Over the last decade, Topps has had a lot of success with retro themed products retooled with modern players. Like the enormously successful Heritage line, Archives is very much about using the history of the brand to market the product as something that nostalgic collectors will like to open. Although I dont think it has the following that Heritage does, its a product that A LOT of people look forward to.

Here are some of the big hits up so far:

2016 Topps Archives Carlos Correa Auto Red /50

2016 Topps Archives Kenta Maeda Auto RC

2016 Topps Archives Bryce Harper Auto SSP

2016 Topps Archives Darryl Strawberry Auto Red /50

The crown jewel of this year’s product is another set of cards based around a movie, similar to what we saw with Major League a few years ago. This time, Kevin Costner and the crew from Bull Durham are featured, including autographs of the bigger named actors from the film. Although Major League was a big deal, there are two Baseball themed movies that EVERYONE can quote the entire script. One is Field of Dreams, another Costner movie, and the other is this cult classic that follows a minor league farm club through the trials and tribulations of a season.

Here are the big names to look for:

2016 Topps Archives Kevin Costner Auto SSP

2016 Topps Archives Susan Sarandon Auto

2016 Topps Archives Tim Robbins Auto Red /50

Getting the rights to use the film’s cast in costume, as well as finding a way to get Robbins, Sarandon, and Costner to all hard sign their cards is pretty impressive. I am not going to lie, this is a set that I have a huge nostalgic connection to.

Another gem of this product is the usage of the 1991 Topps Desert Shield base set as a case hit SSP parallel. These cards are in the original design with the foil stamp, and as someone who had a few back in the day, this is pretty special. I remember buying the Kirby Puckett at a show in the mid 90s, and I think I might still have it somewhere in my collection. The originals can sell for a good price, and its cool to see them brought back as a quirky addition to the archives set.

The rest of the product features hard signed autographs across the entire set, and many of the fan favorite cards are as cool as they always are. Even though there is no 1500 dollar Will Ferrell card this time around, Archives is always worth at least ripping one box. You never know what fun stuff will show up, and thats what makes this such a great set every year.