Topps Archives Week: A Blaster's Worth

Welcome to Topps Archives Week - a week dedicated to Topps' newest card set!  A few days ago, I highlighted one of the blasters of Archives that I bought.  As I mentioned in that post, I purchased a pair of blasters originally.  The first one was interesting - the second one (that I already showed) was quite awesome seeing how I landed this Bryce Harper Autograph card (that is currently on eBay).

Today, it's time to look at the other blaster that I originally purchased.  I will admit to having purchased a few more blasters after I landed that Harper - so you can expect to see some of the results of those later in the week.  Without further ado, let's look at the next blaster.

2012 Topps Archives:
Blaster #2:

Pack 1:

21.  Jeremy Hellickson

42.  Aroldis Chapman

76.  Victor Martinez

118.  Desmond Jennings

128.  Shin-Soo Choo

169.  Michael Morse 

180.  David Wright

217.  Luis Tiant

Other than the short printed Tiant card, that pack was a complete waste.  I've only bought and collated one blaster thus far - and yet, all 7 non-short printed cards were duplicates.

Pack 2:

13.  Mark Teixeira

71.  Jimmy Rollins

80.  Troy Tulowitzki

122.  Dustin Pedroia

125.  David Freese

172.  James Shields

175.  Justin Morneau

1967 Sticker:  67S-JM.  Joe Mauer

Two packs into the blaster and once again it's a pack full of all duplicate base cards!  At least I needed the Mauer, a small victory...

Pack 3:

5.  Freddie Freeman

34.  Jaime Garcia

62.  Hanley Ramirez

84.  Nyjer Morgan

113.  Ryan Howard

136.  David Ortiz

164.  Kevin Youkilis

Topps Reprint:  Roberto Clemente

The Clemente card was (once again) the only card I needed in the pack.  This blaster has turned out to be a complete waste of money (at least in terms of set collecting) thus far.  I am, however, working up a nice sized stack of cards to use as trade bait - a silver lining I suppose.

Pack 4:

33.  Jon Lester

44.  Cal Ripken Jr.

54.  Jemile Weeks

94.  Anibal Sanchez

101.  Adrian Gonzalez

156.  Ubaldo Jimenez

190.  Josh Hamilton

1968 Topps 3D:  Al Kaline

Stop me if you've heard this before - the only card I needed was the insert.  Grr!  I'm beginning to wonder about Topps' collation seeing how I'm four packs into only my second blaster and I haven't hit a single new base card...  Frustrating to be sure.

Pack 5:

1.  Matt Kemp

47.  Drew Pomeranz

83.  Craig Kimbrel

135.  Mike Napoli

145.  Howie Kendrick

184.  Jim Rice

192.  Brad Peacock

201.  Don Mattingly

I finally landed a new base card - the Matt Kemp.  If I were a betting man, I would bet the Bryce Harper autograph redemption card took the place of Kemp's base card in the previous blaster...Here's hoping I'm wrong though and that I do actually get a few new base cards in the last three packs of the blaster.

Pack 6:

59.  Hunter Pence

98.  Johan Santana

112.  Todd Helton

148.  R.A. Dickey

161.  Chase Utley

195.  Brandon Morrow

1977 Cloth Sticker:  77C-RJ.  Reggie Jackson

The first thing I noticed was the fact that I got ripped off in this pack - only seven cards (rather than the promised eight).  Given that piece of bad news, there was also a bit of good news - only three of the cards in the pack were duplicates!  Hooray.

Pack 7:

19.  Brandon Beachy

36.  Martin Prado

68.  Drew Storen

95.  Yoenis Cespedes

119.  Yu Darvish

151.  Stephen Strasburg

167.  Michael Pineda

1969 Deckle Edge:  69DE-11.  Carl Yastrzemski

Woah - I should have started whining even earlier in the post!  A full pack of cards that I needed - sweet!  I might be able to complete the set yet (not with this blaster, but at least I'm getting closer).

Pack 8:

8.  Matt Moore

16.  Yunel Escobar

51.  Roy Halladay

65.  Jordan Zimmermann

105.  Torii Hunter

116.  Alex Avila

1982 In Action:  82IA-TG.  Tony Gwynn

Reprint:  Eddie Murray

The 1982 In Action cards are seeded 1:32 packs making them rarer than the relic cards (which are seeded 1:30 packs)!  I don't know about you, but I find that bit of information a little weird!

All told, this wasn't a terrible blaster but it certainly wasn't a great blaster either.  I ended up with 40 duplicates which is way too many considering I had only opened one blaster prior to this one.  All of my inserts were new though, so that part is good.  Stay tuned throughout the week - there will be plenty more Topps Archives posts coming up!