Maybe I should be ashamed to admit it, but Archives is honestly the only current product I really have any legitimate excitement for. It's what first helped get me back into the hobby back in 2012. And while I may buy a small handful of other various blasters and hobby boxes throughout the year, only Archives really makes my heart flutter with anticipation. So June can't come soon enough for me. I look forward to giving Topps my money for a hobby box or two.. and the inevitable disappointment from not pulling any decent hits, like always.
Anyways, let's fill this post out with a couple older Archives cards I picked up recently.
Hopefully the Fan Favorites Autographs checklist for 2015 Archives packs a few pleasant surprises. Obviously none perked me up more on the '14 checklist than Bip Roberts' first-ever certified auto. I gobbled up a bunch of them, working on a rainbow of sorts. Even though I already had this /10 purple parallel, I grabbed another one for a decent price in a eBinge a while back. Now I've got #s 09/10 and 02/10. I also picked up another /50 gold parallel because the other one I had was # 13/50 and I wanted a less-unlucky number. But I can't find it at the moment (I'm overdue for a good sorting of the cards I've gotten in the past few months), so no scan for that one today.
Vince Coleman is an old favorite of mine from my early days of collecting. While I'm much less active in adding Vinnies to my collection these days, I was happy to pick up my first auto from him thanks to this cool-looking card (A way better photo than they used on his original '86 Topps card which just features a boring portrait shot.)
This Tewksbury was actually bundled together in an eBay auction with the Vince Coleman, so it was a nice little bonus for virtually no more money. I specifically remember him fondly for his stint on the Padres team of 1996 when San Diego finally got back into the playoffs after a long drought. I could go for some more of that. Hopefully all the off-season moves they've been making lately will pay off in the form of an exciting 2015.
I have to say that several things about this post excited me. First, doesn't Vince Coleman' signature just look so very fast? It's almost like the letters are running across the card. That's a nice bit of unintentional art. Second, I think I like the change to Archives. The last three years of 4 designs of 50 cards each was too crammed. My Rockies were excluded from 2 of the 12 designs altogether and I'm sure other teams were even worse. 3 designs of 100 cards each will give you more of a chance to appreciate them, even though two of the three designs used made up my bottom 10 Topps sets of all time. Lastly, I am honestly thrilled that a former Rockies player that is not Larry Walker or Todd Helton is a part of the promotional sheet of this set. VINNNNNNY!!!! Yeah!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite thing about Topps Archives are their on-card Fan Favorites autographs. Love the Bip and Coleman.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy the 1983 design. It was the first year I collected, so I am going to have to do some work on this set next year.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping they put Junior on the 76 or 83 set. No juniors seem to exist on those topps designs...yet.
ReplyDeleteI really hope that they stay away from short prints this time. Also, as others have commented, they need to be sure that they do team representation better than last year. It really ruined the set for me in 2014.
ReplyDeleteI really like Archives, too. It's a shame that the Major League autographs pushed box prices up so high this year, as it really cramped my ability to chase the SPs and inserts.
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