Scratching the Throwback Autograph Itch

At the moment, I am supposed to be working on the pre-course work for a class I'm scheduled to attend next week. The problem is that a government shutdown that lasts through the weekend would cause my class to be cancelled, so I'm having a hard time getting into the homework until the Senate decides whether or not the government is going to shut down. The worst part of it for me is that this is the last class I need in order to get my next promotion, which brings with it a 10% increase in pay. Delaying the class means delaying my promotion, and that could cost me hundreds or thousands of dollars by delaying my promotion. I would like for a budget to get passed, but I don't mind working under a Continuing Resolution, at least until I get this class under my belt. At this point I think I need to look at some baseball cards to keep me from stressing out about work.

Yesterday I talked about some encased buyback autographs I'd picked up. In addition to those, I also grabbed a couple handfuls of throwback-style autographs from various years of Topps Archives. There wasn't a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it, but I tried to pick up names I recognized with an emphasis on getting as many autographs for as little money as I could.

First up is this Billy Wagner from 2016 Topps Archives. This is the Blue parallel, numbered # 043 / 199. Wagner was a great relief pitcher, and has pulled about 10% of the vote in two Hall of Fame votes to date. I guess I would be considered a 'Big Hall' guy, and I would vote him in. It probably doesn't hurt his case with me that he played a number of years for the Astros.

Kent Tekulve was one of the stars of yesterday's post, and he shows up again here with a 2015 Topps Archives card. If there were a Cardboard Hall of Fame, Kent would be in it, right alongside Oscar Gamble. His cards seem to always be cardboard fire, with his big glasses and that garish Pirates uniform. He didn't gain much favor with the real Hall of Fame voters, however, as he fell off the ballot after getting just over 1% of the vote in his first year of eligibility.

I think this Tim Wallach card was the most expensive of the bunch, but it was worth the price. It's nice to get an Expos card every now and then, and Wallach is pretty famous here on the card blogs thanks to a blogger whose quest is to obtain every copy of every Wallach card ever made. Unfortunately, I plan on keeping this one in my collection for the time being. This one comes from the 2017 Topps Archives set.

I am not too familiar with Kevin Seitzer, but it looks like he had a nice career of 12 seasons, with some pretty good numbers throughout. I like autographs with inscriptions like jersey numbers or scripture verses, so this was a definite pickup for me. This one comes from 2017 Topps Archives. 

Billy Bean had a relatively lackluster career on the field, but is known for being the 2nd MLB player to come out publicly as gay, which he did four years after he retired. The other player to do so, Glenn Burke, came out to his teammates and felt that prejudice prematurely ended his career. You can see on the back of this 2017 Topps Archives card that MLB appointed Bean as the Ambassador for Inclusion in 2014. 

Dontrelle Willis had a pretty hot start to his career, but then injuries and ineffectiveness took hold and eventually he retired. But he has a Rookie of the Year award and a World Series ring. This was the cheapest autograph in the bunch, thanks in large part to a bent corner. This one is from 2015 Topps Archives. 

Here is another Blue parallel featuring an Astro, this one being a 2017 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autograph of Jose Vizcaino. This one is numbered # 009 / 199. Vizcaino managed to put together an 18-year MLB career, mostly as a backup. He had a couple of heroic World Series moments, though, hitting the game-winning single in Game 1 of the 2000 World Series for the Yankees and hitting a game-tying single for the Astros in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series.

Sandy Alomar Sr. put together a decent 15-year career, and also had two sons play in Major League Baseball. Sandy Alomar Jr. played 20 years with a Rookie of the Year Award and 6 All-Star appearances, while Roberto Alomar played 17 years with a string of 12 All-Star berths, 2 World Series rings, and election into the Hall of Fame. This card comes from 2016 Topps Archives.

I picked up two Mike Scott autographs. He played 13 years, starting with the Mets and finishing with the Astros. This first autograph is from 2012 Topps Archives.

This one is from 2017 Topps Archives. Scott was the NL Cy Young winner in 1986, and he was 2nd in the voting in 1989 and 7th in 1987.

This was a pretty fun batch of autos to go through. I wasn't 100% familiar with all of these guys, so I enjoyed going to their Wikipedia and Baseball Reference profiles to read about their careers. Although Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs aren't usually the biggest money cards out there, they are fun on-card signatures on classic Topps designs, and I enjoy getting them.

