Trade w/ Lifetime Topps Project

Finding a little more free time around the holidays, I've gotten time to get myself a little more organized. I've finally got some of my Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen sets in pages and dedicated binders, updated my want and trade lists and even made a few trades with fellow bloggers.

One of the latest trades that seemed to get lost in the shuffle of the holiday season was a trade w/ Charlie from Lifetime Topps Project. I went through his want list looking to help him out w/ some of his Topps needs and in return he was able to help me knock off a nice chunk of 2013 Topps Archives. That's a set I would like to actively collect more of, but I try not to bite off more than I can chew.

Since the end of the baseball season and with the Carolina Panther's historic season I haven't paid much attention to baseball cards. It's always nice however to knock out large parts of your want list. In fact with this trade a few others it's got me really pumped for the 2016 season of cards. This year I hope to be ready and even drop a few pre-orders on boxes before the prices get out of hand!

Thanks Charlie for the help w/ Archives. Maybe we can do this again one day.

Blaster Break - 2013 Topps Archives

Taking a break from Gypsy Queen I decided to splurge and pick up a blaster of the new Archives.  After buying last year's offering and reading posts and comments of this year's product I knew what I was getting going in.  While the ultra thin card stock is a let down, the design choices this year make up for the thin cardboard.  While I don't care for the inserts as much, I am planning on building the 1983 All-Star set.  The rest I'll just pick up the Braves and a few select players.

I do hate that the SPs are again part of the base set, but I pretend they don't exist and just focus on #1-200. There are only 2 SPs I want (Otis Nixon & Tim Salmon).  If I get some in trades or in packs that is cool, but I'm not putting all the SPs on my want list.

Retail blasters yield 8 packs (7 packs and 1 extra pack...who you kidding Topps?) with 8 cards per pack.  Let's see what I got, shall we?

Not my favorite retro Topps design, but it'll do.

  
             If Topps had integrated the team colors into the "hockey stick" design I'd like these even better.

As a kid growing up in the 80's how can I not like this design (even if I didn't cards yet)

Ah, the 1990 design.  While not my favorite, it did usher in the first year I collected baseball cards so I will always find a soft place for this year/design.

Ended up w/ 2 SPs.  Weird seeing a "new" Expos card.

The Dual Fan Favorites are pretty cool, but I don't see myself building the set.

Didn't the old Bazooka cards have these 4-1 stickers?  Not really interested in them, but at least I got a good sticker.  This one's a keeper.

I really like these 1983 All-Stars.  This oughta be a fun set to build.

Can't say I'm surprised to see these Tall Boy cards carried over from the last year's football set.  Neat cards, but boy are they a pain to store in 9 pocket pages!

What's this?  A hit in a retail blaster?  1:42 odds...not bad.  Shouldn't this card have been seeded in Heritage packs though?  Hope to trade this Konerko for base cards/inserts from my Want List.

All in all I'm very pleased with this year's Archives set.  I give it a slight nod over last year's set (which I'm still working on) and I can't wait to pick up some more when the budget allows.