Combing through the Quarter Box: Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen

There's a monthly card show just a few minutes from where I live. It's a pretty modest affair: Usually a half dozen or so tables set up in one end of the local mall. There's never much hockey -- and most of what little there is seems a bit overpriced, at least in my admittedly uninformed opinion.

But there's a whole lotta baseball, including a couple of dealers with thousands of cards in dime and quarter boxes. I had $10 in my pocket when I stopped by last week, which I decided to spend at the quarter box table after the dealer agreed to drop the price to 5 for a dollar.

This was probably my favorite card of the lot. It's part of an insert set from 2007 Allen & Ginter, using original paintings by Dick Perez, who is apparently the official artist of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I'm not a Philadelphia Phillies or Ryan Howard fan, but the card is beautiful. It's on a thicker card stock than other A&G cards, too, which gives it a premium feel. It's got a little 1/1 notation by Perez's signature, although I assume that refers to the painting rather than the card. Here's hoping I'll stumble across more of these in the future.

That was the first of a bunch of inserts from various A&G and Gypsy Queen sets.

Sticking with Allen & Ginter, here are four cards from the "Highlight Sketches" subset -- including a 2011 Jose Bautista that will fit nicely with my Toronto Blue Jays collection. The others are Mark Teixeira and Armando Galarraga (also 2011) and Ryan Braun (2012). The Galarraga card depicts the heartbreaking game in which he lost a perfect game when an umpire blew the call on what should have been the final out.

This is from the "This Day in History" insert set in 2010 A&G. Jason Bay (a Canadian!) was born Sept. 20., the date on which Magellan set out to sail around the globe in 1519.

Nine cards from the "Hometown Heroes" inserts the 2011 A&G set (the ninth -- Chris Carpenter, the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher from Exeter, N.H. -- didn't fit on the scanner). Another Blue Jay appearance here with Adam Lind, though he was just traded to the Brewers. Turns out Andrew McCutchen is from Fort Meade, Fla., which is only about an hour or so from Orlando.

Moving on to Gypsy Queen, here are two "Collisions" cards from 2013. The Yadier Molina gives you an especially neat perspective, looking straight down the third-base line.

Three 2013 "Glove Stories" cards, including one of one of the more hyped prospects in Blue Jays history in Travis Snider. Unfortunately, he never quite panned out and was traded to the Pirates for a middling reliever.

My goodness all of these Gypsy Queen inserts look great. The Andrus, Rollins and Ellsbury are from 2012. The Superman-style Ozzie Smith is from 2013.

Four cards from the 2013 "No Hitters" set. I was most excited at the time to come across the Roy Halladay, who will likely be the second player to go into the Hall of Fame in a Blue Jays cap. But the picture of Jered Weaver, which appears to capture his expression the second after the final out of his no-hitter, is perfect. Might be my second-favorite card of the day, behind the Ryan Howard.

Four cards from the 2012 "Moonshots" set. The least visually interesting of the Gypsy Queen inserts I came across, although still very nice looking. I really do like both the Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen designs (although I confess, I don't really understand the difference between the two of them, in terms of target markets). I don't have nearly enough room to collect the base sets, but picking up inserts when I find them might be a nice compromise. And if nothing else, they might make for decent trade bait.

But it wasn't all Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen.

Three cards from the the 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces set. Another case where I love the look of the cards, but don't have the room to collect the base set. So I settled for rookie cards of three good players instead. I have since learned there's also an Evan Longoria rookie in this set; might have to go back to the quarter boxes next month looking for that.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for any card with the Topps Rookie Cup on it. Here we have a soon-to-be Hall of Famer and a guy who should get in but probably won't just because voters seem to have decided he has the steroid stink.

Rookie cards of one of the most intimidating pitchers of all time? In a Montreal Expos uniform? For 20 cents each? Yes, please.

I'm very slowly working on pulling together the 1992-93 and 1993-94 Fleer Ultra hockey sets, which were some of my favorite as a kid. So I wasn't going to pass on an early card of one of the game's all-time greatest catchers done in the same design.

Three other random Blue Jays cards, including two nice-looking Jose Bautista's. The team card is a gold parallel from the 2005 Topps set and is numbered 1538/2005.

One of the beautiful photos that are hallmarks of Stadium Club. This one captures Vladimir Guerrero's amazing, all-arms swing.

I managed to dig out a few random hockey cards, too. Here we have three awards cards from 1991 Stadium Club, which I believe was the first Stadium Club set in hockey.

I mentioned that one of the sets I'm working on is 93-94 Fleer Ultra. This is my first card from that set's All-Star inserts. I still remember hearing on the radio when the Toronto Maple Leafs traded for Gilmour from the Calgary Flames. It was a crazy, five-for-five trade that, at least at the time, was the biggest in NHL history. The Leafs absolutely fleeced the Flames in that trade, also picking up defensemen Jamie Macoun and Ric Nattress, goalie Rick Wamsley and young forward Kent Manderville. The deal spurred the Leafs into a run as one of the NHL's top teams for a few years, which included a conference finals appearance.

And, lastly, one of the cooler mask cards I've come across. A great shot in which you can clearly make out Ollie the Goalie's face and his famous Godzilla mask.