Pack of the Day 179: A Blaster of 2017 Topps Archives

Well, the Astros pulled it off and put the Dodgers away in Game 7 of a tight World Series. I was able to watch the game since I didn't have to be up all that early this morning, and it was really nice to see my favorite team celebrate their franchise's first title. 

I picked up this blaster of 2017 Topps Archives several months ago, probably soon after the product released. I don't even really remember what I pulled from it at this point, so it's like I get to break it open again!

The side of the box has all of the odds on it. The NPN contest expired a couple of months ago, so that information isn't of much use to anyone. 

I pulled a couple of Astros among the base cards, Evan Gattis and Ken Giles. I also got Frank Thomas showing off the 'big body-little head' look and Johnny Cueto showing his bubble gum bubble skills. 

My horizontal pulls included two of the Astros' playoff heroes, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve. I also got some nice-looking cards of pitchers and a manager. I wish today's card sets included more manager cards. 

Among my inserts there was another Astro hero, wearing the uniform if his previous team. Justin Verlander was a huge part of the Astros' playoff run, and I don't think they would have won the title without making the move to acquire him.

My other inserts included some other guys, too. I don't really care one way or the other about Jeter, so the whole insert set devoted to him doesn't do anything for me. 

The final scan from this blaster break shows the blaster-exclusive coins I pulled. I did all right on them, getting Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge. At the time I opened this blaster, I looked up the Judge coin on eBay and it was selling for about half the price of a blaster.

I like the idea of the Archives product, but nearly every time I open some of it, I come away wishing there was a little more in each box. 

Wally Moon and Some Other Archives Autos

After our whirlwind day on Saturday, things calmed down a little for my wife and I on Sunday. We planned to go to church and then to the San Diego Zoo, but those plans changed a little bit. I've mentioned a few times that I served as a missionary in San Diego for a couple of years (2001-2002). We decided to attend church in the first area I was assigned to when I was here. I was worried that it would be weird or that no one would remember me, and we planned on just staying for the first hour.

But one family who I'd spent a lot of time with as a missionary remembered who I was, and they invited us over for lunch. We actually had to turn down a lunch invitation from another family in the congregation. We stayed for the full three-hour block of church, and then spent most of the afternoon at this family's house, eating and talking. A couple of their kids live in the area, so they came over with their families. It was an awesome visit, and they treated us just like family. It was a lot better than going to the Zoo, even the famous San Diego Zoo. It's good to be remembered.

After that, we rushed across town to the Sunset Cliffs to see what we could see before the sun went down. The cloud cover was such that there wasn't much sunset to see, but there were still some beautiful sights. There were also a lot of couples under blankets. We thought it was much too warm to be doing anything under a blanket, but I guess hormones can motivate you to do some crazy stuff. Once the sun was well and truly down, we went and got dinner, which was decent but not remarkable. My wife was supposed to leave on Monday morning, but she was able to obtain babysitting for an additional day and stayed through Tuesday morning.

She went and saw some tide pools while I was in class, and when I got out of class we visited a comic book shop. Then the insurance company called about the car wreck we had on Saturday and I spent some time talking with them. We closed out the mini-vacation by eating at a hole-in-the-wall joint called California Burritos. My wife wasn't crazy about the fish tacos, but the carne asada burritos were amazing. I would definitely hit them up if you are in the area.

On Tuesday evening I got a ticket to the Twins - Padres game, and headed to the ballpark for my third and final baseball game of this trip. The Padres won the game 3-0, with the offensive highlight being a 2-run homer by Austin Hedges. With the win, the Padres are an unbeaten 3-0 when I am visiting Petco Park. They should sponsor me as a mascot of some kind. I probably won't do much tourism stuff over the next couple of days before I head home, although I may get a wild hair and think of something if we get out of class early tomorrow. I only need 25 out of the remaining 80 points in the class, so I am having a hard time staying focused during the training.

And now I'll get to some cards. I showed off a Wally Moon parallel Fan Favorites autograph from 2017 Topps Archives a while back, but I also picked up the base version. I couldn't resist it, as I got a lot of four Archives autographs for just a little more than I would have paid for the Wally Moon on its own. You can't argue with that math.

