Giving Topps the finger right back

My Saturday post about Topps Giving Collectors the Finger got more attention than any non-contest post I've written in quite a while.  Well, guess what?  My family decided to give Topps the finger right back by not buying Topps cards for me for Father's Day!  How do you like that Topps!?

Instead of Topps cards, I got...Bowman and Archives.

Wait...those are Topps products.

That's what happens when people who never buy cards, buy cards.  They don't understand that you're only going to find Topps cards on the shelf. (I've given explicit instructions to NEVER buy Panini.)  So imagine how proud they were to present me with a Bowman value rack pack (value..right) and an Archives blaster.  Like any good collector, I didn't bust their little bubble and I tore right into the packs.  

The Bowman value pack gave up another Silver Ice parallel.  Sure it's only a Padre named James Darnell, but it still looks nice and I can trade it easily enough.

I also pulled a Matt Adams sticker auto.  Well, it says it's Matt Adams, but you won't get that from the signature. Those were the only two cards of interest for the most part.  I did get the three purple parallels, but I didn't recognize any of the players.

Now on to the Archives Blaster.  It was pretty boring overall.

The first pack revealed a Mike Napoli Deckle Edge insert.  I won't argue with that, even if I did get another one later that day in a package from a certain Braves fan who will be named later.

The next 6 packs were rather pedestrian and I won't bore you with any of them, even the Rainbow Foil Cole Hamels.  The last pack was much less boring.

The first card was this Josh Hamilton base card.  This one looks great and I'm glad to have another copy.  I think I'll send one off hoping for a TTM.

The pack did contain one of my favorite inserts of the year, a Matt Kemp 3D card.  These actually scan pretty well and I'm probably going to try to put this set together.

The last pack also had this BJ Upton jersey card.  Like most of you, I'm not buying blasters for the relics or autos, but it's nice to hit one now and then, even if' it's not a player on your favorite team.  Tradeable cards are like currency on the blogosphere and I already have a home in mind for this card.  Not even giving retail buyers a chance at a hit is a pretty sorry way to distribute cards, but who is going to stop a big company like Topps.  Especially when certain related persons don't realize there is a buying freeze going on and a certain collector has made a point to say he doesn't want to buy more new product.

Oh well, I still love busting packs and I couldn't resist.  Maybe next time my willpower will be stronger.