2024 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #95FF-TW Red #/10

Card Review: 8.9

It's very close, but I'm calling this "Red" variation my third favorite behind the white "base" (not sure it's fair to call it "base" as it is an insert and not part of the set) and "Blue" variations.  I will say that this red looks better in hand than it does in the scan.

With this "Red" variation, I am now in possession of at least one copy of each of the variations that are available.  I've heard it referred to as "completing the rainbow," but as the son of a public high school art teacher, I have far too much respect for the color spectrum to feel good about describing an assortment of white, green, two similar shades of gold, red and blue as a "rainbow."  That said, I'm definitely going to set aside my misgivings and call it a "rainbow" when I post about it on bluesky (and maybe here).

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2024 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #95FF-TW Gold #/50

Card Review: 8.0

This "Gold" Archives Auto is numbered out of #/50 and is the fifth variation of this card that I've added.  All that remains is the "Red" version numbered out of #/10.  I rated this card the lowest of the five and that probably isn't entirely fair.  I think I'm just tired of them at this point.  Had this been the first one I picked up after the base card, it probably would have made a better first impression.  

I will add that I find it to be entirely too similar in color to the "1/1 Superfractor," from a distance you can't really tell them apart.  I would have preferred a brighter, less similar color, like a neon pink or orange, or a pastel purple or something.  A '91 Fleer yellow would be cool.  This gold is basically the "Superfractor" without the microchip texture all over it.

Something I do find to be a positive about these color variation autographed cards is the back.  The back has a very matte finish.  It's great, so great in fact, that it's frustrating.  To know that Topps has the ability to make "modern" baseball cards with raw matte backs, not exactly the same as, but certainly similar to the backs used for their first fifty years bugs me.  Why can't they do this as the standard back in the base set?  I would describe these backs as almost the same in feel as 1992 Topps, maybe a little better, but a little natural evolution in card stock quality is to be expected.  The only explanation I can come up with is a concern that the matte backs could "damage" the card surface of the the adjacent card in a pack?  Which, if is the case, just irritates me more.  Kids today need to get over their condition obsession.

In any event, I'm happy to add this, and at the risk of providing spoilers, barring a mistake by the post office a post about the "Red" variation should be appearing on this blog shortly.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2024 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #95FF-TW Superfractor #/1

Card Review: 8.7

This is it, the 2024 Topps Archives one of one "Superfractor."  And,...I guess it's okay.  I paid nearly three as as much as I ever had for a single Wallach card to own it (2005 Topps Rookie Cup Relic being the previous owner of that title) and I guess I'm okay with that?  When I saw this pop on eBay I immediately did a search to see what others were selling for.  The results weren't encouraging.  Guys I consider to be relatively anonymous players were coming in at around $400, which was a non-starter for me.  Regardless I went had and set a bid at $102 and walked away.  To my surprise, that was more than enough and the final auction price came in at just under $90.  Do I feel that's an insane price to pay for a baseball card printed in 2024, yes absolutely.  Had I known I was actually going to win the auction would I have bid that much?  Probably not.  My intention was to lose, post the pictures from the auction and blog about that.  But here I am, with my first "superfractor" in hand.

So what do I think?  I think it's okay.  The base card with the white border is still the best looking of these by a wide margin.  For purely display purposes, that's the one to go with.  I like this variation better than the green but not as much as the blue.  Though I don't have them in hand (and am not awaiting them in the mail either), I expect I'll like red better than than this and the gold looks about the same.  But I'll hold off to judge until, or if, I ever pick up the other two variations.  The ones currently for sale are asking nearly as much as I paid for this thing.

My primary complaint with this card is the sort of microchip pattern that the entire thing is covered in.  It's lame.  Worse yet, it's not limited to the border, it covers the enitire card.  To use the name of great new punk band out of the bay area, "Who Asked for This?" (check them on out spotify).

Number of this card in my collection: 1

OFFICIALLY HAVE THEM ALL.

