giving 2020 topps archives a go

i overpaid for a box of 2020 topps archives last week in a moment of weakness.  it arrived on monday, and i wasted little time getting in to it. 

for the record, i had made a guess as to my boxtopper mini-poster (i assumed it would be blake snell) and my two autographs (i figured i'd get andy ashby and, in an attempt to put some good mojo out there, shawn green).  i was wrong on all three guesses.

here's what greeted me when i opened the box:

hank aaron box topper!

that's not bad. interesting that hank is wearing a milwaukee hat but the poster affiliates him with the atlanta braves.

back to the box.

i started with the upper right stack of packs. it quickly became obvious that the collation in each pack was coordinated such that there were 2 1974 cards, followed by 3 2002 cards, an insert, and 2 1955 cards. get ready for a bunch of images.

here's pack number 1:

that's carlos correa, roberto alomar, chris sale, robel garcia, anthony santander, mike trout/shohei ohtani (1960 topps combos), nomar garciaparra, nolan ryan

i scanned the back of the correa card to show that topps went with a generic script font instead of a facsimile autograph. 

probably would have been better served leaving it off altogether.

pack 2:

sandy koufax

that looks pretty great. hello and a very pleasant good evening to jim gilliam lurking there in the background, too!

kerry wood
rollie fingers
lou gehrig
david wright
eloy jimenez (1960 all-star rookie)

goose gossage
isan diaz

here's the back of koufax's card

not quite full career stats there (no 1955 row) even though there was room. still hard to read as well. maybe topps will go the o-pee-chee route for 2023 heritage and give us yellow backs.

pack 3:

roberto clemente

trent grisham
marco gonzales
adrian morejon
christian yelich
cc sabathia (1976 traded), 

vladimir guerrero jr
jt realmuto

not sure what happened to the colors on the clemente card. 1974 topps used yellow letters for the pirates, not red.  still, it is cool to see clemente on a different card design.  and someone alert thorzul that there are new cc brewer cards to chase!

pack 4:

ketel marte

eric hosmer
jose ramirez
ryan mcmahon
jose abreu
adbert alzolay (1955 bowman archives)

bryan reynolds
ralph kiner

there was no ralph kiner card in 1955 topps (he was bowman exclusive that year), so this is welcome. however, he would have been shown as a cub or indian in that set.

topps gives the diamondbacks the cincinnati reds coloring for the 1974 cards, and i think that's ok.  here's the back of the alzolay card.

topps treated it and the other '55 bowmans like an online tbt card with that poor attempt.

pack 5:

hunter dozier

jon lester
dj lemahieu
wil myers
yu chang
pete alonso (nickname poster)

rickey henderson

charlie morton

dozier is sporting the david glass memorial patch.

pack 6:

abraham toro
jacob degrom

craig biggio
edgar martinez
andre dawson
aristedes aquino (1955 bowman) 

trevor bauer
tim anderson, 

when i saw that degrom was going to be in the 1974 subset, i hoped for a horizontal shot a la tom seaver. alas, it is a portrait card with black name and team text instead of white.

on to the lower right stack.  pack number 1:

john smoltz
daniel vogelbach
ryan howard
carlton fisk
barry larkin
bo bichette/vladimir guerrero jr (1960 combo)

sam hilliard
brusdar graterol

topps anointed graterol as one of the dodger rookies they were going to feature in every product, and so far it looks like a much better choice than their previous years of tim locastro, rob segedin, and the like.

pack 2:

mike moustakas
andrew benintendi
ryan braun
rafael devers
johnny cueto
vladimir guerrero jr (1960 all-star rookie)

mike mussina

harmon killebrew

killebrew was in the 1955 set as a senator. here's a look at the back of his card

it's pretty solid. the active players have the additional "year" row of stats.

pack 3:

luis robert

mo vaughn

mike clevinger

randy arozarena

michael conforto

randy johnson (1976 traded)

lou boudreau

alex bregman

big rookie mojo in this pack, plus a couple of randys.

pack 4:

trevor story
dansby swanson
dennis eckersley
rod carew

roger clemens

aristedes aquino (1990 rookies) 

marcus stroman

aaron hicks

that carew is fantastic. a contender for favorite non-dodger card of the year, although it has stiff competition in the big league javy baez card.

pack 5:

nelson cruz
dave winfield

sandy alcantara

brendan mckay

freddie freeman

david ortiz (nickname poster) 

raisel iglesias

pete alonso

it's strange seeing winfield on a 1974 card as a yankee given that his rookie card is so iconic. my checklist would have had winfield on a 1955 or 2002 card instead.

pack 6:

ted williams
cal ripken jr

joe morgan

that front photo suffers from the lack of gloss on these cards. the photo on the back

might have been a better choice. note that there are a few early years of morgan's career missing from the back as well.

rougned odor
bryce harper
shun yamaguchi (1955 bowman)

jose altuve

amed rosario

the team text color is off for the ripken (and other 1974 orioles). it's not a variation either.

upper left stack. pack number 1:

duke snider

sammy sosa

tim hudson

brandon woodruff

vladimir guerrero

christian yelich/keston hiura (1960 combo) 

paul dejong

francisco lindor

the snider is nice, and they even got his entire career stats on the back

which makes me scratch my head at the koufax up above even more.  always good to see a new vladdy sr card, but i already have one of him in the 2002 design (and 1955 design thanks to 2004 heritage). 1974 would have made more sense to me.

