A Blaster of 2013 Topps Archives

I caved. 

I know I swore off buying packs, but there's just so much cool stuff to be had in this set.  I've seen a lot of blasters that produced relics and autographs since Archives came out, and this blaster did not disappoint.  I have the Griffey from the original Gallery of Heroes insert, so I know how awesome they look.  I'm curious about the day-glow orange and the triumverate cards, too.  The basketball and football designed inserts, the return of the '90 Topps design, the fan favorite SP's - all that sold me.

Here's what I got:





Let's start with an insert.  Of all the guys on this checklist, I wanted the Will Clark the most, and here it is!  Maybe I'll get the autographed version next time.....

A cool George Brett throwback with a great picture.  It seems like 90% of Lincecum cards have the same image: hair flopping about in a windup.  Or is that Topps recycling one picture?

My only fan favorite SP.  I'm more aware of Sid than familiar with him.  I did a little reading before this post and apparently he was a native Hawaiian with a unique pitching style.    It seems he's more popular in Hawaii and around Shea stadium.  This card should not have ended up in New Orleans.

I like the A's color scheme here.  It's very different.  The Mathews, Reggie, and Ozzie cards all came out great.  Look how ready Ozzie is - he could spring in any direction at any moment.

Molly and the Kid, both respected Hall of Famers.  Paul Molitor always looked like a hockey guy to me.  Not necessarily a player, but one of those "hockey guys," you know.  Just a dude who's way into hockey.

I've started getting excited when I pull Rangers cards as a friend of mine who doesn't collect cards but loves the Rangers has asked me to put together a Rangers team set.  I'm thinking this may be the stepping stone to making a full-fledged collector out of him.  I'm going to help as much as I can because no one else I know collects cards.  No one.  Or if they do they keep it a secret.

A sticker card of all the popular modern-day sluggers.  I don't collect any of these dudes, but I kind of want to keep this card just because it's an awesome lineup.  Naaah, it's up for trade.

Is Mike Trout ever not smiling?  Life is hell, Mike.  Hasn't anyone told you?  Someone burn his popcorn or something.

They did a great job recreating the 1990 set here.  It's fun seeing modern names on this 23-year-old design.  I'm still a sucker for reprints from the overproduction era.

This is my hit.  It's a great-looking card, too.  I've already got plans for this one, but most of the cards in this post are available for trade.  Hit me up if anything screams at you.

So no Griffeys.  :-(  Just an excuse to buy more packs.  Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Target Missed, Settling Ensues

I stopped by Target yesterday for a less easily-destructible dog toy (lessons were learned that involved a large quantity of white fluff), and while I was there I figured I'd check out the new Topps Archives.  Well guess what?  No Archives.  I can't tell if they were sold out or if it was never even on the shelf, but it looked like the latter.  This is not the first time that particular Target has disappointed me. 

Anyway, I settled on grabbing a few clearance packs and one of those guaranteed hit packages with three packs and a little white envelope containing an auto or relic.  I've never pulled an auto from one, only relics (the best I ever got was a Jim Thome); but they continue to put Griffey on the front of the package, so I continue buying them.  Here's what I ended up with this time:

A good-looking card, but the two extra squares on some relic cards have always bothered me.  It feels like something is missing.  Are they reminding us of the triple-relic card that we didn't pull?  I prefer ones that make the relic the center of attention with a cool visual effect.  This design just feels like a silver medal.

This is the best stuff from the three packs that came with the relic.  I have never gotten anything good (Griffey) out of a pack of Upper Deck Future Stars.  That Posey is the best Future Star I've ever pulled, and it's a Gypsy Queen card.  The pack of Opening Day was a bust except for that cool shot with the bat in the foreground and Slider (tm) creeping everybody out.  Your mascot sucks, Cleveland!

Everyone has been so down on Prizm I just had to check it out.  My verdict: this pack costs at least a dollar more than it should.  The cards themselves are really cool - not just shiny but mirror-like.  I like 'em.  Not 75 cents a card like, but like in general.  Plus I pulled a Deion Sanders.  How crazy is that?  I think I may end up keeping this card.

I also bought four packs from the clearance box:

Packs of 2007 Ultra have Griffey on the front, so I picked up a couple.  That Reyes looks like it was supposed to have a relic and they forgot to put it in?  I like it because it's clearly based on the '87 Fleer design.

I occasionally pick up a pack of football just to mix it up.  This one produced a Romo, who is never going to win a Super Bowl by the way, about to get his block knocked off.  I also pulled a Brady who everybody outside of Patriot Nation hates to love.  Spiller was a beast this past season and helped my fantasy team win the league - unfortunately it was my one free league and neither of my two money leagues.  That Keenan Allen throwback rookie is pretty cool.....

These were a buck, and they must be popular because I see them pop up on various blogs and at card shows.  I figured I'd see what the hubbub was all about.  Turns out they're pretty grotesque.  I assume I got some parallels there with the differently-colored borders.

So that's what I got from Target.  Not a single Griffey nor a pack of Archives to be found.  Oh, well.  We'll just have to wait and see what comes of the Nachos Grande group break....