2024 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #95FF-TW Green #/99

 

Card Review: 8.1

This is the "Green" variation of the 2024 Fan Favorites Archives.  These are numbered out of 99 copies.  It's now the third 2024 Archives I've added, along with the standard white border copy, and the blue "color match" variation numbered out of 25.  The green border just doesn't work well with the Expos baby blue uniforms.  Whenever I see these various border color variations, or pattern variations on Topps cards (typically in the base set every year, usually not ones that include Wallach) my first instinct is to imagine how they would look as a standard set design.  Sometimes I think they would work, more often, I don't.  That's not rooted in any hatred of brightly colored borders, I give them all a fair chance.  For instance, I love 1991 Fleer (yellow) and 1991 Donruss Series 2 (green).  I can't stand 1990 Donruss (red) or 1991 Donruss Series 1 (blue).  And sometimes I'm just sort of indifferent to them, like say 1986 Fleer (navy blue).  So I do feel my assesment is coming from a relatively unbiased place when I say this green just doesn't work for me, with this particular photo and likely wouldn't as a set either.  A final note, these borders have sort of a shiny, oil on water shimmer to them, as well as the top half of the card, that sort of fades to a more standard matte finish where the autograph is.  I actually kind of like it as a gimmick, but would find it offensive as an actual set.

In any event, there are three more of these variations out there, a gold (#/50), red (#/10), and single "superfractor" wonka ticket variation.  I know they're out there, but at the moment, the seller's on eBay want them more than I do.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2024 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #95FF-TW Blue #/25

Card Review: 9.0 

I've seen this card labeled as "color match" instead of "blue," in fact, that's how the listing on eBay I purchased it from titled it.  The baseball card database however is calling it "blue," and that makes more sense to me, so I'm calling it "blue" as well.  These blue variations are numbered out of 25, making it scarcer than the green (#/99) and gold (#/50), but more abundant that the red (#/10) and the 1 of 1 "superfractor."  

Currently I only have this and the basic one in hand, with a green on the way, but I've seen photos of all of them and the standard (regular?) version is the best looking by a wide margin.  Which, makes these a little unnecessary and redundant, doesn't it?  Then again, all of these are inserts and not part of the actual Archives checklist, so they're all sort of gimmick cards without a set to call home.  

In any event, personal distaste for inserts and on card autographs aside, it is more or less still a baseball card made by Topps that says "Tim Wallach" on both sides and has his picture on it, so I'll try to collect them all, though there is no universe where I actually pay any sort of premium to add the red or "superfractor" variations.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2024 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #95FF-TW

Card Review: 9.3 This is the first "new" Tim Wallach card Topps has put out since the 2019 Archives set, which included Wallach in the "Montreal Expos 50th" subset.  This card is done in the style of a 1995 Topps, and I'd call it a significant improvement over the original, which wasn't bad to begin with.  It's really a very nice looking card.  The vintage Expos baby blues work really well with this design (but they look so good they work well with just about any design).  By 1995 the Expos had stopped wearing these uniforms in favor of the bland grey script jerseys on the road, and Wallach was in his third year with the Dodgers regardless.  

The front photo of this card is as nice as any Topps ever put on a Wallach card.  While I can't prove it, I'll go ahead and say with an enormous degree of conifidence that this photo was taken during the same game, if not same at-bat, as the photo used on Wallach's 1990 Topps card (more photos below for comparison).  At some point I may get around to photo shopping this photo onto the 1990 card.  The primary back photo looks very familiar, but I couldn't place it to a card.  A quick google search shows it to be a Getty Image from 1988.

My nitpicks, to the extent that I have any, are two fold. The first is the autograph.  I know I'm fighting not just a losing battle, but a full on lost cause here, but I can't stand autographs on cards.  Ten year old kids getting a card autographed by a player at the ball park is great, I can name every player that ever signed for my brother and I as a kid.  But cards out of the pack shouldn't have sharpie or pen marks on them.  They're just a blemish, and the wrong kind of blemish (as in not a wax or gum stain, which of course are fine).  My second tiny complaint is with the tiny action photo on the back.  We've seen it before.  It's the photo used by Topps for Wallach's 2017 Archives card.  The guy played 13 seasons in Montreal, there's enough photographic evidence of it that Topps doesn't need to double up.