pack 2:

david ortiz
shun yamaguchi
noah syndergaard
brad keller
kenley jansen

ryan o'hearn (1960 all-star rookie)

shohei ohtani

luis aparicio

that kenley is nice. seeing aparacio on a 1955 design is cool, too. kind of a pre-rookie vibe as his first card was in 1956. i probably should have scanned that card.

pack 3:

eloy jimenez

walker buehler

victor robles

jose urquidy

willie mays

miguel cabrera (1976 traded) 

robin yount

aj puk

i, for one, am ok with topps using the padres colors for the 1974 nationals. the willie mays card, while it looks good, is the biggest disappointment for me in the set. i was hoping topps would use the 1974 design and feature willie as a met so we could get a sort of final tribute.  oh well. in other news, topps did a good job with the '76 traded cards, i think.  here's the back of miggy's card:

not sure where the numbering comes from. cabrera's regular card in this set is 279.

pack 4:

matthew boyd
zack collins
justin turner 

jorge alfaro 

miguel cabrera
miguel andujar (1960 all-star rookie black parallel)

brooke burke
charlie blackmon

back-to-back dodger stadium shots with the turner and alfaro cards. turner's card has the added bonus of tommy lasorda seated in the background.  the andujar is numbered to 99 as you can see on the back:

pack 5:

thurman munson

ken griffey jr

paul molitor

yu darvish

aaron judge

ernie banks (nickname poster)

keston hiura

will smith

the munson is a sort of 'action variation' of his original 1974 card, and i don't mind it too much. the mariners were given the brewers' color scheme for the 1974 cards and i think it works. the other thought i have with this pack is that my understanding was ernie banks' nickname was 'mr. cub'. was he also known as 'mr. sunshine'?

pack 6:

mauricio dubon
justin dunn
justin verlander
stephen strasburg
manny machado
pete harnisch (fan favorites autograph)

jackie robinson

ramon laureano

well, he's not andy ashby, but pete harnisch doesn't do much for me. hopefully bru is up for another trade!  and seeing jackie on the 1955 design will beg for a critique against his real 1955 topps card. this one is lacking the color of the original by using a blue 'b' logo rather than the diamond red logo of the original. the blue bar at the bottom is also different. not sure i ever thought i would say this, but there might just be too much blue on that dodger card!

lower left stack. pack number 1:

ty cobb
willie mccovey 

aaron nola
kyle seager
ronald acuna jr
rhys hoskins/bryce harper (1960 combo) 

albert pujols
monte irvin

perhaps topps had thought about using a photo of mccovey from his short term stop with the a's? that's the only thing i can think of to justify the coloring. also, that card is similar to the winfield in that it is strange to see stretch on a 1974 card as something other than a padre.

pack 2:

hyun-jin ryu
corey kluber
kole calhoun
carter kieboom
anthony kay
ronald acuna jr (1960 all-star rookie)

deion sanders
bo bichette

this may have been my least favorite pack of the box.

pack 3:

gleyber torres

tony gonsolin

clayton kershaw

anthony rendon

chipper jones
john smoltz (1976 traded)

sean murphy
whit merrifield

a strong batch of 1974 cards here with a double play turn and a couple of dodgers. however, those shots of gonsolin and kershaw are studio shots photoshopped on to a sunset background. the rendon is a great looking card.

pack 4:

mike piazza
frank robinson
randy johnson
ralph kiner

cody bellinger

abraham toro (red parallel), 

dj lamehieu
jorge soler

so someone at topps screwed up and approved a checklist with two ralph kiner cards. should have given him a 1974 card, too, just to be complete about it. and the toro card here provides more fodder for that trade with bru.

pack 5:

zac gallen

giancarlo stanton
brooks robinson

elvis andrus
yuli gurriel
duke snider (nickname poster)

shin-soo choo
zack greinke

does anyone know why the marlins traded zac gallen? the brooks card is another 'action variation' of his actual 1974 topps card, and the duke snider card is decent. topps used duke's image from his fantastic 1957 card and superimposed it on to an intersection in the flatbush neighborhood of brooklyn.

pack 6:

christian walker
danny jansen
jonathan villar
starling marte
alan trammell
lloyd mcclendon (fan favorites autograph purple parallel)

which is numbered to 150 on the back:

nolan arenado
mike trout

not a bad way to end things. the mcclendon will likely walk the plank shortly. finding the second auto card in this pack supports my long standing opinion/approach of always picking the bottom couple of packs from the lower left stack of a newly opened box. not sure if dealers let you pick your own packs anymore, however.

to summarize, i enjoyed this break, and i really like the 1974 cards. the 2002 cards were surprisingly good, but the 1955s left me a bit cold. it just seems like there is wasted space on them or something. something is off, and it may just be that the gradient background coloring is not as noticeable here as it is on the real deal '55s.

let's check this box against the odds...

base parallel (red) 1:89 packs - beat the odds!

nickname poster card 1:6 - 4 cards; met the odds.

topps traded 1:6 - 4 cards; met the odds.

1990 topps rookies 1:24 - 1 card; met the odds.

1960 topps all-star rookies 1:6 - 4 cards; met the odds.

1960 topps all-star rookies (black) 1:1,112 - beat the odds!

1960 topps combo 1:6 - 4 cards; met the odds.

1955 bowman archives 1:8 - 3 cards; met the odds.

fan favorites autograph 1:19 - 1 card; met the odds.

fan favorites autograph parallel (purple) 1:128 - 1 card; beat the odds!

also, there were no doubles - good job topps!