Topps SNL Archives: the Barry Gibb talk show

So yesterday in Boston it was a soupy 95º F. I didn't do much, but I did make it down to my local shop on my All-Star Air Conditioned tour of the city (also on the tour: an early scope out of the ensuing Borders liquidation sale). I got some nice Red Sox commons I was missing (hello Russ Nixon) and this Jimmy Fallon (already in the 25-cent bin!).

Fact: Jimmy Fallon had a very hard time keeping a straight face in almost any sketch he was in on SNL. (Double Fact: Especially if he was in one with Horatio Sanz.) Even here, on the Weekend Update set, he looks ready to start guffawing it up. Fact: I always thought that by laughing or mugging for his friends totally got in the way of the essence of selling the jokes and nine times out of ten ruined the sketch. But that tenth time? That tenth time was when it was on The Barry Gibb Talk Show. No matter how many times he or Justin Timberlake cracked up, it could never ruin the joke. 

OK, on to the pack break.

SNL Archives #10 - Dana Carvey

SNL Archives #51 - George Carlin

SNL Archives #58 - Jay Mohr

SNL Archives #71 - Elton John

SNL Archives #95B - Jimmy Fallon/Barry Gibb VARIATION

SNL Archives #132 - Adrien Brody

This is easily the best pack I've opened so far. On the back of Brody's card it says he was banned after hosting because he did an improvised intro for the musical guest. Whatever happened to Adrien Brody, anyway? I think he was last seen acting smug in a beer commercial, if I remember correctly. Actually, "acting smug" pretty much sums up his career. 

Also, awesome that I got Dana Carvey and George Carlin in the same pack. And finally, the Barry Gibb variation. Totally great that Topps added variations (like the Farley Now With "ANGELS"). I can't wait to get my September Beckett. I wonder if they'll include this set (I mean, they included Donruss Americana for however many years it was made; let's just say I'd be surprised if SNL Archives didn't make it in, considering Topps' clout).

Guest Pack: SNL Archives Chris Farley Auto Hit

I was all set to post my next pack when I got this email from Reader Tony:

Hey guys, I was at the Target in Allen Park (off Interstate 94 in Michigan) late yesterday on a diaper run and bought a pack of the new SNL Archives. After a few nobodies (who the heck is Danitra Vance?) I pulled this. The webcam sort of washed out the pic, so here's a scan of the front also. Cool blog! Keep it up, Tony

All I can say is wow. No matter what your take on cut signature cards is (personally, I don't see the appeal of a piece of a signed check or index card embedded in a trading card), this is spectacular. First of all, Chris Farley autographs aren't exactly cheap. Second of all, he signed it "your awesome!", which is now how I'm going to sign everything.

Now how come I never find big hits like this? I feel like even if I buy a box of these, the best I'll do is a stupid swatch of a Joe Piscopo costume.

Anyway, thanks for sharing, Tony. This is great.

More Topps SNL Archives

Yeah, I kind of dropped the ball on the whole exclusivity thing. Sorry about that. I had these packs lined up to post, then work hit overdrive, and well, we all know how that goes. So now that this set is finally officially live, here are a few more packs. (I got these from my shop in Boston prior to the official release date; I didn't ask how he got them.)

SNL Archives #200 - Dan Aykroyd

SNL Archives #87 - Nirvana

SNL Archives #62 - Randy Quaid

SNL Archives #41 - Jim Breuer

SNL Archives #18 - Finesse Mitchell

(Real name: Alfred)

SNL Archives #110 - Jan Hooks

Nice to see Hooks get a 2nd tier number (110). Best Jan Hooks line: "There's no basement in the Alamo!" Also, I didn't realize Randy Quaid was a cast member, in 1985 or any other year, but on Wikipedia it says he was on there for 1985/86, but then wasn't renewed. Still, gotta love a pack with both Nirvana and Goat Boy in it. 