All in all, I am very pleased with the release of this card, and will make an effort to track down a sample of each of the two or three dozen variations that Topps probably made of it, so long as the prices aren't too insane.  So far I've seen four different colored and numbered variations, but I suspect there are more.  I'll update when I learn something definitive.

Number of this card in my collection: 2

Photo Comparisons

   

Original 1995 Topps vs. 2024 Topps Archives

 

Original 1995 Topps back vs. 2024 Topps Archives back

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1990 Topps, photo taken at Shea Stadium, likely from same game.  Notice the batting gloves.

 

Getty Image from 1988 used for card back.  Small action photo on 2017 Archives below.

History of Topps Archives Fan Favorites Tim Wallach Autos:

   

2003 Topps Archives (left), 2017 Topps Archives (right)

2019 Topps Archives (left), 2024 Topps Archives (right)

Chad Wallach 2021 Topps #593

Card Review: Very Cool

Since the advent of this blog, I've refrained from giving the cards (up until recently, entirely minor league cards) of the Wallach kids number grades the way I do Tim Wallach cards.  I also don't keep track of how many copies I have.  That said, I'm always excited when a new card of one of the three "kids" crosses my desk.  This is the second year in a row that Topps has included Chad in the base set.  It should be at least the fourth, a fact I think Topps tacitly admitted last year when rather than showing the stats of Chad's previous three seasons on the back of the card, they showed his minor league stats.  This year collector's are finally allowed to see all Chad's major league stats on the back of the card, and give him a nice little write up.  Still no mention of the fact that is father was a 5x All-Star over 17 MLB seasons, but going with Chad's post-season success is a more meritocratic write up.

Hopefully Chad does well enough this Spring with the Angels down at Tempe Diablo Stadium to earn a spot on the roster and a spot in the 2022 Topps set.  Despite being shorted a couple of cards in the 2018 and 2019 sets, Topps has given Chad a nice tandem of cards to show for his MLB time.

Chad Wallach 2020 Topps #658

Card Review: Awesome

It took longer than it should have, but one of the Wallach kids finally has his own Topps Baseball card.  Before I get into critiquing this card, I feel the need to point out how exciting it is to finally see this happen.  Any of the nitpicking that is about to follow is just that, nitpicking.  Hopefully this won't be Chad's last appearance in the base set.

That said, and I do love the fact that this card now exists, here are my issues with it.  First off, what in the world is going on with this stat line?

That'd be a fine way to handle Chad's stats, had 2020 been in a normal season, and Chad had made the roster coming out of Spring Training and made his Major League debut this year, earning himself a spot in the 2nd series of the Topps flagship set.  That happens every year.  However, this isn't Chad's first MLB rodeo.  When he checks into a game this season, it'll be the fourth Major League season he's played in.  This is is what baseball reference shows for Wallach:

 Chad already had three seasons worth of MLB stats coming into the 2020 season.  Just because Topps was asleep at the wheel and didn't include him in the base set until now, doesn't mean those seasons didn't happen.  And sure, they don't reflect a ton of playing time, but as any kid who ever picked up a glove and didn't make it to the majors can attest to, every one of those 117 plate appearances counts.  He actually played five times as many games in the Majors last season as he did the minors, but some how Topps felt the need to show us a split minor league line of 4 games between two different farm clubs.  It's ridiculous.

My next issue is with the bio.  For one, it's wrong.  Take a look:

2019 wasn't Chad's first Opening Day roster.  Not only was he on the Opening Day roster in 2018, he was the Opening Day starter for the Marlins in an 8-4 loss to the Cubs.  Again, this just feels like someone at Topps trying to cover up the fact that they screwed up by not including Wallach in the set the last three years.  He certainly warranted inclusion in the Update sets.

