Pack of the Day 73: The 3rd Box of 2014 Topps Archives

Here is the third (and probably final) box of 2014 Topps Archives I opened up. On my first trip to the local hobby shop I bought two of the remaining three boxes they had in stock. The prices online just kept going up, so I went back and bought the local last box.

I had a complete base set after the first two boxes were opened, so the base cards from this box were all doubles and triples. I don't have much more that I can say about the set, I suppose. I really should have scanned the Don Mattingly card, as that is the one card in the set that really stands out for me. Not in a good way, though, as it seems like Topps found the lowest-resolution photo they could of him, then blew it up and put it on a baseball card. There always seems to be at least one awful fuzzy pixelated card in Topps sets, and this time the victim was Mattingly (and me, the consumer).

I've spent some time this season going back and forth on whether or not to subscribe to MLB.TV, the streaming service that MLB sells so you can watch games on your computer. This week in honor of Father's Day they reduced the price from $100 to $50 to get the service for the rest of the season. I'm not sure how long the sale lasts, but it seems like a pretty good deal. They usually offer one free game per day so you can try it out before you buy it. I've been trying to catch a couple of the free games per week, but the free game of the day isn't always at the most convenient time of day for watching baseball or a game between teams that I care about. Anyway, at $100 I wasn't sure the value was there for me, but at $50 I will probably get my money's worth out of the service. Did I get my money's worth out of this box of cards? Let's see.

I got some decent SPs out of the box, including last season's big money guy, Yasiel Puig. Too bad he's not named Jose Abreu or Masahiro Tanaka this year, as those are the hot players of this year. I think my favorite part of this group is the splash of color provided by Andrew McCutchen's sunglasses. I think I mentioned this last time I posted about Archives, but it kind of bothers me that all the star players made the SP list, because it really waters down the parallels, which only track the first 200 cards in the set. I'm not saying I really want to track down Puig, Abreu, and Tanaka Gold cards for the set I'm working on, but they would certainly be pretty cool cards to have. It felt like a big accomplishment last year when I finally added Bryce Harper and Mike Trout to my set. This year there really isn't someone like that in the set. Maybe Derek Jeter qualifies, but I was able to get his Gold card as part of a Yankees lot someone was selling and it didn't cost me a huge amount.

I got a decent selection of All-Star cards in the box, although it's kind of a given that this subset will have bigger names in it. Billy Butler isn't having the greatest year ever, kind of a running theme with Kansas City batters.

The usual 5 Deckle Edge cards came out of the box. I'm still not a huge fan of this design, but I am a fan of Verlander being pictured in his jacket. That's pretty cool.

The box yielded four Gold parallels numbered out of # / 199, with one from each of the card designs used in the set. I think I have since added doubles of most of these cards in my chase for a complete set, as buying big lots is often the most cost-effective way of filling out a set, even after accounting for duplication. In theory the duplicates can even be sold later to recoup some of the cost. The only one I'm not sure I have doubles of is the Carew. I could check but that would require sorting through the stack of cards right next to me, and would feel too much like doing work.

I also got two Silver parallels numbered out of # / 99. They're decent enough, and they come through the scanner in a nice blue color, as opposed to the gangrenous green color that the Gold cards scan with. I am still firmly resisting the urge to put this set together. There are too many other things I want to collect.

Once again, I got these two guys from the Major League subset. Eventually I will have to get the other two cards on the secondary market.

Now we are getting into the one-per-box inserts, and I was lucky enough to get the Yasiel Puig Firebrand card. This was the one card in the checklist that I was worried about having to track down on eBay, as Puig's name on a card still demands a premium. Now I don't have to stress about it.

Paul Goldschmidt was my '71-'72 Hockey design card, which is a card design I like. I still think this is one of the better insert ideas that Topps has for Archives, with these and the '72-'73 Basketball design from last year being some of my favorite Archives cards so far. With only one per box and a fairly large star-studded checklist, this is probably going to be a pain of a set to complete.

