Hitting the Gypsy Queen Jackpot (Yu Darvish 1/1!!!)

After picking up a box of Gypsy Queen from my LCS and having some pretty good luck, I decided to pick up a few more boxes. I remember last year, not only the amazing hits that were pulled, but how difficult it became to find it later on, and how expensive it became once the demand increased. I figured 2 more boxes would put me ahead of the game enough to where I would just need to trade for a few SPs and be done with the set.

My superstition with box busting, is that if it's behind the counter, I let the dealer pick for me. I do this, simply because it absolves me from all responsibility for choosing a bad box, because, well, I didn't choose it. He gets me my two, sets them on the counter, and then informs me that one of the boxes is dented and asks if I would like a different one. Being superstitious, I say no. You have to stick with the one fate gives you.

Luckily, I stuck with that box, because I was pleasantly surprised to find my very first pack-pulled 1/1 printing plate.

It's hard to identify too much from the front, and with no name, all I know is that it's a Texas Rangers pitcher. I never think of myself as extremely lucky when it comes to pack ripping, so I figure it's Alexi Ogando or Neftali Feliz. So I flip it over to identify the mystery pitcher, and here's what I see.

Yu Darvish 1/1. Wow.Wow.Wow. Wow. The pull of a lifetime. It's weird to think that of all the places in the world that a card like this could end up, it landed in a card shop in Fargo, North Dakota, and it just happened to be on the top of the stack when I just so happened to walk in looking for a couple of boxes.

Of course, this card is already on Ebay. Having been in the hobby long enough to know, what I do know, is that it is highly unlikely that this card will ever be more valuable than it is right now, so now is the time to cash in. It's a good thing, too, because I've gone on quite the spending spree the past month, and I need to reimburse my Visa card for the damage that has been dealt to it.

I'll post the rest of the goods from my 2 boxes when I get around to it, but I think you will all agree, this just is a card that just could not wait.