The other odd thing about the bio is what's not there.  It's certainly nice to see a young players college listed on the back, or an extra stat like how many base runners they threw out, at least it is when there isn't anything more interesting to say about the guy.  Maybe I'm biased, but if a kid gets his first Topps card, and his father happened to be a 5x All-Star, or even just a coach on the team the kid plays for (let alone both), that's something I would have been interested in.

That said, I'm very happy this card finally exists.

1990 Topps Stickers #74

Card Review: 3.5  1990 was the first year that O-Pee-Chee didn't do a sticker set as well, or Topps didn't do an OPC set, I'm not sure which one is the tail wagging the dog.  In any event, this Topps Sticker is the only one.  It's just a couple of weird looking photos on the front.  That's Mike Greenwell sharing the front with Wallach, and Wade Bogss on the back as the "super star."  Wallach was also given the "super star" treatment in this set.  I don't know if they exists, but I'd love to find a Wallach Sticker with the Wallach Super Star back.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2016 update: 2

2017 update: n/a

2017 update: n/a

2018 update: n/a

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 3

1993 Topps Micro #570

Card Review: Incomplete  This thing is tiny.  Just ridiculously small.  Too small to be graded as a "card."  It's a novelty item for all intents and purposes.  If I remember correctly these were sold in box sets that resembled a skinny tube of toothpaste box.  I never bought one because while I wanted the Wallach, I didn't need the other 824 cards in the set ('93 Topps was huge).  This is the 5th, and I believe final, variation of the 1993 Topps base card that I've posted.  If you click this all five will pull up, plus the '93 Topps Traded which, mercifully, didn't  come with any variations.

Number of this "card" in my collection: 1
2013 update: 2

1987 Topps Stickers #80

Card Review:  3.1  This is more or less identical to the '87 O-Pee-Chee Stickers.  I prefer the OPC red back to the blue, even though I can't read any of the French on the OPC.  Once again that's Steve Buechele on the card with Wallach.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 4
2014 update: n/a
2015 update: 5
2016 update: 6
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: n/a
2019 update: 5 (must have stuck one somewhere)

2020 update: 12

2021 update: 14

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: n/a

2024 update: 15

1986 Topps Tiffany #703 N.L. All-Star

Card Review: 9.1  I love the base card version of this.  For the most part, when I look at these Tiffany cards, I can't help but think how much better today's cards would look on traditional card stock.  This is a nice card, but the gloss adds nothing.

At the time of writing this, this is my only one of this card, and something took a small bite out of the lower left corner.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2013 update: 3

1984 Topps Stickers #94

Card Review: 8.0  I really like the Wallach photo on this sticker.  They should have used it for his base card in '84, which was in effect identical to the one they used in '83 and would use again in '85 and '86.  At some point I'll get around to making some "fake" cards on photoshop, and putting this photo onto the 1984 Topps card will be one of the firs that I do.

Roy Thomas , the other guy on this sticker, appeared in parts of 8 different seasons with 3 different teams over an 11 year period.  Appearing on this Wallach sticker was the highlight of his career (presumably).

Number of this card in my collection: 4
2013 update: 6
2014 update: 7
2016 update: 8
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: n/a
2019 update: 10

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: n/a

2023 update: 11

2024 update: 12

1988 Topps File Folder

 I don't know how many of these were done, obviously fewer than the 792 cards that make up '88 Topps set, but more than a handful.  I'd guess in the neighborhood of about 25.  I remember having a few of these as a kid (never the Wallach), though for the life of me I can't remember who.  I think I had a few of the '89 ones too.  As far as I know this was the only one put out of Wallach.  I currently have 14 of them.  13 kept in the box they came in, and one that I stuff other odd-ball Wallach related items in.

I picked up my first one sometime in undergrad.  It was a period of time during which my collecting was almost non-existent.  I had other ways to waste time then that I found much more entertaining.  I lugged one of these around for a couple of semesters until it finally fell apart.  After Law School, I slowly resumed collecting, as my previous ways of wasting time were no longer acceptable, and stumbled upon a guy selling these and I gladly took them off his hands.