I recently received a large group of 2001 Topps Archives from The Cardboard Junkie in exchange for some Allen and Ginter mad money and I've been enjoying sorting through the cards and mystified by some of the choices that Topps made in picking cards to include in the set.
While most of the cards in this memorable set are just reprinted versions with a nice gold foil stamp on the front, when it came to many of the rookie cards of the stars of yesteryear Topps created basically a whole new card. They eliminated the "riff-raff" from the multiple player cards that were so common in the 60's and 70's and so, for example, Rod Carew's rookie card originally included Hank Allen:
Although I don't really like the white washing of baseball card history but it gives us a new variation on those classic cards. So here is a collection of the original cards and the updated 2001 Archives variation.
Fred Lynn
George Foster
Ron Guidry
Paul Blair
Tony Conigliaro
Bob Uecker
Tony Perez
Ron Swoboda
Sam McDowell
Al Hrabosky
Mark Fidrych
Carlton Fisk
Denny Martinez
Larry Bowa
While most of the cards in this memorable set are just reprinted versions with a nice gold foil stamp on the front, when it came to many of the rookie cards of the stars of yesteryear Topps created basically a whole new card. They eliminated the "riff-raff" from the multiple player cards that were so common in the 60's and 70's and so, for example, Rod Carew's rookie card originally included Hank Allen:
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| 1967 Topps #569 |
In 2001 Archives we get a photo shopped version of just Rod as if Hank didn't exist.
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| 2001 Topps Archives #49 |
Fred Lynn
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| 1975 Topps #622 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #298 |
George Foster
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| 1971 Topps #276 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #287 |
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| 1976 Topps #599 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #300 |
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| 1965 Topps #473 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #270 |
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| 1964 Topps #287 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #324 |
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| 1962 Topps #594 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #265 |
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| 1965 Topps #581 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #273 |
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| 1965 Topps #533 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #274 |
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| 1962 Topps #591 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #263 |
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| 1971 Topps #594 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #268 |
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| 1977 Topps #7 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #302 |
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| 1972 Topps #79 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #290 |
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| 1977 Topps #491 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #78 |
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| 2001 Topps Archives #254 |
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| 1970 Topps #539 |
Comments
Of course, I might be the only one.
That being said, if they're only going to have one player on a card, I'd rather they create an ersatz "regular" card of the player than these goofy Rookie Stars cards. But that's just me.
...But I'd also buy the cards that Night Owl proposes in his comments.
One of the great charms of the old multi-player rookie cards is seeing the 'other guys' on the card of a star.
And I don't think most of those pics translate well after being 'blown up' and stuck on a large area.