Finally, I got two Fan Favorites Autographs in my box. The first one is Lennny Harris, who I don't know much about. Apparently he holds the records for most pinch-hits in a career. I thought it was interesting that he played 18 years and had a career WAR of 2.0, which seems odd mostly I guess because he was able to wrangle 18 years out of being mostly a replacement-level guy.

My other autograph is a pretty sweet Phil Niekro card. It's kind of cool to pull a Hall of Famer's autograph from a box of baseball cards. I like the card design and the photo Topps used as well.

And that's it for this box of cards. I think I did all right, getting a few cards I needed for various insert sets. The autographs weren't the big hits I'd grown accustomed to, but that's fine. They are actually cards I will keep, while the big hits from the other boxes are just going to get flipped in order to fund more cards. This post is probably a little too late, as 2014 Topps Series 2 is out now and there are plenty of posts going up about that product. I bought some Series 2 stuff the other day. Nothing felt really scan-worthy from my purchases, and my wife rearranged her computer area recently, making the scanner difficult for me to access. Negotiations regarding that situation are ongoing.

Pack of the Day 72: The Second Box of 2014 Topps Archives

This is the breakout of the second box of 2014 Topps Archives I opened, starting as usual with a selection of my favorite base cards. My commentary will probably be pretty sparse as it is late and I haven't been feeling great today.

First out of the gate are a couple of hairy pitchers in colorful uniforms. That's a combination that can very rarely go wrong. I like pretty much everything about those photos, like the bats in the background of Catfish's card. I will usually go out of my way to fit a Starling Marte card into a post, although his usual grin is missing in this photo. And I also will usually try to scan any hint of an Astros rainbow uniform when I get a chance.

I promise this wasn't by design, but I picked two pairs of players from different eras of the same teams for the 1986 and 1989 card designs. They were just some of my favorite shots from this box. The Cliff Lee card fits into a themed idea I've had for a while but never acted on in which I use MS Paint to replace baseballs on cards with poorly-drawn apples. Doesn't it look like he could be about to bite into an apple? I think so.

Schmidt looks to be all business in his photo. In Rizzo's card I notice that there is an errant dog hair that shows up in several of these scans. It seems like no matter how much I wipe the glass on the scanner I always miss one dog hair. I guess that's something you have to accept when you bring dogs into your life. I think it is a nice touch that his name is visible on the barrel of the bat his arm is resting on. I also like how his card pays homage to the photo on Jenkins' card. I am going to pretend that Topps did that on purpose. I also love the look on Jenkins' face in his card.

I got a decent group of short-printed cards in this box, with Valenzuela and Rivera probably being the best. I think the David Price card would make a great 'apple' card. I still wish that Topps had kept up the pattern of making the SP cards in a variety of set designs instead of sticking with the same set designs the rest of the base cards feature.

I got decent grouping of All-Star cards. I think I've seen that Hernandez photo on another card recently.I could be wrong, though. I am 99% sure that I am too lazy to research it. Machado was at the center of a couple of little altercations this week with the A's, once over a too-hard tag from Josh Donaldson and once over being thrown at by Fernando Abad. He 'accidentally' let go of his bat mid-swing and it flew out past third base.

Five Deckle-edge minis came out of the box, this time featuring all current players. Troy Tulowitzki and Yadier Molina get the first scan. Maybe the blue-printed signatures are authentic to the originals, but I would like these a whole lot more without them. They are distracting to me.

Rounding out the group are Buster Posey, Jose Fernandez, and Miguel Cabrera. 

I got three Gold parallels in the box, featuring Will Middlebrooks, Jose Bautista, and Khris Davis, who should not be confused with Chris Davis. They are different people, although they have never been photographed together.

