Congrats to kinkinsley on being the lucky winner of the John Smiley 2017 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto. Once kinkinsley sends me their mailing address, I will ship this card ASAP. Thanks!
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This contest is for a John Smiley 2017 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto. Good luck!!!
Contest Details:
Filed under: contest | Tagged: 2017, archives, auto, contest, fan, favorites, john, smiley, topps | 75 Comments »
Retro designs are used throughout many different products today. Archives has and always will be at the top of that list. For 2017 Archives, Topps has channeled designs from 1960, 1982, and 1992. Fun facts about those years include Domino’s Pizza being founded in 1960, the Commodore 64 launching in 1982, and President George H.W. Bush barfed into the lap of Japan’s Prime Minister in 1992. We won’t find cards commemorating those events in here, but it sure would be fun if we did.
The base set consists of (300) cards. (100) cards are devoted to the 1960, 1982, and 1992 designs. Parallels include Peach #’ed/199, Light Blue #’ed/75, Soft Red #’ed/25, and Black #’ed/1. In addition to those, the 1960, 1982, and 1992 subsets each have something extra to keep an eye out for. Cards in the 1960 design can have grey backs versus the standard white. 1982 cards can be found without the facsimile signatures – “No Signature”. The 1992 cards are the easiest to spot because they contain gold foil with the word “Winner” printed on the front. Photo variations play a big part too. Luckily Topps made them easy to spot by checking the code on the back. Base cards end in #2782, whereas photo variations end in #2799.
Derek Jeter has a huge presence within Archives this time around. They come in the form of reprinted Retrospective cards. All have their respectful foil parallels and very low numbered autographs. Three of these cards are short print “hits” – 1993, 2007, and 2015 designs.
The best part of Archives are the autographs. It is jam packed with on-card autograph goodness. You’ll find autographs of Hall of Famers and current stars. Archives is known for having a unique selection of niche players each year. These players may not be worthy of the Hall of Fame, but they’re retired after having long careers in baseball. For many, this could very well be the only time they get an autographed card. One of these years I’d like to see former Phillies pitcher Larry Andersen included in this set. He’d fit the mold perfectly.
99.9999% of the cards found in 2017 Archives are baseball related. A few lucky collectors will find autographs of actor Gene Hackman. These come in the form of buybacks from the original 1978 Topps Superman set. As cool as these look, you should be careful when buying one on the secondary market. Buybacks usually come with some type of foil stamp indicating that it was reissued by Topps. These do not. That could make it easier for someone to counterfeit. Topps only got Gene Hackman to sign certain Lex Luther cards from that set. Depending on the card, Topps only had him use blue or silver pen. Pulling one directly from the pack is the best way to know if its authentic. This is probably why his 2017 Topps Series 1 Hoosier autograph is selling for more.
With a cost of around $125 right now for a hobby box, retail blasters might be more up some collector’s alley. Blasters also contain exclusive coins.
On a side note, I totally agree with Sport Card Collectors. If guys like Zack Hample and Skip Bayless can get cards, it would be awesome to see some cards made for sports card bloggers.
Here is what I pulled:
Autos
Parallels
Inserts
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2017, archives, baseball, box, break, review, topps | Leave a comment »
Someone call “Doc” Brown. Its time to dust off the DeLorean and power up the flux capacitor, because 2016 Topps Archives Signature Series is taking us back in time. If retro sets, retired players, and on-card autographs are your thing, this product is 100% for you.
Over the decades, Topps has produced tons of great looking cards. “Wouldn’t these cards be awesome if they were autographed?” is a question that collectors ask each other all the time. With a product such as this, Topps has answered that question. That’s the wonderful thing about buyback autographs.
I especially like buyback autographs when it comes to rookie cards. In today’s hobby, almost every prospect and rookie has an autographed card. Very few of them are missed. This wasn’t always the case. Its cool that you can now own an autographed rookie card of Mike Piazza, Roger Clemens, Hank Aaron, and Cal Ripken, Jr. Now, not every card you pull will be a rookie, but I can guarantee it will look really nice. Topps releases a player checklist, but no official listing of how many different cards there are for each player. Years from now you could find a one-of-one autograph from this product and never knew it existed until that very moment. I like that as it adds a bit of mystery.
Most of the cards you pull come from a Topps flagship set. Others will be from something like Bowman or Stadium Club. One of the neater things Topps did this year was include some signed O-Pee-Chee cards. O-Pee-Chee baseball cards aren’t something that’s been seen since 1994. Probably the food premium and store exclusive cards are the oddest ones you will find. Unsigned they’ve mostly been forgotten about since they were so overproduced. Its fun to see them autographed now. I’m betting many collectors have fond memories of these sets from Revco, K-Mart, and Cap’n Crunch. Cards from those sets could easily have been what got them interested in collecting. Many years from now it wouldn’t surprise me if we see signed buybacks from that Walmart Marketside set that came out earlier this year. Those were the Topps cards that came with a frozen pizza.
All in all, this product remains a fun and quick thrill that is generally priced lower ($30-$40 per box) than what you’d expect. Perhaps some year Topps could get former Phillies pitcher and current radio broadcaster Larry Andersen to sign. He would be perfect for this set.
Here is what I pulled:
Auto
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2016, archives, box, break, review, series, signature, topps | Leave a comment »
Congrats to FLAME on being the lucky winner of the Phil Nevin 2016 Topps Archives Red Border Parallel Auto #’ed/50. Once FLAME sends me their mailing address, I will ship this card ASAP. I don’t believe we’ve ever had back-to-back winners before. Thanks!
Filed under: contest | Tagged: 16, announced, archives, auto, contest, padres, topps, winner | Leave a comment »
This contest is for a Phil Nevin 2016 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Red Border Parallel Auto #’ed/50. Good luck!!!
Contest Details:
Filed under: contest | Tagged: 2016, archives, auto, border, contest, fan, favorites, nevin, parallel, phil, red, topps | 86 Comments »
