Opening a box of Archives

A few weeks ago, shortly after the 2016 Topps Archives set came out, I told myself I wouldn't buy a box.  The reason was simply that I've already opened enough boxes this year, and while I like the Archives concept, I didn't need more cards at the time.  However I had a gift card I was trying to use up and at the time Series Two Topps wasn't out yet (which I would have rather had), so I ended up getting the Archives box.  So let's look at what I got, and see if I should have held on and got a Series Two box or something else.  Part of the reason I didn't was because someone suggested to me I should have got a hobby box instead of a blaster box and I considered it.  At 60 bucks plus, thats way more than I want to drop for cards at once, but on the other hand I bought 3 or so boxes of Series one, so it was about the same price but with more hits in the hobby box, and I think more cards. I decided not to get the hobby box, and so far haven't got a blaster of Series Two, so maybe I'll wait a bit then buy a hobby one if I see it on sale somewhere.

Anyways, the Archives cards, let's stay on topic.

Childhood memories are brought back.  1991 was the first set that I remember getting, so this was one of the main catalysts for me splurging on the set.  The cards I pulled are pretty good, and despite figuring I wouldn't build the set, there are a lot of keepers in here.  I think everyone pulled the Billy Butler card, but I'm fine with it since he can go into my Once Royals collection.  Lucas Duda and Carl Edwards Jr. I'll keep in case I decide to start PC's of them.  I don't know a lot about Edwards, but heard he's really good.  I thought about going up to Iowa to try and get him to sign the card, but that would be a lot of effort for just one signature.  As for the legends, I'm happy I pulled Ripken, Stargell, Carew, Boudreau, and Doerr.  So far so good, I think this could be a good box.  My complaint on the 1991 cards is the team names are slightly different than what they were like in 1991 on some of them.  I could excuse it for team not around in 1991, but the others I felt have been the same.  Nit picking seems to be a specialty I have though.  I do like how they updated the 40 to 65 years.

More legends.  This bunch is more star packed than the last.  Jackie Robinson, Enos Slaughter, Lou Gehrig... I feel like Don West now just naming all these guys off.  Getting a current player in Miguel Cabrera was nice too.  I like the designs they picked, but being picky I don't care for the gloss the cards had.  Not so much on the front, but the backs.  I wish they felt more like the cardboard they used to be like.  I know its been like this for years, but still.

Here we go, some of the modern guys.  The only Royal I pulled was the Ventura, so I was a bit disappointed on that, but otherwise I still got some good names.  Mizzou Made Ian Kinsler, and Missouri product Ryan Howard were also good pulls. Something about Jacob DeGrom I like, so that was nice too.  I don't know a lot about Matt Carpenter since I haven't watched the Cardinals as much the last couple years, but he was the only Cardinals player selected for the All Star Game, so that says something.  I'm not big on Gary Sheffield, but pulling a card of his from his Marlins days was cool. It was also a nice pull of the George Kell.

I don't know Socrates Brito, but when I pulled it I knew I wanted to keep it.  Also... SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!  I'm not even a huge fan of Bill and Ted but that was my first thought.

Anyways, nice pulls of Grichuk and Altuve, and A-Rod goes into my PC, so that was nice.  More legends including Yaz, Kiner, Eck, and Sandberg, all of which except for Kiner I have mini PC's of.  The Kiner I'm keeping as well, because I might not have any other cards of his.  Most of my PC's of older guys (from the 50-70's) are from modern sets, so eventually I'll try to expand to get the older cards.

When I got this box, Chris Sale was the hottest player in baseball, so that was a big plus.  I like the variety of players they picked to be honest.  Never one of my favorites (but I still liked him), I was surprised when I pulled the Ryan Klesko because I think he gets overlooked sometimes for players in his era.  I was also happy to pull the John Franco because I'm sure I have a 1991 Topps Franco card so if I ever find it I can place them next to each other.

So let's get down to the inserts.  None are super impressive, but I was guaranteed a Bull Durham card, so did I get a Costner?  I hope so because I like him, and have only seen Bull Durham once, and its not among my favorite sports movies, nor baseball movies, nor Costner movies for that matter (I might be the only one who liked Swing Vote).

Millie?  I don't know if thats good or bad.  Honestly I only watched it once and it was about 8 years ago, so I don't remember much from the movie.  I have no problem with them honoring the movie, but I think they've done it before, and hope they keep doing it honoring different movies.  I would be fine if they made a set of say 90 cards just depicting characters from sports movies.  I think they could build a nice set from it.  Include subsets of real athlete cameos from those movies (Griffey in Little Big League), inserts of movie memorabilia and autographs.  I think it would be a good set.

Anyways, I also got a draft pick card of Stephen Strasburg, which is nice, I have a really small PC of him, so this will be added.  The Father and Son set was nice in theory too, but I'd have preferred the Tom and Dee Gordon one.

My favorite cards I got though might be the Bryce Harper and Josh Donaldson cards.  I don't know why but they just appeal to me.  Maybe because they feel more like cardboard, and are a simple design with rounded corners. Those really highlighted the box for me.

Overall, I don't know if the box was worth 20 bucks.  I know I had the gift card and actually used a coupon on top of it so 17.50 or free however you want to look at it, but still.  I know the legends in the box were amazing, but I'm sure I could have found a better deal going through old singles of theirs.  I'm not complaining too much because I don't think the price point was too far off, but I think 15 would be a much better deal, and 12 would have been perfect.  The only real guarantee you get is the Bull Durham card, and if you're like me, that doesn't do much.  At least the Topps Series cards has some piece of memorabilia in it that fake or not, still looks good in your hand.

So I'm not upset at the box I got because the players were amazing, but I did expect a little more bang for my buck.

So that wraps it up for tonight.  Its good to be back to showing cards, I need to start scanning more stuff, so it could be a day or two before my next blog.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.  Mine will consist of knocking a few more things out on Netflix, less than a week left of the free trial.  I finished Daredevil season two (wasn't really impressed) and am about halfway through season three of Orange is the New Black.  I'm going to watch some movies tonight though.  I watched Bad Ass and the two sequels recently, and those were fun.  So if I can cut a few more down, I'll be happy.  I might watch the Jake the Snake doc tonight, I recently watched The Masked Saint, it was okay.  Anyways, time for some movies, enjoy the weekend.