First up among the 'bonus' autographs is this Dave Stieb signature on the polarizing 1990 Topps card design. This was one of the first sets I remember collecting cards from, so it has a special place in my heart. The blue color scheme on this one is pretty nice, a little less garish than some of the others I've seen.

The second autograph in this lot was Bill "Spaceman" Lee, who is famous as much for his antics as his pitching. I thought this was a cool addition to my collection, and his signature is pretty neat as well. His autograph card is based on the 1971 Topps design.

The final autograph in the lot was a Roy Oswalt signature on the 2001 Topps design. This is one of those card designs that released while I was out of collecting, so I don't recognize it without looking it up. Pretty much anything from 1996-2006 in Topps baseball is unfamiliar to me. I was collecting cards up through 1999 or 2000, but I was primarily gathering basketball cards, and there were a lot of other brands competing for attention at that time. Still, this is another really nice card from a former Astro and a Hall of Pretty Good player.

Wally Moon Archives Auto Peach Parallel

I really should start an official Wally Moon player collection, but I haven't got to that point yet. Mr. Moon and I both share a distinctive facial feature, commonly referred to as a unibrow. When I saw that he had a Fan Favorites Autograph in 2017 Topps Archives, I resolved to track down a copy of it.

I actually now have two different version of his signature from the set, but this Peach parallel was the first one I acquired. One cool thing about the Fan Favorites autos is that they are on-card, a nice departure from the sticker signatures that seem to dominate the hobby these days. Wally Moon's autograph is on a 1960 Topps card design.

He was in baseball in 1960, and had a card that year. Topps changed the photo selection and color scheme from his 'real' 1960 card for this 2017 set, though. I don't know much about 1960 Topps (my parents weren't even born yet in 1960), so there are probably differences that I don't pick up on outside of the obvious. This parallel is numbered # 106 /150. I got it on eBay, but they were a 1:73 pack pull if you were busting wax.

Pack of the Day 163: 2017 Topps Archives Rack Pack

This is going to be a pretty quick post, as I have a pretty big test tomorrow and I need to get to bed very soon. I had to make a Wal-Mart run this evening, and I happened to stop by the card aisle to see if they had any 2017 Topps Archives. They only had rack packs, so I grabbed one. I feel like rack packs cost too much for what you get, but that's what I had available to me.

Here's the front of the pack. There are 18 cards inside, plus a little security tag on a blank card. These packs didn't even appear to have been felt up by the local pack searcher, so that was nice. Usually he gets to everything first and damages it and leaves the shelves a mess.

Here are the pack odds. Remember, these are for rack packs, so the odds on other packaging will be different. There is also the NPN info, for people who are into that. I keep meaning to give it a try, but I never do. I guess Topps is probably counting on that.

Here are the vertical cards from the pack. There are some 1992-patterned cards at the top, and beneath them are the 1982-design cards. Tom Seaver's got some good UPF (Ugly Pitching Face) going on up there. It was very pleasant to see that the cards this year are printed on thicker stock. It doesn't feel quite as thick as Heritage, but it's thicker. The 1960 and 1982 designs also have a rough texture to the backs, while the backs of the 1992 design are smoother. But the thick stock is nice, and I am glad that Topps listened to the collectors on that.

That Rollie Fingers 1960-design card was the first one out of the pack. I was pretty happy to get it. I am also a big fan of the Randy Johnson card up there. I scanned a couple of card backs, but Julio Teheran's card apparently took a ride on the scanner glass. You'll just have to imagine what the missing edge looks like. The Dansby Swanson card at the bottom right is the promised 1960 Topps Rookie Star insert mentioned on the front of the pack. I also pulled his base card. I guess it's a Dansby Swanson hot pack.

Tucked into the middle of the pack was this Al Kaline tallboy insert, a 1959 Bazooka insert. I scanned the back because I think it looks better than having a single card photo centered in the post, not because it is particularly exciting. It would have been nice to pull a parallel in the pack, but it wasn't to be.

Overall I like the design and execution of this year's Archives product based on this small sample. Topps listened to the complaints about the card stock, which is a nice move on their part. I don't know how much more of this I will pick up, but if the prices don't go crazy I could see myself trying out a Hobby box of Archives this year.