I have not always been a high end autograph chaser like I am today, especially 15-20 years ago when I was going to shows with my dad. Because of the changes in the way autographs are sold, as well as a shift in what I find desirable, I don’t collect cards that aren’t autographed anymore. However, after opening a few packs of 2012 Topps Archives, I felt that nostalgia tugging at my mindset flipping through the stacks of cards. Honestly, it felt like I was at the card shows, sorting through thousands of cards in a box on a table, seeing numerous examples of new players on the cards I loved as a kid. It was 1992 all over again for me.

Now that 2012 Archives is live, people like I am now, probably wont think twice about the cards that make up the base set. Yet, I can tell you that there is a lot of content that will be right in their wheelhouse too. For all the other people that still collect the old Topps sets, and find those memories stashed away in the back of their mind, this might be the set created specifically for them. It’s a perfect storm of old iconic designs combined with an incredible checklist of fan favorite players.

The best part of this set for me, has to be the on card autographs on the retro designs, something that I have wanted Topps to do in football and baseball for a LONG time. The Darvish that is signed on a 1986 Topps design is particular poignant for me, if not only because I have maybe 40 Twins from this design in a shoebox at my parents house. It was the set I bought the most of, I just liked everything about it. To tell you the truth, I still do.

Topps has a number of other cards signed on ridiculously iconic designs, some of which are selling quite well:

2012 Archives Willie Mays Auto SSP

2012 Archives Don Mattingly Auto SP

2012 Archives Cecil Fielder Auto

I also think that adding SSPs to the base set is a huge plus to get high end chasers involved, especially in the case of Bryce Harper and other veterans. It’s a very difficult thing to make a base card valuable these days, but unannounced SSPs are always enough to do the trick without adding cost to the production of the product.

Its really too bad that Griffey and Frank Thomas weren’t more of a factor in the solicitation of this product, as these cards are designed from right around the time they were rookies. Additionally, adding on card autographs of Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron on their highly collected 1960’s and 1970’s cards are huge draws. These are the cards that people’s mom threw out with the trash, and to bring back the designs with on card autographs is awesome.

There are no doubt some duds on the autograph checklist, but I think that in the end, the autographs are just there to attract collectors that wouldn’t normally appreciate this type of product. The autographs in archives are still pretty impressive in the fact that they are all done on card, something that enhances the collector experience with a retro product. In the past, Topps might have done stickers, and with stickers, this wouldn’t get the same amount of attention. In my opinion, the addition of a label to a retro card sullies its accuracy and detracts from the overall appeal. Like adding a NoS injection system to a 67 Shelby Cobra. Don’t get me wrong, people might say that the addition of an autograph itself does that on its own, but I am not a fundamentalist in the addition of content that bends to the nature of the hobby these days.

The big hit for 2012 Archives is the availability to pull redemptions for entire uncut sheets of old Topps sets, including one with a Nolan Ryan Rookie on it. One redemption has already been posted on eBay as we speak. These are the pieces of memorabilia that rarely ever make it onto the market, and I know a lot of people that want them enough to pay through the nose to get one.

In the grand scheme of things, this set might eventually become unimportant, but for now, it’s a cool set to add to the mix. Topps has already had enormous success with Heritage, but the cards are only from one year. It doesn’t cast a wide net, and many of the people who collect today were not alive back then to appreciate a product based almost entirely on the sixties. I think that 2012 Archives does a much better job grabbing the attention of the baby boomers’ children who lived through the collecting boom of the late 80s and early 1990s.

I cant wait to find out what happens 20 years from now with the cards we collect today.