Cardboard Review:2022 Topps Archives Baseball

Baseball cards don't always have to be the next best thing, they can be a visit from the past.

That's what you get when you break into a box of Topps Archives. This year's edition is no different, so let's take a look and see what it has to offer.

Every hobby box of 2022 Topps Archives baseball comes with 24 packs of 8 cards. Boxes come with 24 packs of 8 cards and 2 autographs.

There is also a box topper, post card, that greets you immediately on top.

A closer look at it. Not a bad kick off to this box.

Let's see the rest.

BASE:

  

This years base card set pays tribute to 1963, 1978 and 1987. There are legends,

veterans,

And rookies.

 

(1:6 packs)

  

(1:6 packs)

 

2005 (1:24 packs) and 1992 (1:6 packs)

Along with a couple short-printed subsets as well that makes up the 380-card base set.

PARALLELS:

You can find the following parallels in Archives,

Rainbow Foil /150, Green /125, Silver /99, Red /75, Red Hot Foil /50, Blue Foil /25, Orange Hot Foil /15 (Hobby), and FoilFractor 1/1.

Rainbow Foil /150

Silver /99

Red Hot Foil /50 (nice card and parallel)

INSERTS:

Only three inserts to find, this is the main one.

Post Cards has 15 cards that falls 1:8 packs.

HITS:

Adam Frazier autograph

Luke Williams Autograph

I guess the positive spin on these pulls...they are on-card.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I really like the layout of Archives, but as always the value is a toughie for me. I have yet to pull a big-name autograph from this product since I started opening it. I think for me anyways, I take a shot at retail for this product. Yeah, you may not get an autograph, but there is a chance. But, you do get the taste of the product and land some of your favorite players in a classic design.

I was happy to finally land a Bobby Witt Jr and Julio Rodriguez rookie for my PC.

I would say looking at this break, the Ohtani was by far the headlining pull.

Thoughts on my break and the product welcomed in comments.

Cardboard Review:2022 Topps Gallery Baseball

Baseball season continues on and so doesn't the baseball releases.

Today, we take a look at a 90's favorite from yours truly but maybe not so much in the modern age.

Unlike the 90's version, Topps Gallery can only be found at Walmart or at Topps online. So no hobby shop visits to find this stuff.

Each hobby box retail version of 2022 Topps Gallery comes with 20 packs of 5 cards. Each box also comes with 2 autographs and boxes run about $115 per. Not too bad considering today's box prices with the same amount of hits.

BASE:

The 200 card base set comes loaded with veterans,

Legends

And top rookies of the game. 

The design stays pretty close to what it has looked like in years past since Topps reengergized it.

PARALLELS:

You can find the following parallels in this year's Topps Gallery,

Printer Proof , Rainbow Foil, Private Issue, Green /125, Green Pattern /99, Blue /75, Blue Pattern /50, Orange /25, Orange Pattern /10, Red /5, Red Pattern 1/1 and Printing Plates 1/1

Rainbow Foil

Green /125

Private Issue

INSERTS:

Inserts may have the following parallels,

Green /250, Blue /99, Orange /25 and Red 1/1

MasterStrokes falls 1:18 packs and has 20 cards to collect. The one on the right is the blue parallels, blue writing, it is /99.

Next Wave falls 1:15 packs and has 25 cards to collect. I really like the look of this one compared to the other inserts in this product.

Portrait Gallery has 10 cards in the set and falls 1:18 packs.

Modern Artists has 25 cards falling at 1:15 packs. I really don't mind this design either. Kind of its the Gallery/art theme.

HITS:

Autographs come with parallels as well. You know, like most products.

Green /99, Blue /50, Orange /25, Red 1/1

(I guess we can call this an autograph....)

(even worse example)

This is an Orange /25

OVERALL THOUGHTS

This product doesn't have the same feel or appeal of the 90's version, but I still didn't mind it too much. I would probably only stick to this version of buying it if I had to choose. I think Blasters are full of dullness.

As for value, I didn't pull any of the key rookies, the autographs were bad in more than one way, but at least I found a Ken Griffey Jr and Derek Jeter card. Those made me happy.

Thoughts on this product, the inserts and the autographs especially welcomed in comments.

Random Cardboard Of The Day: 2020 Optic All Stars Mike Trout

Summer Of Wes Card #9

Breakin' Wax:2020 Topps Update Blaster Box

Today, I am breaking a 2020 Topps Update Blaster box without the box picture. I hate when pictures get lost in translation.

Anyways,  here were the best base cards I found.

Best rookie cards

Topps Update Gold /2020 parallel

Blue or purple parallel? I don't know.

Rainbow Foil parallel

Lots of turkeys including a Pettite and Bichette I needed.

Turkey Chrome

1985 insert

My regular inserts

Overall, not a bad break. I got some decent Update rookies and my inserts weren't too shabby. I also enjoyed the Munson as my father was a fan of him growing up.

Thoughts on my break and Update overall welcomed in comments!

Breakin' Wax:2021 Diamond Kings Baseball Four Hanger Boxes

 Playing the game of toggle on the blogs and taking my mini vacation has led me to being way behind on posts.

Whether those posts are trades, pickups or even box breaks, I am behind.

So let's catch up on a few of those starting today with four hanger boxes of 2021 Diamond Kings baseball.

We all know how hard it is to find retail now-a-days and how if any of us who actually buy retail to open it find any, we buy it. That was the case with the Diamond Kings for me. I am not actually an overly huge fan of the product, but it was sitting there and everyone says hangers are better than blasters so I grabbed em.

Each hanger box of 2021 Donruss Diamond Kings comes with 20 cards per hanger box. The boxes come with an exclusive red border parallel per hanger and each hanger if I remember correctly was $11 each.

The base set for Diamond Kings comes with 170 with a mix of 

Legends of the game

Veterans and Short Prints (Cal Ripken)

along with future stars.

And of course some actual Diamond Kings. These definitely are not the ones from the 90's.

There are not a lot of parallels in Diamond Kings, but a few. Each one of my Hangers came with an Artist Proof and Red Border.

Here are the overall parallels,

ARTIST PROOF PARALLELS: AP Blue, AP Gold /49, Litho Proof /25, AP Masterpiece 1/1.
FRAMED PARALLELS: Blue, Gray, Plum, Red, Wood FOTL /15, Black Masterpiece 1/1, Litho Proof and Black Masterpiece 1/1.

This is an Artist Proof which is just a stamped Artist Proof on the card.

Red Bordered.

There are a handful of inserts in Diamond Kings and I found a variety of them in each hanger.

Gallery Of Stars (solid names)

Legacy Lithographs (once again, not bad names)

Aficionado

Artists Palette (my favorite design of the inserts)

And I was hoping for a huge memorabilia hit or an autograph of a superstar in those four boxes,

 

But one of that happened. At least I pulled a hit and it does have a stripe in the relic. Card also looks nice that's always an extra bonus.

That does it for four hangers worth of Diamond Kings. There's not a lot of big finds there but it was fun being able to open some.

Let me hear your thoughts on the break and the product below in comments!