2012 Topps Archives Blasters

Last week, my wife informed me that she could not find the little plastic insert needed for 45 RPM records to play on a record player.  Yes, we have records and a record player; this is a sure sign of being over 40 years old.

Anyway, as a part of that purchase on Amazon, I decided to treat myself a bit and picked up a couple of blasters of 2012 Topps Archives -- to see if I liked those cards as much as I liked the 2013 version.  The answer is a resounding "yes, yes I do."

Before I get into the cards and inserts, though, I wanted to note that Topps needs to do a new base set -- not just a limited edition group, but an entire base set -- using the matte finish, white cardboard, black bordered cards similar to that used for the 1971 base set cards from the 2012 Archives.  Those cards are some of the sharpest looking cards I have seen.  The white cardboard is awesome and makes for more vibrant colors, and the black borders just set off the photo and the printing on the card so well.

Now, I didn't like the fact that I only got two Brewers base cards out of two blasters.  At the same time, I did get two Ryan Braun inserts, so that makes up for it some.

Okay, with that said, here are the cards and items that I liked in breaking these blasters open:

I definitely like the 1977 Cloth Sticker inserts.  I have gotten a couple of the Robin Yount stickers in trades, so these are all nice additions to the collection.  As with most other items, if it is not a Brewer, let me know if you like it/need it.  I have two of the Johnny Bench sticker, in particular:

Here's the other Braun insert, along with its Clayton Kershaw pal from the 1967 sticker collection:

I didn't get any of the Deckle Edge inserts, but I did get two of the 1968 3D Insert set:

I also got a few of the Archives reprints to go with the two Robin Yount reprints I have gotten in trades or from COMC:

Finally, there were a couple of base cards that I really liked.  First, I'm sure I can be proven wrong about this, but it does not seem like Ty Cobb gets a whole lot of love in the reprint/archives world -- especially as compared to others like Ruth and Mantle.  I'm sure it is the same reason cited in the movie "Field of Dreams" as to why the players did not let Cobb come play in Iowa, but he is one of the all-time greats.

So, it was good to see this card in the Archives:

Finally, Roberto Clemente...for whatever reason, it always seems special to see one of his cards.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

A Trip to Target

I made a run to Target and to the Goodwill store this morning in search of cards cheap, repacked, oddly located, and otherwise weird.  My trip to Goodwill was disappointing -- literally the only aisle with any potential of holding cards was blocked off by workers reorganizing the shelves.  Oh well.

Thankfully, there is a Target about 2 blocks from the Goodwill, so I had to have a fix of unopened packs, etc.  Target let me scratch my itch, and it has given me enough to talk about for probably a week here.  I bought a quite a few things -- a 2014 Topps Rack Pack, a 2014 Topps Retail Blaster Box with the patch in it, a 2013 Panini Extra Edition box (and man is that another post entirely...), one of the repacks that has "one guaranteed autograph" included (along with three or four unopened packs of cards), and three of those $4 repack things -- all of which had an opened pack of 2012 Topps included.

To start with in this post, I have never been terribly lucky in pulling short printed cards or errors in my life.  I had one good one when I was a kid -- the 1979 Topps Rangers Bump Wills version (when Topps jumped the gun and put Wills on the Blue Jays based on an anticipated trade that never happened).

Today, though, I was luckier than I had been in a while.  Not necessarily with the repacks, mind you, but definitely with the 2014 Topps.  First, the very first thing I ripped when I opened the blaster box was the patch.  I was hoping for the 1975 Topps Robin Yount patch to add to my PC, but I didn't get it.  I did get a 1975 commemorative patch, though:

Not a bad start to the festivities.  Of course, it's available in trade but I do like this patch card.

I ripped through everything, and then I went back to try to figure out if I had any of those random "sparkle" short prints.  Either they are not as rare this year, or I got reasonably lucky, because lo and behold there one was:

It took me a couple of times looking through these cards to see that sparkle, so for us older guys who might need glasses, I figured I'd post it with the sparkle circled.

Finding this was a fun way to cap my morning of tearing packs and otherwise going on a "lottery hunt" with my purchases this morning.

Of course, it's up for trade too, but I have no idea what it is really "worth"....any thoughts?

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UPDATE:

I decided to list the Scherzer sparkle on eBay.  Check it out!

Buying a "dime box" of 1977 Topps off eBay

My wife had a friend in town this past weekend to help her with decorating a couple of rooms in our house in an inexpensive way.  I know -- inexpensive sounds crazy and unlikely, but it was inexpensive.

At any rate, I found myself in my basement in front of my computer sorting through baseball cards.  This is not unusual by any stretch of the imagination, as in my basement in front of my computer sorting through baseball cards is where I find myself usually on any day that ends in a "y" if I can help it.

As we baseball card scavengers are wont to do, I found myself sorting through eBay auctions and looking for a lot that had something different from the ordinary piles of auctions offering "vintage unopened packs of cards from at least 20 and up to 27 years ago!!!"  If I want those packs, I'll go local here and buy them at $5 a box.

As it happened, I found an auction offering over 7000 cards from the 1977 Topps set for a set price of $389 -- about a nickel a card.  For that price, it did not matter to me that these cards are not pristine, near-mint gems of cards.  Instead, it gave me a chance to rectify one of the worst mistakes of my years of baseball card collecting.

I was a 5-year-old kid in 1977, and I loved baseball.  We subscribed to Baseball Digest for me, we bought packs of baseball cards, and we watched as many games as they would show on over-the-air TV.  Back then, that number of games was something like 10 away games because everyone was scared that people would stay home and watch the game on TV rather than go to the game.  Perhaps that is true now in the world of Super HD TVs and season tickets for the worst seats running about $800 to $900 per seat...but then, it seemed unfair to me.

I had heard about plastic sheets to protect one's baseball cards in one of my Baseball Digest magazines.  We were pretty poor and couldn't afford to buy these plastic sheets, so instead my mom grabbed Mylar from where she worked -- really thick Mylar -- and we started sticking the Mylar ONTO THE CARDS.  Yup, ruined a ton of cards that I have kept to this day because, well, I couldn't find replacements.  Here's one of those abominations:

As if to make things worse, applying the Mylar to some cards ended up with some of them -- like this Brewers checklist -- getting trimmed.  You can see that on the top of this checklist.

To get back to my auction, though, I came across this huge lot of 1977 cards and stared and stared and stared.  I really wanted to pull the trigger on buying them, but at the same time the cost of nearly $400 was telling me not to do it.

Then, my wife came down into the basement to ask me for help doing something.  I showed her the auction. She told me, "buy them and consider them a Valentine's Day gift.  Besides, we haven't spent anything on decorating the house -- it was all on gift cards!"

So, now I have over 7000 1977 Topps to sort.  There are decent cards in this lot -- I mean, 15 Robin Younts should be enough alone for me, but then there are these:

The Carlton is one of fifteen copies.  And then there are these:

The Palmer is one of sixteen.

Now, this isn't a complete set -- no Dawson rookie, no Murphy rookie -- but it's a lot closer than I was, and these cards aren't covered in Mylar.

So, if you need a random 1977 Topps card, let me know.  I bet I have it and we can work something out.