Topps Archives Promotion - Week 2 - My Story

I made my way over to my local card shop (LCS) on Tuesday to see if I could take advantage of the most recent Topps Archives Promotion.  This one was supposed to feature Series 2 flagship preview packs that contained a special parallel in each pack. I dutifully smiled at the LCS owner and said, "I have a present for you!" It was 600-count box of "old" 1980s cardboard to swap for the packs!

 The promotion states that to receive the special promotional packs you must trade in '80s Topps cards.  No problem!  I went through my cards from '87, '88, and '89 (the years I first started collecting) and pulled aside all of my triples.  Man, did I buy a TON of junk wax back in the day.  It was nice to relive my youth a bit as I found a nice assortment of record breaker cards, turn-back-the-clock cards, draft picks, all-stars, future stars, and cards of players who are now in the Hall of Fame to donate.

The owner said without a smile, "I don't want your junk wax." 

But, I didn't want it either!  I explained how I was hoping that Topps would take all of the 1980s card donations and find a way to distribute them to young kids, the future of the card collecting world, across the nation. What a better way to boost interest in collecting than to hand out free cards to youngsters!

He reluctantly took my cards and handed me a couple of the above pictured promotional packs.  Content that I had something to rip open, I thanked him and went to sift through his Cubs box.

Here's where it gets good.  A twelve or thirteen-year-old and his mom walk into the store while I'm there and they take their time perusing the store.  The kid seemed lost and it didn't appear as though he was focused on anything special in general.  I thought to myself, "Must be new to the hobby."  I picked up a couple more things, checked out, and went about my day.

I went back in on Wednesday, which was Series 2 release date, to pick up a pack and shoot the bull with the owner.  (The owner is a Cardinals fan, but he's great to talk baseball with.) As it turns out, he ended up giving my 600 cards from the '80s to that same boy that was in the store shortly after I left!

Awesome!

I pared down my collection a tad, the owner of the LCS didn't have to take on any junk wax, and some kid received an already collated box of cards that were twice as old as him!

Man, what I would have done for some cards that were twenty-five years old when I first started collecting!  I hope this kid latches onto the hobby, and if so I hope my cards helped in that decision.

By now you're probably wondering what was is the shiny promotional packs.  Cool.  Show-and-tell time.

Base cards of Topps Series 2 for starters:

 

Then at the back of each pack there was a blue sparkly parallel!  Man, do I love some blue sparkles!

Although none of my eight base cards in the two packs stood out, I do think I did okay with my two blue sparkle cards: Bryce Harper and Matt Cain.

I don't have much of Bryce in my collection, so he'll stay with me, and I think Mr. Cain will be the beginning of a new pile of Giants trade fodder for my favorite collector in the 92688.

I hope everyone who was looking for the Week 2 promotional packs was able to score one or two.  Thanks for stopping by to see how I did and I'm also glad I could share my little story with you.