All are numbered out of # / 199. It looks like I placed the Jose Bautista / Khris Davis pairing too low on the scanner bed and cut the bottom of the image off. It's a good thing I'm the main guy on this blog, or I'd probably get fired.

The previous box had two Silver parallels, but this box just had one. I think the seeding on these is 1:14 or 1:15 packs or something a little odd, so you get that occasional box with two in it. The Gold cards retain the same 199-per card print run as last year, but you get more per box because Topps supposedly reduced the overall Archives print run by quite a bit. Trevor Rosenthal was the Silver card in this box, numbered to # 61 / 99. I am putting the Gold set together, but putting the Silver set together seem like a bit more of a challenge. I don't feel like doing it, although it seems like the Silver cards aren't that much pricier than the Gold cards given that the print run is essentially half. Silver is probably the better value proposition and I think they tend to look better than the Gold cards, but putting the Gold set together is:

1. Already over 80% complete.
2. Pretty much a tradition by now since I built it last year. (I didn't build the 2012 set, but let's not nitpick).

I've got triples of these two Major League cards, and haven't got any of the other two in the set. All of my boxes came from the same case, so maybe Topps only packed two of the cards per case to encourage trading.

Getting into the 1 per box insert sets, here is the wooden Firebrand card in my box, Ivan Rodriguez. Through eBay and packs I have acquired 7 / 10 of these, so I am pretty close to finishing the set. Those die-cut letters at the top make me really nervous when handling these cards. They seem like if you handle them wrong or bump them up against the side of a sleeve or card page they'll split right off. I also wonder how well the ink will stick to the wood over time.

My '71-'72 Hockey design card was Willie Stargell. I seem to pull a lot of Stargell cards. I'm not complaining, but he is one of those guys who seems to follow me around. Everyone has a few of those players that they don't collect on purpose, but seem to accumulate based on the whims of pack ratios. 

My first of two promised autographs was this David Eckstein Fan Favorites signature on the 1990 Topps design. Just like with the short-printed base cards, Topps reined in the number of set designs used for the Fan Favorite autographs this year. There are one or two exceptions, but the majority of them come in the 1986, 1989, and 1990 patterns.

And finally, I pulled a St. Louis Cardinals triple autograph, featuring stickers from Allen Craig, Carlos Martinez, and Matt Adams. These fall 1 in every 2,137 packs, so they are pretty darn rare. I still haven't decided what to do with it. I will probably wind up putting it on eBay at some point, as I have no particular affinity for the Cardinals.

I am 2 for 2 so far in pulling pretty big autograph hits from my 2014 Archives boxes. Obviously the Charlie Sheen autograph from box 1 is the bigger pull, but this is no slouch either, with the odds falling heavily toward getting two standard Fan Favorites Autographs per box rather than one Fan Favorites auto and one bigger hit. In the continuing Charlie Sheen eBay drama, the buyer of my card has been unresponsive, so I have had to open a case to cancel the transaction so I can relist the card. The case won't close for several days, so this nincompoop has effectively wasted a couple weeks of my time by creating an eBay account specifically to post a bunch of sham bids on my auction and then disappear. It's frustrating, but I suppose the card will eventually sell and I will (mostly) get over it.

Pack of the Day 71: My First Box of 2014 Topps Archives

I mentioned previously that I had purchased some 2014 Archives from the local card shop and pulled the Charlie Sheen Major League autograph, but I haven't yet shown off any of the other cards I got. Here is my breakdown of the first box I opened, starting with some of my favorite base cards from the box.

I have to admit that the 1973 Topps design is growing on me. I haven't dabbled too much in vintage cards and don't know much about the set, but I like that design. Eckersley has got some sweet mustache and wild hair action going on there. Fujikawa has had some pretty good cards over the last couple of years. I am usually happy whenever I see his cards come out of a pack.

