Breaking some GQ boxes from the LCS !!!

During my holiday in Orlando last year I visited a few LCS in the area, in search for packs and boxes of course. This year was no different and, like last year, I decided to visit Orlando Sportscards. The kids in a chase for soccer cards and me in search for some new additions to my collection. Its a nice LCS shop with a good collection of cards, boxes and supplies.

Given it's Gypsy Queen season my key goal was to get a few hobby boxes. The first visit was a success for the kids with loads of soccer cards. However, no Gypsy Queen boxes in sight. However, I tried again a week later and the owner Kendall indicated that a few boxes would be delivered later that morning so we decided to stick around for these. So here they are, 2 boxes of GQ, let the fun begin !!








Given that I am posting again using the on-the-road blogger app let me stick to the hits of the 2 boxes. Let's have a look at the first box.






Not a bad score, a Yankees auto (Refsnyder), a Cano relic to /50, a Marte mini relic to /50 and a green O'Brien auto crd to /99. Furthermore, some nice minis AND a bonus printing plate (James McCann). Most are for trade of course.

Was that box one I hear you ask. Not yet, we still have a mini box wth 10 exclusive cards, i.e. Normally the photo variation minis. However, only 1 card was in this mini box !?!? Did I get screwed ??

Well actually, an awesome card came out, totally unexpected. Meet Frank Thomas !! A mini relic/auto booklet numbered to only 20 !!!












An awesome HoF booklet to finish off box number 1 !!!

Let's move to the 2nd box and again focus on the hits of the box.






Another Yankees auto, Greg Bird !! The 2nd auto was Franco from the Phillies while the 2 relics were Cano (again!) and deGrom. Some cool minis finished off the box, including a Peralta yellow/gold mini.

Overall, not as great as box 1 but it was difficult to top that one given the Frank Thomas booklet ! All in all, GQ continues to be one of the best box breaks in my view, together with Allen & Ginter !

If you are in the Orlando area I can recommend the Orlando Sportscards shop, below the details !





Thanks for visiting my blog today. Hopefully I can add the 2016 GQ to my Want List but it may take a little as I am in the middle of moving house. In any event, always happy to set up a trade !

Meeting Kershaw !!

So during my visit to Orlando I took the opportunity to attend two games of the Tampa Bay Rays. First game was last Sunday against the Blue Jays. The 2nd one was yesterday against the Dodgers. Clearly I was hoping to see Kershaw in action but it wasn't meant to be. Lets start with Sunday's game against the Blue Jays. We had fairly good seats and was joined by my wife and two kids.







It was a fun game although scoring was a bit slow. Below one of the action shots I was able to take. The Blue Jays won in the end (5-1) with HRs by amongst others Tulo and a good game by Stroman. Longoria also had a solo HR for the Rays. All in all, a good game to watch.






There was plenty of entertainment during the game, the most popular being "running the bases", here's my two kids in action after a 30 minute que !





Last night was my 2nd game, this time against the Dodgers. As Kershaw already played last Sunday he was not in the line-up. Below was his only action of the evening, catching some balls in the outfield. So actually I didn't really meet him but hey, you guys never use some click bait :-))






It was a good game to watch with a lot of scoring on both sides with the game ending 10-7 for the Dodgers. Below some more Kershaw action !






All in all, a fun two games and great to, for my first time, see the Dodgers play live.

Looking forward to my next visit to the USA, hopefully seeing Kershaw actually pitch himself !

Thanks for visiting my blog today !

Topps Now - Is this For Real ??

So I have been checking out the new Topps New concept. For the ones that are unfamiliar with this new Topps program, Topps basically selects a few great moments from yesterday's games and makes a Topps Now card out of these which you can buy from the Topps site for a limited amount of time (I think it is 48 hours following the game). The concept I actually like as you can capture some of the cool moments in baseball quickly on a card.

In the last few weeks I was waiting for a cool Rizzo or Kershaw card and try out the program. Yesterday it happened, Kershaw made it onto a card after an awesome games including 14 Ks and the winning RBI.




Apologies for the size of the photo but I am not able yet to adjust these photos with the Blogger app I am using on the road here during my holiday !

Anyways, I decided to try it out, putting in the order at an already steep $9.99. However, when trying to check out I needed to specify the shipping I liked. Of course, the shipping only started at $6.80, yes you read it correctly, $6.80. So not only does Topps charge $9.99 for a single piece of non-auto, non-relic, cardboard, it also charges shipping, starting at $6.80 (running up to over $100 actually if you really want the card safe and quickly!).

So this piece of cardboard already adds up to $16.79. On top of that, and specific to me, I use a COMC mailbox (or else Topps would not even accept my order), which charges me another $1 for handling and later on some costs for shipping it in a batch to the Netherlands.

So all in all this card comes close to $20 and in the end will likely be having a print run of 300-500+.

Of course I don't have to buy the card, and in the end I didn't given the costs, but it is such a shame in my view as I really like the concept and they could have really added some value to the loyal baseball card collectors. In it current form, to me it feels too much as a rip-off. Clearly a missed opportunity for Topps in my view.

Let me stop my rant here :-) Any of you do feel these are proper prices and I should simply not complain about them ?

Thanks for visiting my blog today and apologies for the negativity ! Be on the look out for a post on the Rays - Blue Jays game review from last Sunday !