Help me decide

I've got a couple Target gift cards to spend, which means finding a modern card product that will be a satisfactory rip without annoying me too much.

 

Scrolling through the available options, obviously I discounted the many Panini products available -- there was annoyance just looking at those boxes on the screen. I also scrapped any Topps flagship and that includes Update, just nothing there that's exciting. The possibility of trade bait is pretty low, too.

I narrowed it down to two choices very quickly:

Allen & Ginter and Archives.

Now, I have enough for two blasters. So I could select one of each. It's my first time opening either of them, so I'd find enjoyment in both. But maybe I should buy two of one and scrap the other. I can find good reasons for doing that, too.

So I'm asking you to help me decide. Get one of each? Get two A&G boxes? Get two Archives boxes?

Here are the plusses and minuses of each product according to my box-opening emotions:

ALLEN & GINTER

Plusses:

-- It's a tradition for me to open at least a blaster of A&G every year. I've done that since 2008 (with a year off in 2020).

-- I still like the product, it's always an interesting rip.

-- The minis -- still trying to finish off that frankenset.

-- The inserts, especially the mini inserts, are the best part of A&G now.

-- I really want some of those base cards with the '70s players on them.

-- The possibility of an autograph or relic is pretty good.

-- I don't own any of the Dodgers so the box would be an instant success as long as I pull at least one Dodger.

 

Minuses:

-- The non-baseball player subject matter has really taken a nose-dive the last five years. 

-- I haven't been very enthused about the A&G designs the last few years. Nothing measures up to 2008.

-- As much as I defend A&G to haters, I admit the player poses get very repetitive. I swear they've used the same Walker Buehler pose for every set since he came into the league.

-- I'd be pretty frustrated if I didn't pull any '70s players or good inserts.

-- There are at least a couple reused images in this set from 2021 (Andre Dawson, Carl Yastrzemski) and pulling them would set me off.

ARCHIVES

Plusses:

-- Seeing those familiar designs is still kinda fun.

-- I like some of the retired players in the set and sometimes when I ignore Archives I regret it a year or two later when I see an Archives card of Lou Brock or someone and am sad it's not in my collection.

-- It's easier to pull an autograph out of this product than almost any other (I know I've done it a couple of times), and the Fan Favorites subjects are usually cool. Ones I'd love to pull include George Foster, Ray Knight, Ron Darling, Pedro Guerrero, Jimmy Key and Manny Trillo, aside from the obvious big-star ones.

Minuses:

-- The bleeping 1987 design. Every third card would be irksome.

-- I have all but one of the Dodgers cards in the base set already.

-- The parallels in this set don't do it for me, something weird about colored border on a '63 or '78 card.

-- I'd be stuck with cards of Washington Nationals and other similar teams with zero use for them.

So, there you go. While you decide, I'll display some recent single-card pick-ups:

All of those have come from different avenues. The highlights are the 1970 Topps Frank Robinson (obviously), the 1975 Kellogg's Garry Maddox, the One-Year-Wonder Roy Gleason card (I've wanted that for a long time), and the Mookie Betts Flashiest Feet, which has been swiped out of my cart at least twice over the last several months.

All right, that's all I've got. Let me know what I should do in the comments.

I know, I know, "buy what you want!" I just thought it would be fun this way.

Even though I'm going to buy what I want anyway. 😏