P.S. About the dog toy: I ended up with a green rubber chicken for six dollars.  It honks....loudly.  We'll see how long this one lasts (or how long we can take it).

I bought packs today! Now, who are these guys?

Wanna see a noob open packs of cards?

I was a heavy collector in the mid-90's, but I haven't bought many packs in the last 13 years.  Maybe one a year, just to see how the card designs evolve.

However, I've been reading a lot of baseball card blogs recently, so I decided to try my hand.  I picked up 2 repack boxes of 10 packs each, some other mixed packs, and a Beckett (Lord help me, yes, I bought a Beckett).  Both the boxes looked pretty much like this:

Junior's face on the front made me feel at ease to pull the trigger on this purchase.  I was also very excited to see 2 packs of '89 Donruss:

Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God.....!

Oof!  That hurt my heart.

Keep in mind I only want Griffeys, with a few exceptions.  Most of these cards are fluff to me, and I have no idea who the hot rookies (or most of the all-stars) are these days.  I'm a little embarrassed.

I must say that these Goodwin Champions packs are insane.  I want more.

Ozzie, Ripken, Ryan, Jeter all in the same 2 packs?  Frickin' A!   Then there's Peggy Fleming?  Bobby Orr?  And Michael Jordan?!  These must be worth a fortune! 

I was also intrigued by the surfer.  And I saw CC Sabathia pitch this past season on TV, so I was like "I know him!  Keeper!"  I also got a tiny Eli Manning card (we love the Mannings down here in New Orleans) and a tiny Steve Carlton, who I also know and like.

Oh, and this:

BOO-YAH!  That's it.  Emotionally, I'm done.  I can stop here.  But for the 2 people that may someday read this, here's the rest of what I got and my feelings towards it.  Most of this is up for trade.  In no particular order:

 

I don't know any of these guys.  But all of them are listed in the ol' Beckett.  By the way, I forgot how much I hate looking up cards in Beckett.

This is one of the coolest cards I've ever pulled from a pack.  I looked for a serial number, but there was none.  Still, very sparkly.

This guy I know.  And I was very pleased to see team photos back on baseball cards!  How you like that?  Too bad it's the Padres and not a Griffey-having team, but still.  Makes me optimistic about future packs.

I know who Ichiro is.  He's the guy with one name. Score!

 

This is a reproduction of a rookie card that is not particularly old and of a guy I've never heard of.  I was a bit let down here.  I'll be watching more baseball this season, so I'll get to know these characters.  Still, reprints.  Woo!

I still don't know what to think here.  And they were numbered like 2,432.  How many of these things are there?  And WHY?

These are from a pack of Panini Cooperstown.  I loved these cards, and I will probably buy another pack in the future.  Curious to see how modern they get.... Check out my Honus!

This pack was Bowman Platinum.  There are only 4 cards per pack, so this is the whole thing.  I have heard of two of these guys, and one I have many, many rookies of from 1993-94.  Neat cards, but dude, look at the inserts listed for this pack in Beckett.  I want those!

I found a lot of the 2011 Topps photography kind of blah, but I liked all the faces in the crowd in this picture.

 

This is a tiny little new card made to look like 1987 Topps,  I thought it may have been a cool insert.  It was not.  Still, look how tiny!  I want the Griffey!

 

I've never heard of this fellow either, but he seems like a nice guy.  I looked at the checklist on the back and all the amazing names that this card could have ended up being.  That's kind of a tease, dontcha think?  I had to be one of the Votto guys?  Anyway, Go Reds.

Great picture.  In 2005 we evacuated for Hurricane Katrina to Houston.  While we were up there my uncle got us club tickets on the 1st base line to an Astros game in this very park.  And wouldn't you know it?  They played the Reds!  Yep, I got to see Griffey play baseball one time.  He didn't do anything amazing, but it was incredible.  I shed tears.  This card made me happy.

This looked like an amazing insert and was very shiny indeed.  Plus I've heard of this guy's dad and think he's probably good, too.  I admit, I thought I had a few bucks worth of cardboard here for trade fodder.  Really, though, it's not much.  Still, cool card for the binder.

The card I got most excited about here is the Tiger, but I know I've seen the other guys' names floating around the blogsphere, so here ya go.  God, I suck.

These cards have little codes on the back that you enter on the Interwebs for.....getting things?  I'm not sure what.

I was shocked to see two of my favorite pitchers from back in the day still pitching.  And in glamour shots, no less.  I was also unimpressed with Upper Deck's photography.  They used to be amazing.  The card on the right, Beckett says, is a three dollar bill all day long.  



Sorry.



   

 

 
This is one of my favorite pulls from all these packs - Koufax's no-no. 

This experience reminded me just how little Beckett can dictate the value of something.  Still, I would trade pretty much anything I got tonight for a few sweet Griffeys.

P.S.  I didn't bother opening the '90 Donruss packs.  Just a waste of time.  I have a wax pack and 2 rack packs showing Gary Carter on the front of one.  Any suggestions for them?

[Note: since I posted this I ended up opening the '90 Donruss in search of the John Smoltz MVP with the picture of Tom Glavine.  No luck, but I did get 2 more Griffey DK's and a card of the baseball commish.  Not all bad....]