1993 Topps Bip Roberts Season Highlights

Bip Roberts is a fan favorite among card collectors. He appeared on Topps cards throughout his career, but did miss out on a sunset card, which I plan on making in the future. In 1993, Topps didn't make any season highlight cards, and they missed out on a chance to make a card celebrating Roberts getting 10 hits in a row. This is my take on what the card could've looked like. I got the photo from the YouTube video of the game where he got his 10th hit. Some highlights cards that Topps have made just have some random photo, instead of the photo from the actual moment, so I wanted to make sure I had a photo from the actual play instead of a random one.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Topps needs to scrap the current version of Archives and make it into a set of cards that never were. They could put this card in the set, and quadruple print it, and insert it into packs so you get 4 of the Roberts card in a row. I'm sure some collectors wouldn't appreciate Topps "Bipping" them, but I would totally enjoy the irony. I think eventually I'll do a post outlining what I think an Archives cards that never were set would look like and contain, and maybe even make a fake sell sheet of it. They could really put out a nice base set, have autographs of course, do a 1 in maybe 5 pack insert featuring a pair of players that mixes a regular Topps card with one that Topps didn't make. They could have a 1 of 1 card where you would win a complete Topps run of  a player (including cards that never were) that would be autographed. You could also do a Topps Chrome/Bowman Chrome/Finest insert, a "What if?" insert featuring cards highlighting scenerios that didn't happen (Jeter getting drafted by Astros in '92, Pujols getting traded to Padres in '00, Braves drafting Todd Van Poppel instead of Chipper Jones in '90, Bill Buckner making final out in the '86 World Series, and so on. They could do another kind of "What if?" set featuring what sets could've looked like if they had started out a year before they really did, like a '92 Finest set, a '95 Topps Chrome set, and a '96 Bowman's Best set. And to make things really interesting, have an insert set featuring team cards that never were, and include oddball relics on them (a Braves tomahawk, an Angels Rally Monkey, a pack of the Brewers secret sauce, some Cubs ivy, stuff like that), and make them maybe 10-50 in all and serial numbered. Just some ideas to make the Archives set something every type of collector (basically would collect). Who knows, some Draft Pick cards (Mike Trout, Madison Bumgartner, Kris Bryant) could start commanding crazy prices.

I hope you enjoyed the Bip card and my rant on Archives. Maybe someday Topps will listen...Thanks for checking out my blog.

-Jeremy