I bought three teams in a two-box break of 2023 Topps Archives hosted by Nachos Grande. After watching the livestream and seeing some of the autographs that were pulled I decided to pick up a few packs at my LCS.
The shop owner said something about a 'mega pack' - which cost $2 more - and I should have asked him to explain the difference because I walked out with four identical 8-card packs. Scammer.
But... maybe not, because one of the packs yielded an on-card auto. Was it the "mega pack"? Possibly.
Anywho, I can't show you that because it's going out in one of my Chris Kringle gift packs. But I was very happy to pull an auto and now I want to buy a box (::checks Cyber Monday deals:: finds nothing::)
The 1956 Topps design is featured on cards #1-100. They're packed out sequentially so each of the packs I opened and watched on Nachos Grande's stream led with this portion, followed by the 1965 block:
I got the fewest amount of these cards - which is fine with me since '65 is my least favorite design of the three. At least I pulled a Corbin Carroll RC.
Last but not least we have the 2003 section. The blue borders are a nice contrast.
My theory was correct -- but one of the five autos Chris pulled was on the other Florida fish team :/
As for that break, I did get a complete team set of every one of the three slots I bought, including all seven Rays base cards. No inserts or parallels though. (next time, I'm picking the Pirates.)
The 'mystery' team - which I won't reveal here - yielded an insert to go with the base set. And of course I picked the Red Sox for myself. 16 cards in the base set, $16 for the slot.
Plus a couple of Hit Stars inserts and a Babe Ruth rainbow #d/199. But that's not all!
The first box Chris opened yielded the promised two autographs -- plus a bonus third autograph (actually the second box had three autos also - across two cards.)
Another Hit Star of a Hall of Famer! For a while it looked like I'd pulled the cream of the crop. Someone ended up with an ever better card, but I'm still very satisfied. Hopefully the person who gets my 'mystery team' cards will be, too.
Have you bought any 2023 Topps Archives yet? Any great pulls to report? Are you disappointed by the card backs, especially with the 1956 singles?
Thanks for reading!
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Hey, nice Jim Rice! I'm happy your namesake pulled that for you. And I kind of like seeing the 2003 design again.
ReplyDeleteWe had a couple of great boxes if you ask me, hard to ask for more than we got. That Rice was definitely a nice pull (even if it wasn't the star of the evening as you pointed out). Thanks for joining in!
ReplyDeleteThat’s a sweet Rice auto!! He’s an underrated guy who I wish they would make more cardboard of.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a blaster of Archives and am disappointed with the backs, mainly because of the missing comics and overall because of the lack of attention to detail with things like correct fonts, and where things are placed, etc. I think because I make custom cards that things like that bother me. I want a reprint set to be exactly like the original set, right down to the font choice, size, and how many seasons are listed on the. card.
Whoa, very nice Rice auto. I'd be happy with that. Love my '70s guys.
ReplyDeleteHaven't bought any Archives, haven't even looked for it. I like the 2003, the Dodgers always look good in that set. The '56 design suffers with modern players on it, just doesn't work for some reason.
Not surprised by the backs. Archives is a half-assed set in a few ways, but that doesn't scare anybody away.
I have one of the "lunchbox" boxes coming for my son for Christmas. Haven't gotten any for myself, but have liked what I have seen this year. Thanks for sharing your packs!
ReplyDeleteNice Rice pull! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteGlad that Jim Rice card went to a Red Sox fan! Very nice looking card, too.
ReplyDeleteWith 1956 and 1965 being two of my favorite Topps card designs... I can't wait to add the complete set to my collection. I've gone back and forth about opening blasters or even a hobby box to build this set, but I think I'm just going to save my money and buy a hand collated one on eBay.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Nice on-card Rice auto.
Congratulations on your successful breaks. Obviously I don't know what big hits were available, but it seems like you did about as well as one could expect from this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Rice! I've seen Archives blasters at Walmart so far. Hoping for hanger packs to appear so I can get my sampling fix in.
ReplyDelete