topps archives

[hoebob69]

Hi guys,I'm a little confused on the set info of the Topps archives sets. I'm sure alot varies from year to year,but certainly some things stay the same!? I've read up on the sets because I find them intriguing,but get a little confused when I see all the short print listings on different sites. Is the entire set a short print or are there only certain styles and such that are short prints?

[Rookiemonster]

Hey, they have sp that are ussally at the end of the set. They also have variation of star players. It was not always this way. The earlier Archives where just a remake of a certain year. I one I remember the most 1953 style. I don't remember much else after that. But I do remember buying a few pack when it was current players mix with a random vintage player and liking it way more .

[ALR-bishop]

Up through 1994 I collected anything listed for Topps in the SCD Standard Catalog ( I think the last edition that listed post 1980 issues was 2011 20th Edition).

So I did get the 1952 Archives Reprint (1983), the 1953 Archives set ( 1991) and the 1954 Archives sets, regular and gold (1994). I think they stopped the full reprint sets then because of mediocre sales and the problem of getting reasonable authorizations to reprint from players or surviving family.

The 54 Reprint was 256 cards. It did not have the 2 Williams cards, but added "8 prospect" cards. At some cost I was able to add the two Williams cards put out by Upper Deck in the Topps format with Topps ok, and a Mantle card ( numbered 259) that Topps later put out modeled on it's 1954 "card" of Mantle that appeared in Sports Illustrated that year. I think Larry Fritsch ( or current reps) still sells those 3 cards out of his catalog. Those 3 cards were not made for the Gold set as far as I know. Aaron also autographed about 2000 of his 54 reprint card for Topps that served as pack premium inserts, and I was able to pick up one of those for my set.

Not aware of any SPs in those sets. I have not done any of the Archive issues since 1994

[Rich Klein]

IIRC-- the mediocre sales for the original Archives sets - the 1994 and 1995 had as much to do with the declining sales of all cards after the BB Strike/Hockey Lockout as with the products. The 1991 53 Archives set did very well upon release.

The problem, in everyone's eyes with the 1st group of archives sets were the preponderance of 'commons' in the packs. The kids certainly did not want people such as Bob Trice (or people like that in the packs) and the adults did not want them either. It was not until the products became more "star-based" they did better

Rich

[swarmee]

The website www.baseballcardpedia.com can help you out with noting what's worthwhile about the various Heritage and Archives sets.

[Jantz]

If you are referring to modern Topps Archives sets (2015 or 2016 and so on) then you want to check out this website.

cardboardconnection.com

They go into detail and sometimes provide a photo gallery of short prints and photo variations.

[Fur72]

It changes from year to year. This year they have "Gold Winner" variations and 1960 gray back variations. I am not sure there are too many short prints this year but I should have all my 2017 sorted tonight. Toughest part of Archives are the subsets IMO.

[frankhardy]

I love the idea of a Heritage set every year. I absolutely hate all of the other reprints and Archive sets. The reasons..... There are far too many; there seems to be no rhyme or reason to them; and it clogs up searches. I mean.... How many different years are they going to print up a 1987 Topps style card? I'm perfectly content to wait until 2036 Heritage!