Gypsy Queen is now live for Hobby, the bigger hits in the product are starting to surface. I want to focus on the autographs, because they are some really nice examples of what happens when you design a card correctly. Baseball cards are much different than any other sport, if not only because the demographic is so much different. In football, you have a renewable resource in the draft class each year, where Baseball relies almost 100% on existing stars or HOFers for a set like this. Prospects are only allowed for certain sets by MLB, and Topps has to pick their checklist carefully with each set.

There are a few cards that have popped up on eBay so far that may be the best examples of autographs from the specific players in years. Better than Museum Collection, better than Tribute, but rarer than all the high end sets put together. The one thing that GQ suffers from is a weak autograph checklist outside of the big hits, which means you are more likely to pull Mitch Moreland or Joe Benson than even someone like Starlin Castro. However, when the big hits show up in your packs, its going to be an amazing looking card.

Check these out:

2012 Gypsy Queen Sandy Koufax Autograph – GREAT picture on this card, and the painted look makes it even more special. Older players have a disadvantage in that the photography may be difficult to transfer to today’s stuff, but the filter on photoshop helps to fudge that.

2012 Gypsy Queen Hank Aaron Autograph – The autograph is a bit low on this card, but I like the vintage look to this. Aaron’s pictures back in those days werent great, and this one isnt bad. I would have loved to see Aaron in that ridiculous blue and red jersey he wore in the latter part of his career just once.

2012 Gypsy Queen Frank Thomas Autograph – The Big Hurt looks incredible in this card, and its great to see that he is making it back into sets. Topps made the right call on this one.

2012 Gypsy Queen Dennis Eckersley Autograph – This is why I love on card autographs, as Eck has one of the best autos in sports.

2012 Gypsy Queen Cal Ripken Jr Autograph – Another great pic on this card.

Again, I wish the autograph checklist wasnt as watered down as it is, but that would make the product cost as much as Museum Collection to produce. It does have a lot of extra little things that will make it interesting for someone like me, but if you want high end, you might as well bust a previous product. The bottom line here is that you can get on card autographs for a cheaper per pack price than Tribute, and the cards look just as good. As I said previously, its obvious that the Topps design team is stepping up their game, which is a win for everyone. Ginter is coming soon, and I honestly believe its going to make a huge impact if Bryce Harper gets called up before then. With guys like Brett Lawrie already on the big league club, his autographs are ridiculous right now.

If I were Topps, I would be extremely happy that a release like this is overshadowing one of Panini’s biggest sets. That has to be a feather in the cap, as Im sure Panini was expecting a lot more talk about their offering to compete with the high end segment. It isnt working as well as they had hoped.