I decided to read up on the next Topps set to hit card aisles this season. It's the annual Archives issue and it's scheduled to be released a week from today.
I've mentioned everything that distresses me about Archives so many times that I feel like I'm parodying myself. Even though it seems like this product is targeted toward me, I don't think I'm meant for this product. It's just too irksome. I should walk away and let it go.
But just one more thing.
I naturally wanted to see which past designs were going to be featured in the base set this year (I probably knew this information once before but my brain is full and facts and memories leak out all the time).
Like the previous two years, Topps is featuring only three past designs after featuring four the first three years of the Archives reboot. Here are the three designs for 2017:
1960, 1982, 1992.
Two of those designs are all right. One is definitely not. And the one that is not is freaking 1982 again.
Topps just featured the 1982 Archives design in 2013! I think Topps' memory is worse than mine! Seriously, guys, my junior year in high school is not worth rehashing more than once.
And this isn't the first time that Archives has done this. In 2014, it used the 1980 design after using it already in 2012. What the hell?
Here is the breakdown of the years featured in each set of Archives:
2012: 1954, 1971, 1980, 1984
2013: 1972, 1982, 1985, 1990
2014: 1973, 1980, 1986, 1989
2015: 1957, 1976, 1983
2016: 1953, 1979, 1991
2017: 1960, 1982, 1992
We're just six years into this product and two of the designs have been used twice already despite 60-plus years of designs.
As a set collector, one of the things that I most enjoy about collecting sets each year is that they are distinct from one another. There is no way in the world you could confuse 2015 Topps flagship with 2016 Topps flagship. This was almost always an advantage for Topps back when it was competing with other card companies, particularly Upper Deck.
I realize it's difficult to make Archives distinct with the mish-mash of well-known designs, but, geez, repeating the same design two to four years later certainly isn't helping.
I was thrilled to see the 1979 design show up in Archives last year. But meanwhile such well-known designs as 1956, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1975, 1978 and 1981 are ignored again so we can see the hockey sticks one more time.
I don't get it.
The 2013 Archives Josh Reddick night card will be headed to the night card binder, just so I can ensure that I don't confuse it with any 2017 Archives '82s that might work their way into my collection.
Same goes for these two 2013 Archives '82s as well.
It's very easy to confuse the old night owl these days. I need to take every precaution possible.
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Night Card Binder candidates: Josh Reddick, 2013 Topps Archives, #56; Brandon Phillies, 2013 Topps Archives, #53; Edwin Encarnacion, 2013 Topps Archives, #96
Do they make the binder?: They're all in.
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