Over the weekend, I received a very generous $50 Target gift card from my grandma when I went out to dinner with her to catch up. I try to see her at least once a month or so, but I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to her since I returned from Cleveland a couple weeks ago.
She's always been a giving person, and this gift just so happens to come at a time where I'm trying not to spend any money (cash or card) on baseball cards. Last weekend, I cashed in my change jar and bought a blaster of Topps Archives. However, with the Target gift card, I really tried to think of anything else I needed before deciding to spend the money on baseball cards.
Of course, not a single thing came to mind.
Okay, baseball cards it is.
I started off with Topps Archives, just to see how I'd do 2nd time around. If I do well, I'll probably go back for more Archives using the gift card. If not, I might try Topps Chrome again or even a 20-pack repack box.
But for now, I combined the highlights of my blaster and value pack of Topps Archives to show for you today. After this post, I'll decide what to spend the 2nd half of my gift card on.
For each of the 3 years included in the 2018 Topps Archives set, I pulled some cards that will be able to go directly to their respective player collections. Among the 1959s, I may not have hit an Ohtani rookie, but I did pull a Rafael Devers rookie card and an Aaron Judge base. The absence of Devers due to injury could be one of the reasons as to why the Sox have been struggling so much over the last week.
While most of the '59 player collection cards were of current players, most of the '77s featured retired players. Certain players, like George Brett, have become mainstays in the Topps Archives set over the last few years. Others, like Satchel Paige, aren't always represented in sets like this which makes it all the more thrilling to pull a card of him, especially since it's a photo I don't believe we've seen before.
Of all the years, I think the 1981 portion of the set had the best selection of players. In addition to rookies like Acuña and Andujar, the 1981 cards include multiple retired players like the 4 shown above. From what I can see, I believe the Gibson and Johnson photos were taken at Wrigley Field due to the part of the scoreboard and the ivy-less wall in each respective card.
The blaster box also delivered another Sandlot insert card just like my first blaster had. Again, I know absolutely nothing about the movie, so both the Scotty Smalls and the Alan "Yeah Yeah" McClennan cards are available for trade for all you Sandlot fans out there.
I'm still not a big fan of these Topps Rookie History reprint cards, similar to the Derek Jeter reprints from last year. It just so happens that the 2 I've pulled so far, Bryce Harper and Al Kaline, are players I collect. That being said, they too are available for trade.
From what I know, each value pack promises 1 Coming Attraction insert card. I ended up with an Alex Verdugo card, who I hear is a very talented and promising rookie. The Coming Attraction cards originally appeared in the 1993 Topps set, though the only notable name I found when looking through the cards on COMC was Jim Edmonds.
I was also happy to pull yet another purple parallel in my 2nd blaster just as I did in my first. With the first one being Yoan Moncada and the second being Felix Hernandez, it's clear that both of these players' value is at an all-time low, but there's no saying Moncada can't recover given he's only 23, and Hernandez can't bounce back in a bullpen role. And even if they don't, these purple parallels numbered to 175 look fantastic either way.
In addition to a base rookie of Miguel Andujar and a 1959 combo card of Stanton and Judge, I hit a Yankees Future Stars card in the value pack. On the card are the big 3 2018 Yankees rookies, including Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, and Miguel Andujar. Besides the Future Stars with Ohtani, I don't think I could've pulled a better one than this trio of Yankees rookies.
The next card I'm showing is a Clayton Kershaw base card. Although it's a nice base card and will help add to my Kershaw PC, I'm not showing it so late in the post for no reason. I'm showing the base card so I can show you this
I didn't even notice this card right away until I realized I had pulled 2 Clayton Kershaw base cards. Upon checking the codes, I discovered that this card was, in fact, an image variation. Only about 9 players in the entire set have image variation cards, and they're fairly tough pulls as well. Going for around $30 on eBay, this Kershaw card alone could pay for the entire purchase.
But, as amazing as the Kershaw variation was, there was still 1 card in the purchase that was a bit better. This card came out of the value pack which cost me $5.99.
I guess you could say this was a Yankees and Dodgers hot-box because I landed one of the Fan Favorites autographs of Chris Chambliss right in the middle of the value pack which I added to the purchase last minute. Now, I'm extremely glad I added that value pack to the purchase.
The Chambliss autograph pull is everything I like about retail Topps Archives I wouldn't want to pay $100 to get 2 autographs of this caliber in a blaster, but pulling fan favorite retail autos is pretty fun, especially out of a value pack.
After this purchase, it's clear to me why retail Archives is more popular than hobby. You have similar odds at great cards and spend a fraction of the hobby cost.
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