Topps SNL Archives - Sell Sheets

Looks like we may have jumped the gun on collecting this set. This morning I stopped by the card shop where I purchased my 1st pack of SNL Archives. When I asked the owner if he had any more packs, he gave me a nasty look.

Turns out, he received his boxes early. The release date isn't until July 20th. He got an email warning from Topps threatening (in his words), "Legal action and all sorts of bad sh**," if he sells any more before the release date.

I have been a good customer of (shop name removed) in (city name removed) for quite some time. The owner, (name removed), is a great guy, and has tremendous ethics. He said to come back after the release date, and he would promise to keep the price the same. 

I would have been really disappointed, but he did give me the sell sheet for the set. It is one page (front and back) that is torn on one edge. I asked him if there was another page. He said that he wasn't sure, but would ask his daughter and let me know.

Thankfully, the owner of a less reputable shop, (shop name removed), was more than eager to take my money. He wanted to charge me double the SRP ($8 a pack!), so I only bought two.

I got a couple of great cards in the packs, so I don't feel too bad about paying so much. I'll post them soon, but until then...

SNL Archives Sell Sheet

(front)

(back)



I hope Ben was able to score some more packs out on the east coast. 

Topps SNL Archives - Pack 3

My scanner came back to last tonight, so as promised, here's more of the Saturday Night Live Archives I picked up earlier this week.

Pack 3

 SNL Archives #5 - Jon Lovitz

SNL Archives #96 - Louise Lasser - BANNED

From the file of Things I Didn't Know: Louise Lasser was the first host to be banned from Saturday Night Live after she appeared completely incoherent on a 1976 broadcast. Good for Topps for highlighting the bad-weird along with the good-weird.

SNL Archives #49 - Elliot Gould - ERROR (!?!)

I'm only guessing that this card of Elliott Gould is an error, since his name is spelled wrong, but you never know. It could just be that the Topps copywriter and crack team of proofreaders missed it. I've checked out eBay and a lot of auctions are calling this an error, but it could be like the 2007 Jeter/Mantle/Bush card—an "error" that was only "corrected" to sell the factory set.

SNL Archives #106 - Nick Summers

I like that this set includes character cards. It's an endearing quirk. And one that makes me think there's a Buckwheat card out there somewhere!

 SNL Archives #89 - "Merry Christmas - My D*ck in a Box"

OK, the very idea of a Saturday Night Live set suggests mild profanity, but really? Topps is going all-out for the street cred here, printing the full title of this SNL Digital Short. Got to hand it to them on this one. It also looks like Andy Samberg is a star of this set; so far two out of the three packs have contained a card of him.

 

SNL Archives #60 - Chevy Chase

I read somewhere that Chase was so hated by the other cast members that he got himself literally kicked off the show in 1976. Personally, I think he's hilarious in the "pompous, clueless ass" role he's been typecast in for almost his whole career. Nice to see the Topps checklister give him his due with a 2nd Tier number.

I have one more pack lined up for sometime this weekend. I know I've said it before, but this set is just plain awesome. I'm already putting together three sets right now (1956 Topps, 1961 Fleer, 1977 Topps), but this might add itself to that list.

Topps SNL Archives: Pack 2

I haven't done a pack break in a while. But then again, my local shop was sold out of SNL Archives the last time I was there. This time, I called ahead and had him hold some for me. I only had a $10 on me when I stopped after work yesterday, so I only got a few packs. And, of course, my scanner's on the fritz, so I could only scan in the first pack. I'll post the other packs later this week.

Pack 2

181 - Christopher Guest

167 - "Lazy Sunday"

11 - Original Cast

  

191 - The Clash

72 - Jay Pharoah

 

27 - The Coneheads

Pretty sweet-looking cards. despite the needless gigantic "SNL Archives 2011" stamp. The images are a little grainy, but that's Topps for you. They probably pulled the images off a YouTube video or something. Anyways, I'm digging the card of The Clash. I had read that they included a few musicians. Awesome that they picked a photo of Joe Strummer rocking a mohawk. I'm also a fan of the year-specific imagery; they obviously did their homework.

