2012 Topps Archives Box Break Review

2012 Topps Archives Baseball Hobby Box Review

So it came out a while ago and naturally I bought a box the day it came out.  Obviously there has been a lapse in time and that is because I had the terrible bad luck of getting a box with damaged cards.  This was the first time I'd gotten a box of cards that yielded so many damaged cards.  Take a look and see what I mean...

Jacked up... and another

I had a Torii Hunter base card that had a tear right in the middle of the left side of the card.  Needless to say the quality control in my box left something to be desired. 

However, I really have been looking forward to this product for a while now and while I didn't pull any monster type hits I was pleased with my product over all.  I decided I would get the cards replaced that had been damaged and post my finding after the new ones came in.  Low and behold.

Not only did they replace my cards quickly...but they replaced my cards quickly.

I once waited 11 months for a redemption card that initially said 6-8 weeks.

In the time they took to return I ended up buying a bunch of packs and have essentially over time picked up about an extra box worth of loose packs as well as the one box I bought when they first came out.  So here is how it all broke down.

As far as the actual base set goes I have a near complete set for the cards 1-200. I'm only missing 5 total cards which are

53 Adam Wainwright,

 57 Josh Beckett,

126 Rickie Weeks,

141 J. P. Arencibia,

176 Eric Hosmer.

I have a ton of duplicates so if any one has them let me know... I'm up for a trade.

I believe the short prints are numbers 201-240. Of those I have these cards

202 Mike Scott

208 Frank Howard

214 Mitch Williams

222 John Kruk

224 Terry Pendleton

226 Jay Buhner

228 Ron Gant

229 Roger McDowell

233 Oscar Gamble

235 Ed Kranepool

236 Chili Davis

237 Robin Ventura

238 Jose Oquendo

Then of course there is the Super Short Print 241 Bryce Harper which I did NOT pull, but someone in the same shop I buy from did.  I think they fall like 1 out of every 200 boxes so it was pretty cool.  Since I have so many of the short print cards.I only need 27 more to have a complete set of the SP cards or 28 if you count the Harper card which naturally I will ultimately want one day.  It goes for $200 right now, but if he ends up not panning out maybe I can pick it up for real cheap in a few years.  Will see...

They have a few insert sets in Archives and most of them are stickers.  Here are the inserts I pulled in my boxes

Gold Parallel cards 1 out of every 12 packs

Ryan Braun, Tommy Hanson, Victor Martinez, Ryan Howard, and Geo Soto

Cloth Stickers 1 out of every 6 packs. 7/25 cards

Chris Carpenter, Catfish Hunter, Willie Stargell, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bunch

Deckle Edge Set 1 out of every 12 packs. 5/15 total cards.

Bob Gibson, Harmon Killbrew, Roy Holliday, Evan Longoria, Roberto Clemente

1967 Topps Sticker Set 1 out of every 8 packs. 5/25 total cards.

Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, Ian Kennedy, Adrian Gonzalez, and Pablo Sandoval

Topps 1968 3D Card Set 1 out of every 8 packs. 6/15 total cards.

Miguel Cabrera, Willie Mays, CC Sabathia, Babe Ruth, Matt Kemp, and Roberto Clemente

Topps Archives Reprint Set 1 out of every 4 packs. 11/50 cards total.

Willie McCovey

Eddie Murray

Darryl Strawberry

Monte Irvin

Bob Feller

Brooks Robinson

Yogi Berra

Don Mattingly

Johnny Bench

George Anderson

Robin Yount

and lastly the hits!

Each box guarantees 2 on card autographs and I got 4 total.  This set does have a relic card checklist, but I think they must come like one in every 3 or 4 boxes, because I haven't seen any odds and that would be my best guess.  These are the autographs I managed to pull...

My First box yielded Carney Lansford and Wally Joyner.

Lansford played for the A's most of his career but was drafted by the Angels and traded to the Red Sox before he played the rest of his career with the A's from 83 to 92.  In 81 he won the Silver Slugger Award and batted second behind Rickey Henderson during the A's dynasty when they played in 3 straight World Series 88,89, and 90. He was an All Star in 1988 and they won the World Series in 1989.

The Wally Joyner auto was neat only for the fact that he is one of the cards pictured on the box.  Joyner was an All Star in 1986 and was also co-winner of the Home Run Derby that same year.

In the loose packs I picked up afterwards I picked up the Ed Kranepool first and a couple weeks later the Bobby Richardson.

Ed Kranepool was 17 when he made his major league debut and was an All Star in 1965. He was also a starter for the 1969 World Series Mets.

My favorite card of all of them was the Bobby Richardson auto. Richardson played his entire career for the Yankees from 1955 to 1966.  During his career he was a stand out player making 8 All Star appearances and has the distinction of being the only World Series MVP to be named on the losing team.  That was the year Maz hit his Game 7 walk off home run to end the series.  He played in 7 World Series and won 3 of them.  He also won 5 Gold Gloves during his career and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1963.  A great addition to the collection.  The others are all up for grabs.

All in all I was impressed with the turn around time Topps showed in replacing my damaged cards and loved the design and theme of the set.  While I really wanted one of those monster hits its an $80 box and you get what you pay for.  Fun for anyone who likes to build sets.  Hit me up if you see anything you want to trade for and we'll make a deal. Thanks for reading...