The 1980 design isn't my favorite, but it's passable. I decided to highlight a couple of posed shots here, with a young Robin Yount sporting some big hair and Dylan Bundy with the sky as a backdrop. There were no duplicate base cards in the box, but you don't get quite enough cards in one box to fill out the non-SP (1-200) base set. You only get 6 out of the 50 SP cards per box, so it will take a lot of boxes (and/or some trading and buying) to get those cards. More on the SP cards later.

For the 1986 set design I chose some retired favorites in Goose Gossage and Tony Gwynn. I especially like the cameo of the jogging guy in the background of Gossage's card, and who can resist a card featuring a smiling Tony Gwynn? Not this guy. Next up is a decent bat barrel shot of local legend Harmon Killebrew. It's a shame they couldn't get the end of the bat in the frame, but it's still a nice shot. And again we've got a smiling baseball player in Bob Gibson. I like that jacket he's wearing. I bet it would fetch mad money from the hipster crowd these days. I don't have any complaints really about the use of these designs in the set, although 1989 has seen a lot of use in the Topps rotation lately.

And now we get to the real problem I have with the base set. These cards are from the short-printed section at the end of the set. In past years Topps has taken this part of the set and placed a bunch of semi-stars from the last few decades and put them on all manner of card designs from the Topps catalog, creating sort of a Frankenset of different players and card designs. This year Topps got lazy and used the same set designs as the rest of the base set, ruining one of the best parts of the SPs, which was the extreme variety in design. The other misstep was to place a bunch of stars and hot rookies in the SP section instead of favoring guys who don't get a lot of cardboard action these days. Sure, I guess Olerud and Van Slyke aren't the biggest names out there, but the rest of these guys are taking up slots that could be filled by players from the past who don't get 150 card per year. Anyway, I got six SPs from this box.

Here are the six 1987 Topps All-Star cards from this first box. I especially like the Fergie Jenkins, the Gary Carter, and the Goose Gossage. They've got to choose an All-Star design to reprint each year, and this one works as well as any other.

Five 1969 Deckle Edge Minis came out of this box. First up are Manny Machado and Yu Darvish with some nice posed shots.

After the modern-era guys are some action shots of earlier players. In this box I got Carlos Baerga, Howard Johnson, and Mark Lemke. I don't know how I feel about these inserts. Topps already did the Deckle Edge thing in 2012 Archives. There are so many designs and inserts in Topps' past that they shouldn't have to repeat something they've already done. Of course, they are also reusing designs in the base set when an awful lot of other designs remain to be re-imagined.

Previous iterations of Topps Archives had a Gold parallel and printing plates for the base set. The 2014 set adds a Silver parallel to that mix, with each card limited to 99 copies. I pulled Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Bench. I don't think I will be chasing the full Silver set, as I don't know that I want to put that much work into tracking it down. The Gold parallel set from 2013 was plenty hard to put together, and the print run for those was double what it is for these Silver cards.

The Bumgarner card is numbered # 54 / 99 and the Bench is # 25 / 99.

In addition to the Silver parallels, the Gold parallel set returns with the same print run of 199 copies per card. I got three in this box. This set is one that I hadn't planned on putting together, but there are a lot of big lots on eBay right now that fall in at about $1 a card. I couldn't help myself. I have been putting lots together and am already up to about 82% complete, including some of the big names like Bryce Harper and Derek Jeter. One thing that has helped this year with putting the Gold set together is the same thing I complained about earlier, that the SP cards at the end of the base set contain a lot of the hot rookies and big stars. The SPs don't get Gold parallels, so I am not stuck trying to track down a Gold parallel of Masahiro Tanaka or Jose Abreu.

One thing I liked about last year's Gold set was that the serial numbers were stamped on the front of the cards. I just liked that look. For 2014 Topps has put the serial numbers on the back of the cards. It's okay, but I prefer the 2013 look a little more. Tod Frazier is numbered # 151 / 199, Larry Doby is # 087 / 199, and Jose Altuve is # 189 / 199, which is the same as his card number in the set. I like serial numbers that match other things like the card number or the player's jersey number. I also like serial numbers that are the first or last in the set, numbers that feature repeating digits, and numbers that end in 9 or 0. Serial numbers are just a lot of fun.