Awesome Set: Topps SNL Archives™

Let's face it: it's been a long time since Topps put out a great Archives set. 1991 saw the re-issuance of the fabulous 1953 baseball set as "The Ultimate 1953 Set." Topps also put out a "Rookie Years" basketball Archives set in 1992-93 to celebrate their re-entrance into basketball cards, featuring rookie-year designs for players debuting between 1982 and 1991 using the baseball designs from those years.

These two sets were followed by "The Ultimate 1954 Set" in 1994 (sans Ted Williams, under contract at the time with Upper Deck), and then a spate of sets including Archives Reserve, Best Years, and Fan Favorites during the early 2000s. Topps Heritage and Topps 52 Edition sort of picked up where Archives left off by putting modern players in Topps designs of the past, but as great as those sets are, it's really not the same thing.

That's why it's so awesome that the company's finally bringing back the Archives brand with a new twist: the classic characters, musicians, writers and performers of Saturday Night Live in the designs from their debut years on the show. I have to say it's ingenious. Remember that regrettable SNL set that Star Pics put out back in the early 1990s? Ugh, that thing was hideous. But now with gold-foil embossing, short prints, thick card stock, and not to mention every performer ever since 1975 (!) ... I'm going to have to find the sell sheet on this set, because the stuff they were going on about sounded fantastic.

Travis and I have been talking this set up with each other for weeks now, since I read about it in April's Card Trade. While he was on vacation he found a pack and shared the scans with me. Here they are, with pack wrapper.

 SNL Archives #1 - Lorne Michaels

 SNL Archives #30 - Dennis Miller

  SNL Archives #104 - Toonces The Driving Cat

 SNL Archives #120 - Chris Farley (SP)

SNL Archives #133 - Father Guido Sarducci

SNL Archives #187 - Michaela Watkins

I have to say it's pretty spectacular for Travis to pull the Farley short print in his first pack, considering that there are only six cards per pack. I also read somewhere that there are variations lurking in the checklist. Let's hope that they're not as inane as the "pie in the face" Yankees from 2010 Topps.

The 792

Over the past fifteen years or so, Topps has put a lot of emphasis on their vault, their heritage, and their archives. They've trucked out old cards in new permutations, from straight-up re-issues in the Archives format, to All-Time Fan Favorites, to swapping in active players in the Heritage sets. Any sane person would say that they've really beat this horse into the ground and that they should move on to something else.

But baseball card collectors are not sane people. We get locked in on an idea and we ride it with the same gusto and fervor as Topps does in making it for our consumption. Therefore, I'd like to present an idea that may be able to breathe new life into the withering 'vault raid' products of the past few years.

I'm calling it Topps Decades. There would be five separate sets, one for each decade that Topps has produced cards: the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties. Each set would consist of the best cards at each checklist number from that decade. For example, the set encompassing the Eighties would be called Topps Decades: The 792, because there were, on average, 792 cards per Topps set in that decade. The set for the Seventies would be called Topps Decades: The 660, and so on.

It's not exactly the same idea as the Archives Best Years set, simply because they'd have to include commons in Topps Decades. Also, it's not the same idea as the one I proposed earlier this year (or was it last year?) about the 'average' set from a given decade.

The beauty of Topps Decades is that there wouldn't be any confusing checklist changes, because every included card would use their checklist number, in their original style (with possibly a special logo, a la Archives). In fact, an 'alternative' set like this could launch a whole division of 'fan sets,' simply because a collector doesn't necessarily need Topps to officially create this set; it's one they can put together on their own. Wow, I like this idea more and more.

Of course, a set like this invites a collector (or company) to simply turn it into a starfest, and devoid the checklist of as many commons as possible. Should there be rules, like setting quotas for 'x' amount of players on each team, or should it be a free-for-all?

After I hear your thoughts, I will put together a checklist for The 792.