Pack of the Day 39: A Clearance Blaster Box of 2013 Topps Archives

Target has 2013 Topps Archives on clearance right now, although in some stores it isn't advertised. You can take the packs or boxes to the scanners in the store, though, and confirm that the sale is going on. Less than $2 a pack for a product that I am still trying to complete? Okay!

First off are some base cards. I have finished the base set aside from a few of the pesky Short Print Fan Favorites. I tried to pick my two favorite cards from each of the four designs, but I wasn't able to stick to it in all cases.

First up are two smiling guys with bats on their shoulders. Put an ax head on that bat and Adam Dunn is doing a pretty good lumberjack imitation. Marte needs a little more growth on his face before he can be a lumberjack, but he looks plenty happy, and I like baseball cards with happy guys on them. Life's too short to frown on your baseball card. In useless trivia for today, Dunn played in one game for my fantasy baseball team this past season, going 0/3 with no counting stats. When he goes on a tear it is something to behold, but I didn't hold on to him long enough to let him get going.

Since I couldn't find two cards I really liked in this blaster from the 1990 Topps design, I chose three from the 1982 block. First up are two smiling Reds, Joe Morgan and Joey Votto. And our Honorable Mention goes to Jered Weaver, who just needs a nifty laser background for this to be a true glamour shot.

If I had skills, I would be able to put Jered Weaver into this photo, but instead you will just have to imagine him in the place of this young Blue Jays fan. For more super-lazered portraits, check out We Have Lasers!!!!!!!!!! If you didn't belong to the generation for which laser portraits were a thing, you missed out. You probably need counseling for it now that you know what you missed.

Billy Butler seems like a happy guy, and I just love blue uniforms, whether they are on Blue Jays, Royals, or Denver Broncos (who lost to the Colts Sunday night but I forgive them a little bit). Jake Peavy is in another nice posed shot that could benefit from the laser background treatment.

There weren't many decent shots to choose from in the 1990 design from this blaster box, but the Hyun-Jin Ryu card makes up for the shortfalls of the other cards. He looks like a happy guy, and I am digging that blue glove he's got. The background kind of looks like they took it from a 1970's baseball card, though, with those lightpoles in the background from what I'm assuming is a parking lot. 

And now, on to the inserts.

First up is all the stuff I already had copies of, including both Short Prints from the box. They're pretty snazzy cards, but I can't use them. I hope Eric Davis just hit a home run. The dude in the background and all the folks in the crowd seem to be pretty focused on the ball, so there is hope there. Howard Johnson has got a nice beard getting started there, and those pants really accentuate that he bought his cup in size Large. My mom worked in a sporting goods store when she was younger, and she said a lot of guys would come in to buy cups for their various sports, and when asked what size they were looking for, they inevitably smiled and said, "Large." But for some reason they sold a lot more Mediums than they ever did Larges. 

Well, I sure am glad to have two of this 4-in-1 sticker. Yuck. At least Rivera's in the right frame of mind for this post, as he's posing nicely with a baseball in-hand. But that's not enough to save this from being a Yankee card. Ten points to Slytherin.

I guess if I had to pull Tall Boy doubles, these are the guys to pull doubles of. Trout seems pretty happy, which almost makes up for Bundy's sad face. I guess he is feeling a little...BLUE! (Because the background of his card is blue in color.) I should not write posts after 10 pm.

Now that all the doubles are out of the way, here are the cards I didn't have. Two All-Stars fill up a couple spots in my binder. That's always a bonus. I'm down to just four more needed from this particular insert set.

I have had some pretty good luck with these Gallery of Heroes cards lately, even if many of them play for New York teams. Getting Babe Ruth is a pretty good pull, even if it irritates me a little that this is the same photo they used for his base card, just cropped differently. I didn't have it before, and now I do.

And finally, I pulled a Fan Favorites autograph of Fred Lynn on the 1975 Topps card design, so it is plenty colorful. He also has a really good signature. Every letter is there, although I probably wouldn't have guessed the first name if I didn't know it already. I'm no Red Sox fan and I really don't know this dude from Adam, but it's a good-looking card and sure beats another 4-in-1 sticker of a bunch of Yankees or Giants.