Better Late, Than Never? You be the judge

Before I get to the first of two Archives blasters I finally found, I have to explain my absence. 

Part of it is some of the personal stuff I mentioned recently, but I've been ready to jump back into blogging and I miss the writing a lot, even if my writing will never compare to this gem.  The problem I'm running into is I'm really tired of scanning cards. 

Scan 5 or 6 cards, copy and paste, crop, resize, rename. Lather, rinse repeat. 

I know, it's a real first world problem.  I'll get over it.  In the meantime, I found a good phone app to help me do these pics much quicker. 

We now return to our regularly schedule programming, already in progress. 

As I said in yesterday's post (What, you missed the post I had yesterday?) I have to bust packs from time to time.   I'm sure many of you have that same deep seated need.  That just means that despite some of the negative reviews I've read about Archives, I had to see for myself.  Two blasters worth anyway.  I'll give you a look at my first blaster today. 

The first pack I opened was a pretty good pack for a Rangers fan.

I got Jurickson Profar and Ian Kinsler base cards in the first pack.  I also pulled a Leon Durham SP.  First impressions?  The 1985 design is ok.  I like 72 design and the 82 design is ok too.  I've never been a fan of the 1990 cards, but they can't all be perfect.  My 8 card pack also included 3 Red Sox players.  They were on two different designs, but both my Rangers were the 85 design.  I wonder about the rest of the Rangers base cards. 

Pack two revealed the 1:8 pack 4-in-1 sticker insert.  That's a quality lineup right there.  Does Kershaw really belong with those other three guys.  Yea, I think he does.  The rest of the pack was filled with base cards, none of which really stood out as great looking cards.  I'm on the fence about collecting the base set.  I'll see how many I have after two blasters. 

I got a nice surprise in pack three when this Ryne Sandberg gold parallel showed up.  It's #21/199 and these fall 1:85 packs.  This pack also had Matt Harrison on a 1982 design, so that answers my question about the Rangers designs.  I also got a Tim Salmon SP on a 1993 design. 

I only want three of the 1983 Topps All Stars inserts and I managed to pull one of them in my 4th pack.  Other than Johnny Bench, I'll be looking for the Carlton Fisk and Nolan Ryan cards. 

The Tall Boy set is nice, but I think I just want one of them.  Will Clark.  Yep, that's the one.  I'd like one of the Clark autographed Tall Boys too, but I think they are numbered to just 25.  Pack 5 also gave up the card below.  Let's examine it shall we. 

Texas Ranger Derek Holland.  1982 design.  Really awful mustache.  Wow.  I remember when Holland was sporting that thing last year and I'm glad Topps decided to immortalize it on cardboard.  Really, really thin, fake cardboard.  I think I'm going to mail one of these to Holland for a TTM. 

Pack 6.  Nothing to see here says All-Star Dave Winfield. 

Another interesting insert showed up pack 7.  Not interesting enough to make me want to collect the Dual Fan Favorites inserts, but I do need the Ruben Sierra/Nelson Cruz card.  This pack also had a Joe Nathan card.   Joe is on the 1982 design.  Ho hum. 

The last pack had this Trevor Cahill relic card.  Technically, it wasn't the last pack, but when I got to the pack it was obvious that it had a relic in it.  Due to the flimsy card stock of all the other cards, it was just easy to tell.  I don't know that I could have gotten a worse relic card.  At least for me. I do trade with a guy who might like this one though. 

Alright, the recap.  I got 52 base cards with no dupes and two SPs, which was the expected amount.  I got a relic, which only comes about 1:5 blasters and a gold parallel, which comes about 1:11 blasters or so. Not too bad I guess. 

I'm thinking I won't do as good with my second blaster.  I'm thinking that because I already opened it.