One trend I like in Archives is that of taking a vintage design from another sport and reworking it as a baseball set. In 2013 the emulated set was the 1972-73 Topps Basketball set, while this year we get the 1971-72 Topps Hockey design. These are pretty good-looking cards. I pulled the Masahiro Tanaka card, which I am pretty happy about. These fall just one per box and the checklist is 20 cards deep, so it might take some work to complete. 

A lot of the buzz surrounding this product came from the Major League movie cards and autographs inserted into the product. In this box I got Jake Taylor and Eddie Harris. I've actually pulled a couple of each of these guys so far, and none of the rest of the 4-card set. I'll be honest, I've never seen the movie so I have no real idea what all the love is about.

These Firebrand cards are made of wood and die-cut, so the 90's is in full force here. I got Rondell White, which may not be the biggest pull in the world. The checklist is a little odd to me, but I didn't follow baseball for a long time and there are a lot of players I don't recognize among this insert's roster. It's a cool concept, though, but I think I liked last year's insert lineup better. Those acetate Gallery of Heroes cards were beauties. This 2014 insert lineup is pretty good, but I don't think it quite lives up to 2013, and even 2012 might hold a bit of a lead over 2014 in terms of fun factor. 

I had to laugh a little when I got this card out of the pack. It's not often anymore that a new pack of cards is responsible for the Bipping of a blogger, but this box of Archives managed to get me.

This is a card that I already talked about a couple of days ago. I pulled it out of the third pack in the box and ran back into the card shop to show it off. I have no emotional investment in Charlie Sheen or the Major League movie, so I tossed the card up on eBay. The bidding on my auction was pretty furious and ended at a rather high amount, but the winner is a person who just opened an eBay account a few days ago and has zero feedback so far. I am a little nervous about whether they just got so excited to own this card that they created an account or are some kind of sham bidder determined to waste my time for some nefarious purpose. I really hope the transaction can just go through without a hitch, as I don't want to have to list the card (again), wait for the auction to close (again), and deal with a new winning bidder (again).

With the Charlie Sheen autograph coming out of this box, I can't call it anything but a win. Whenever it sells it should pay for the Archives I've bought so far and also maybe a bill or two. I never thought I'd be giving thanks for anything Charlie Sheen ever did, but I am glad he signed this piece of cardboard. As for the rest of the set, I think I like it a fair bit less than 2013 Archives and just a hair more than 2012 Archives.

They're all some of my favorite sets from their respective years, but I think 2013 had the strongest offering of inserts ('72-'73 Basketball, Mini Tallboys, Gallery of Heroes, Triumvirate), a better presentation on the Gold parallels, and I like the way the SP portion of the set was handled. The Heavy Metal gimmick didn't go so well, especially as I don't believe the headliner for that promotion, Axl Rose, ever signed the cards for the redemptions to be filled. I am still waiting for a Real Heavy Metal autograph redemption I pulled for Winger/Whitesnake guitarist Reb Beach. But the rest of the checklist was solid.

I think 2012 had some decent inserts, I wish the Gold parallels in that set had been serially-numbered, and the SP portion of the set was better than the 2014 SPs. I liked the reprint insert set that covered a lot of famous cards and players from throughout the years. I don't recall 2012 having any sort of gimmick like the Heavy Metal theme of 2013 or the Major League theme of 2014. 

I am having a hard time deciding whether I like 2014 more or less than 2012. I think 2012 had the better base set mostly due to the SP portion of the set. 2014 probably has better inserts, as I felt like there were too many stickers in the 2012 set, and the Firebrand and '71-'72 Hockey cards tip the scales in 2014's favor. It's a toss-up, I guess, but 2013 is my hands-down favorite.