Pack of the Day 63: 2012 Topps Archives Hobby Box

Some of my My Little Pony cash went into buying some cards from 2012, namely hobby boxes of 2012 Topps Series 1, 2012 Topps Update, and this box of 2012 Topps Archives. I also picked up some 2013 Topps Archives, but not in packs.

The base cards are all things we've seen before. As usual, I just picked out a few cards of players I like or cards with good photos. Werth and Motte get in because of their beards, Cal Ripken Jr. is here because he's the Iron Man, and Derek Holland is an occasionally-mustachioed and currently injured pitcher for the Texas Rangers. Apparently his nickname is 'Dutch Oven.'

I got six of the base set short-printed cards, and in a rare stroke of luck I actually needed 4 or 5 of them for my set. Usually I just wind up pulling six doubles and cursing my bad luck. There's a pretty decent mix of players and card designs here.

My Gold parallels scanned a very green color, but in real life they are a shiny gold color. I promise. Chapman and Posey are decent cards to pull, I guess, but I am not collecting the Gold parallels from this set. I would hope that I learned my lesson with the 2013 set. We'll see what the 2014 cards look like.

This 50-card Topps Reprints set is pretty cool, but it's seeded at about the same rate as the short-printed base cards and thus is a total bear to put together. Since my collecting days don't go back all that far, it is a good little history lesson covering some of the classic Topps cards. I got six in this box, three vertical and three horizontal.

These 1977 Cloth Stickers are not my favorite insert set. I have a weird complex about some textures, and the feel of these cards in-hand makes me shiver and gag a bit. It's just one of those things. I feel the same way about handling cotton balls and the like. I was only able to start wearing fleece clothing a few years ago. I think most of these four cards were doubles, so all of my discomfort didn't even get me closer to filling out my set.

These 1968 Topps 3D cards are pretty neat, although the scan of the Al Kaline there on the left makes me a little dizzy.

I think all three of these 1967 Stickers were doubles. The disembodied head design is a bit odd, and I think a different color would have made for a better background on the Maris card. 

The Evan Longoria Deckle Edge insert was a double, but I didn't have the Harmon Killebrew card yet. I've mentioned several times that his hometown is just down the road from me, kind of like that guy you know who only has five stories and loves to tell them every time you see him.

And last of all are the two Fan Favorite Autographs from the box. I got Luis Tiant and Dave Kingman. I don't have much opinion either way on these, but they are pretty nice-looking cards. I do like the Fan Favorite Autograph sets in both 2012 and 2013 Archives from a design perspective, even if many of the players fall outside my realm of awareness.

Overall this wasn't a life-changing box of cards for me. I would probably have been better off taking the approach I did with 2013 Archives, but of the sealed product I bought with my Pony Cash these were the most entertaining cards to open. More on all of that at a later date.