Thursday, December 28, 2017

Didn't Know These Existed

I connected with an old college friend thru a Facebook group (old NFL photos!) and he a few weeks ago sent me a Christmas gift. Other than the 1959 & '60 packs I got in my Easter basket as a kid and a few cello packs I remember getting for Christmas in the early 60s this is the only card holiday 'present' I've ever received. They were wrapped and had a bow and everything.

Not surprisingly they are from a set I'd never heard of...Topps Archives Snapshots. From what I've learned they were sold through the mail by Topps sort of like their Topps Now stuff. Looks like a pretty decent checklist but there is only one Oriole, Manny Machado.


My friend is an Astros fan and he bought several boxes in hopes of pulling some Astros sigs (there are several 'Stros in the set). He struck out on that but said he got all the base Astros and a couple of parallels (B&W?). The Killebrew above is my favorite of the group.


They are nice photos with a pretty simple design. A mix of current and former players. Not the best shot of Henry Aaron but at least it's not one of the same old pics that get used over and over again.


Francisco Lindor is kind of a favorite of mine among current players. He always seems to be having fun out there.

Seager as always appears to be fresh out of high school.


Several of these are Spring Training pics.The Swanson is pretty nice.


Gsellman and Lindor will replace previous cards in my fantasy baseball binder. I like variety in that collection.

Here's a look at the back of the Lindor card. Not much here in terms of info but I think the front photos are the draw for stuff like this.



A couple of oldies here. I missed nearly all of Bobby Abreu's career having bailed on baseball in 1995 and not returned until nearly 15 years later. Looking at the scan again it appears that his name is out of focus. And looking back it seems all the names are a bit fuzzy. Might be my scanner. Might be the fact that the font isn't the sharpest.

The Wakefield pic comes thru very nicely. but why isn't he holding the ball with a knuckleball grip?

Brad sent me eight cards and a nice bonus.....


Yup, a signed Cleon Jones. He knows that Jones was a '69 Met and he promised he wasn't trolling me. I appreciate the card even though the mention of Jones' name brings back memories of him making the last out of the 1969 Series. It was that catch which prompted me to get up off my friend's couch and silently head out the door to walk home.

Looking at the checklist when I was investigating this set I saw that there were Wally Moon signature cards. I found one on eBay and it arrived yesterday. I have a small but interesting Moon PC going. This is a nice addition.


It wasn't until I was looking closely at this one that I noticed that the colors that bracket the Archives logo match the players uni colors. A small but nice touch.

All in all a fun little group. I probably wouldn't go out and buy these on my own so I really appreciate the generous gift. Thanks Brad and Happy New Year.

14 comments:

  1. Very nice. Hard for me to tell but are the Killebrew and Moon "colorized" b&w shots?

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    1. Neither one of them looks to be colorized. If they are they did a hell of a job.

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  2. Really cool looking cards, especially the Killebrew. I'll have to go see if there are any Angels in the set.

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  3. Sharp looking set- how cool is it that you were only able to learn of it's existence through an old college friend though? Small world, isn't it?

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  4. That Wally Moon card is sweet. I may need to look at tracking one down. He and I are united by our unibrows.

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  5. Wally Moon looks like someone vandalized his eyebrows with a pencil. But that's a nice looking set!

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  6. Nice looking cards. I'd never seen that Wake card. Now I'm on the hunt

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  7. It's a fun set. That Lindor is my favorite photo of the batch. I bought a box for the photography and picked up a second batch of commons on ebay later. My post about my box is here. https://sabrbaseballcards.blog/2017/10/30/topps-archives-snapshots/

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    1. Also I have to mention that Topps has some quality control issues here with regard to scanning their old negatives. Two of the cards I have a totally amateur hour when it comes to scanning.

      Ron Cey features newton rings.
      https://twitter.com/vossbrink/status/922622598017617921

      And Nomar never had the dust removed from his face.
      https://twitter.com/vossbrink/status/935298401104777216

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    2. And now it clicks...as soon as I saw the term newton rings I remembered your post. So I guess I had seen these.

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  8. Nice cards! I bought a few base cards from the 2016 set off of COMC, and I was happy with them, looks like I've got some more shopping to do.

    It's funny, I was ready to say that the Lindor photo was the same one used on his 2017 Archives Bazooka insert, and then I realized that even though both show him on the same field in very similar poses, they must've been taken on different days because his sleeves, socks and batting gloves are completely different!
    https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/2017/Topps_Archives_-_1959_Bazooka/59B-9/Francisco_Lindor/12320206

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    1. That card/pose did look familiar to me but I couldn't place the card I'd seen previously.

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  9. Almost half a year later, I managed to track down one of those Cleon Jones autographs for myself. $4.99 shipped, not bad. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2017-Topps-Archives-Snapshots-autographed-card-of-Cleon-Jones-285-350/173316895043?hash=item285a7df143:g:HFsAAOSwi19a-JIp

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