2023 Archives blaster and ‘23 Update set

 Well, I did go to Wal-Mart last night and got to pick up a blaster of Archives. It was a fun break, and felt like I got like 5 cards of 3 or 4 teams and zero of others. 

The Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, and Cardinals were the first of the teams that I kept pulling. The Maddux is an insert which has Smoltz on the back. It is yours if you need it, John. Wish I would’ve pulled some of these before I went to the post office, but oh well. 

The Giants, and Rat-Birds were 2 of the other ones I got tons of. 

The only Tigers or Rays I pulled were Taj Bradley and Miguel Cabrera. No players I collect, but some decent rookie names. The Baby Boomer Josh Jung is sweet, and while I can’t stand the Rat-Birds, the rookies I pulled are good ones. 

2 hot New York rookies close out the blaster. 

I got home from work today and expected to put some Brewers cards into TCDB. Instead, there was a big package in the mailbox, and I was pretty sure it was the 2023 Topps Update set that I had ordered on Tuesday night. Somehow in 2-3 hours, I got the cards into TCDB, separated the rookies, guys I collect, Rays and Tigers, and then Kyler helped me organize them into teams. 

When I got the 2023 Topps set, I noted the number of rookies compared to everything else, and I can say the Update set is worse. Here is the set broken down for you. 

L-R we have rookies, AL, NL, Rays, Tigers, players I collect, 1 card for the highlight binder, and 1 Stephen Strasburg sunset card. Also keep in mind the Rays, Tigers, and PC stacks had a few rookies in them as well. Over half the set was rookies. I know because I put them all in penny sleeves and went through over 1 1/2 packs. I’m not an investor or anything, but I really wish they would put more guys in the set besides rookies. Either put the whole team in the set or take half of the rookies out. If they would’ve had this many rookies in the 2021 or 2022 set, I might have more Brody Koerner cards to chase. 

On the bright side, while I have purchased a number of blasters this year, just logging cards into TCDB has shown me that either the number of inserts and ratio of pulling them is down this year, or I have got less packs this year. One thing Im really proud of is that I only purchased 1 hanging pack of Series 2 and nothing from Update. Cut down on the doubles but missed out on inserts. I can live with that. 

We’ll see how far I get with the TCDB project next week. I’ll be happy with a few hours and then I’ll get back into the swing of things after the holiday. If I don’t post before then, be kind to retail employees and have a nice thanksgiving. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy