Topps Archives 2012 Box #1

I admit I'm a slow box breaker.  I know it's summer and I'm on vacation, but one's hobby shouldn't always take priority over family, friends, and adult responsibilities.  Not a big fan of the last one, thus my hobby of choice:  baseball cards!

I bought my first box of 2012 Topps Archives on the day of the product's release from my local card shop.  I told Randy, the owner who I have known for years, to pick me out a good box.  I happily paid, sat the box in the man room, and didn't touch it for nearly a week.  Yikes!  I started ripping yesterday and I finished early this morning. I would have posted earlier, but I had to take a drive back to my LCS to show off my haul to Randy and thank him for selecting the THAT particular box for me.  Randy asked me the following: "So what are you going to do with it?"

It?  Yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones.  Scroll on down to see what "it" is.

First the weird floating head stickers of Ian Kennedy, Jose Bautista, and Adrian Gonzalez:

Next, 3D cards of Babe, Matt Kemp, and Willie Mays:

Cloth stickers of Mr. October, George Brett, and recent injured Roy Halladay:

These are my first deckle edge cards.  I didn't even know what a deckle edge was until literally two weeks ago when I was asked to help pick out graduation announcements for the class of 2013.  I guess deckle edge is popular amongst graduates.  I give you Yaz and Ichiro:

Here are the reprints, which I think I'm going to chase:

Rainbow gold foil of Johnny Cueto and Lucas Duda:

Mickey Lolich and Frank Howard, my two Fan Favorites Autographs:

And lastly, the card that was foreshadowed at the beginning of the post.  The odds of pulling it are one out of 1,685 packs opened.  The card has sold on eBay for as little as $285 and as much as $455.  Yes, in case you were wondering, I did a victory lap around the house this morning after opening the pack.  Yu Darvish, on card autograph.  Nice.

This card will more than likely go up on eBay in the upcoming days unless someone has a different suggestion that seems logical and lucrative.  I've only sold one thing on eBay and I did okay the first time, so why not again?