what my favorite insert set of 2015 is...

First Pitch. No contest.

I've toyed with the idea of making customs of celebs throwing out the first pitch for the longest time now. Paul Rudd as a Royal was practically BEGGING for one.

Jon Hamm's a pretty big deal already, as he's a great SNL host and a very nice actor. But putting him on a baseball card, in a Cardinals uniform? Genius.

Four other favorites. Ulrich's a must, especially as a music fan. Kevin Hart, regardless of the fact that I don't find him very funny, looks great in an 80's Sox uni. Chelsea Handler looks like she's having a great time at Wrigley. Maroney had to have been a cool one.

I picked up Jeff Bridges, Tom Morello and Macklemore earlier this year, and I still need to nab an Eddie Vedder and a Jack White, as well as a few others from Series 2 (Chris Pratt much?)

However...I did happen to take home the best card from First Pitch with this package...

Take it in, true believers.

Stan Lee, one of my all time heroes, the man who's made an appearance in almost every Marvel movie, created some of the most famous Superheroes of all time, and has inspired me to create amazing, and fun worlds. And he's on a baseball card. In a Giants uniform.

This is the best baseball card I've pulled so far this year. So awesome. So wonderful.

That's it for the JustCommons haul for today. There's a bit more to show, but, it's for another day. Besides....you know that huge, awesome set that came out last week? Well...I got some of it, and I got quite a bit of it.