Pack break: 2012 Topps Archives baseball

I've largely stayed away from retail purchases, packs and Topps (in that order), but after last week's show, Dustin and I hit up Meijer because I had a ton of Memorial Day party bottles and cans to return, which meant more money to blow on cards!  We each picked up a jumbo (I still prefer "rack") pack of 2012 Topps Archives baseball, 14 cards for a bit more than $5.  Here's a quick look at how I did:

Not pictured:  an Ichiro that I flipped to Dustin and a Paul Konerko that's headed to Jeff.  A few more of these will more than likely end up in trade packages too, but feel free to ask for any except for the Cabrera.

For all my (justified) ragging on Topps, these are very cool.  Despite the fact that within five years Topps will begin reprinting reprints of reprints (not a joke) I do like what they did here for the most part because, as a guy who has some (if not a lot) of some of these sets, I enjoy seeing new players on the older designs.  In that, Topps definitely succeeds.  And for the price, if you're just picking up a couple of these, I think you do fine.  I do consider the hobby box prices typically absurd considering how rarely one can pull a good auto (think "fan favorites" which means a niche market for most of the players) but I'm not the type to pursue that kind of thing anymore anyway.  I think I'd like to pick up a set of these when prices come back down to earth because I'd be more than happy to have them in my collection.

My only real nit with this pack:  the Strawberry.  I hadn't realized it was a Reprint insert because it has the original back.  It's not that I confused it with a card from 1986, but the only differentiation from the base set is the Archives logo.  The numbering on the back of these is stupid, but then again, from the people that brought you "BDPP111" and so on, that's no surprise.

So if you're strolling down the card aisle looking to drop a few bucks on a pack with no set commitments and low hit expectations, I'd definitely consider grabbing one of these just for the fun of seeing some of your favorite current stars on some excellent Topps designs.