With a simple premise devised over thirty years ago at the end of the junk era, Topps is finally releasing the popular hobby product, Topps Archives. The newest iteration of Topps Archives became available on Wednesday.
First created as a 330-card reprint set, Topps Archives first debuted in 1991 as Topps Archives 1953, a reprint of Topps’ 1953 product. A year later, Topps regained the licensing rights to the NBA after losing them following the 1981-82 season. Topps released the Topps Archives set for the 1992-93 NBA season using the Topps Baseball designs from 1981 through 1991 to create a 150-card set of what Topps dubbed to be the “lost rookies” for a league that was filled with a few dozen future members of the Basketball Hall of Fame. The next Topps Archives came in 1994 as the product debuted for the NFL as Topps reprinted their 1956 and 1957 Topps Football sets.
Topps continued to go back to the reprint-modeled releases later in 1994 for MLB, again in 2001 for both MLB and the NFL, and in 2002 for MLB only. The reprint products weren’t very well received and the Archives set was rebranded in 2003 as Topps All-Time Fan Favorites, a set of retired baseball players using various Topps Baseball card designs, but with never before used player pictures.
The Topps All-Time Fan Favorites product was more highly received by the hobby and lasted through 2005. These releases more closely resembled the current Topps Archives products than the early reprint releases that mostly landed with a thud.
In 2012, Topps resurrected their Archives product using a simple formula: a product that features the game’s biggest stars and rookies combined with hall of famers and legends while using three different classic cards designs from previous Topps releases. Included in the new Topps Archives release were certified autographs from a handful of fan-favorite players with a gold All-Time Fan Favorites stamp.
For the 2022 Topps Archives release, Topps is bringing to market its largest Topps Archives set to date, featuring 380 cards with the last 80 cards in the set short-printed, and using card designs from 1963, 1978, and 1987. Topps has really been going all in on the revered 1987 card design having featured it prominently in inserts from their Topps and Topps Chrome releases to commemorate the product’s 35th anniversary, as well as in 2017 to celebrate the 30th anniversary.
The Topps Archives release features multiple inserts such as the 1961 Topps MVPs that highlight current award winners, 1992 Topps Major League Debuts using the subtle early ‘90s design that combines current and retired players, and 2005 Topps Draft Picks that are used to feature some of 2022’s biggest rookies.
As usual, the Topps Archives product features a significant variety of autographs. The Fan Favorites Autographs features 67 current and retired players on card designs from 1953, 1960, 1972, 1983, 1993, and 2010. There are 1992 Topps Major League Debuts and 2005 Topps Draft Picks Autographs, 1988 Topps Big Foil and Mini Autographs based on the 1988 oversized card release, 1961 Topps MVP Autographs, and much more.
The Mets cards featured throughout the set has something to offer for every generation of Mets fan. Below is a full checklist of all of the Mets cards featured in the set.
Base
7 Mike Piazza – 1963
37 Max Scherzer – 1963
76 Keith Hernandez – 1963
114 Chris Bassitt – 1978
146 Francisco Lindor – 1978
151 Jacob deGrom – 1978
194 Tylor Megill – 1978 (rookie card)
208 Nick Plummer – 1987 (rookie card)
209 Starling Marte – 1987
225 Pete Alonso – 1987
234 David Wright -1987
240 Tom Seaver – 1987
304 Pete Alonso – 1955 Topps Scoop
309 Francisco Lindor – 1955 Topps Scoop
350 Nolan Ryan 2005 Topps Draft Picks
1963 Background Replacement Variations
7 Mike Piazza
37 Max Scherzer
1978 Design Variations
146 Francisco Lindor
151 Jacob deGrom
1988 Topps Big Foil
88BF-33 Nolan Ryan
1988 Topps Big Minis
88BM-33 Nolan Ryan
1988 Topps Big Minis Autographs
Nolan Ryan (numbered to 20)
Fan Favorites Autographs
53FF-NR Nolan Ryan – 1953
60FF-EC Endy Chavez – 1960
72FF-RK Ray Knight – 1972
83FF-DJ Davey Johnson – 1983
93FF-RD Ron Darling -1993
Topps 1993 All-Stars Dual Autographs
93AS-WA Pete Alonso/David Wright
Topps Originals Autographs
David Wright (numbered to 10)
Topps Postcards
PC-5 Francisco Lindor
