2019 Topps Archives is back to kill the good vibes from Heritage again. I’m suck a mark/sucker for this stuff thought that it always sucks me in at least a little. I especially like the ’75s this time around because that is always an interesting design to me, and I also didn’t realize how much I actually like the ’93 design too.
But I always think that in a way this just waters down the Heritage sets. Is it being overdone? … Probably. Will we keep buying anyway? … Definitely. And you can see I am in that boat. So let’s break this one open.
2019 Topps Archives
The 1958 design is pretty standard with new players on it. There’s not too much fun in it for me. The 1975 design would be great for me no matter who is on the card. The one thing I don’t like though is the weight of the facsimile signatures. They ALWAYS seem so heavy in Archives. I’m not sure why that is but they don’t represent like the did back in the day.
The 1993 cards are what surprised me. The pictures that they used for most of these cards came out really well and they were pretty interesting too. I would say that in this blaster they weren’t tremendous, but with what I opened, these were the ones that usually surprised me the most.
Random observations… same photo shoot for the ’75 cards as Heritage and damn, does anyone attend Reds games?
Oldies But Goodies
The old guys really fit on the old cards best. So the 1993 card for Marichal is a little odd, but I still like it. The ’75 Hodges I like because I like Gil Hodges (for his Mets connection at least). But there’s that thick signature again.
The one I think it the most interesting is Larsen. Does he have some makeup on? I swear he using blush. Or can we say that this one got “airblushed”?
Rookie Sensations
About the Eloy Jimenez, I feel like as Mark Jackson might say on a basketball game broadcast… “Mama, there goes that man.” I’m getting his cards in anything I am opening. The other interesting this about these is that Biggio and Guerrero Jr. came in the same pack… back to back.
Mets-merized
The Piazza is my favorite card out of these. It is odd though that a player who played in a different uniform at the time of that card is put on that card. Why not use a ’75 or ’58 design.
For the Mets fans out there, is there a more frustrating guy than Syndergaard right now (yes, of course there is, we are Mets fans and the whole team can be frustrating). But damn that guy seems to shoot himself in the foot. This whole catcher mess and then basically not playing better when you have a non-Ramos catcher… I mean he put himself in an almost no win situation. The act is getting a little old if he isn’t going to be a lights out amazing ace, which he only kind of showed one year really.
Extras, Extras…
These guys are at the end of the set, but I like them. I feel bad for Yelich with the injury at the end of the year. The guy was having such an amazing season. Those are some great cards though.
Something Special
The design for the Adames rookie… meh, not my favorite. The silver parallel for Joe Morgan… OK.
But I’ll take an Ichiro retrospective anytime.
How Do I Store This?
I’m not opening these this time around. I don’t like them and that’s purely because I don’t know how to store them. I might get rid of them at some point but I’ve decided that not opening the packs are a better way to store them. I still had the idea though because I don’t want them to damage other packs if I store them with other packs. Third world problems right…
Archives is still fun to open. I think it’s just starting to get a good percentage less exciting each year. But I’m sure it won’t matter. I will tell myself to wait to see the designs and then figure out next year. But who am I kidding? I will blindly buy it again.