Wednesday, July 19, 2023

where it is with heritage chrome

a few weeks ago, i gave a synopsis of where my dodger collection is regarding topps heritage releases. this post will do something similar with the chrome heritage offerings. some collectors don't like the idea of chrome cards in heritage releases since there were no chrome cards using flagship designs until the late 1990's. i like the chrome cards and don't see them degrading the heritage sets at all, although there are plenty of other things for collectors to nitpick about (myself included).

anyway, the inaugural heritage release in 2001 introduced us to these partial set parallels, and i just recently finally added one to my collection
2001 sets meant dodger collectors were getting a whopping serving of kevin brown, shawn green, and gary sheffield cards. those three are the dodgers who were feted with chrome cards in 2001, but i only have brown's.

in 2002, brown and green again got the chrome treatment and were joined by paul loduca, omar daal, and chan ho park. i don't have any of those cards. i did pull a cc sabathia chrome card from a pack of 2002 heritage, but i've since parted with it.

five dodgers were included in the 2003 topps heritage chrome cards, including ruddy lugo
in addition to the lugo, i have shawn green's card but am missing kaz ishii, franklin gutierrez, and loduca.

there were only two chrome dodgers in 2004 - shawn green and edwin jackson - and i only have green's card. in 2005, green was joined by ishii, jeff kent, and eric gagne. i have the green and the ishii from that set.  then, in 2006, jeff weaver
rafael furcal
and kent 
joined nomar garciaparra as chrome dodgers. this is the first team heritage chrome set that i have completed.

i have also completed the dodger 2007 heritage chrome team set. it features andre ethier
delwyn young
and jonathan broxton
broxton's card looks fantastic in refractor form
it's the only one of the three that i own and i wouldn't have it any other way.

i have also completed the team set for 2008 heritage chrome. this one includes 10 dodgers (2 of which are part of the inaugural high numbers release). in addition to ethier, kent, andy laroche, and hiroki kuroda, dodger fans were treated to cards of andruw jones
matt kemp
brad penny
takashi saito
russell martin
who i also have in refractor form
and chin-lung hu
whose refractor looks really great

there were 10 more dodgers in 2009 heritage, and i have them all. kuroda
martin
penny
orlando hudson (high numbers)
ethier
whose refractor also sits in my collection
james loney (whose refractor made this post rather than the base)
the others in the team set include clayton kershaw, kemp, manny ramirez, and randy wolf.

six dodgers showed up in 2010 heritage as chrome parallels, and once again, i've been able to complete the set. here's chad billingsley's card
he is joined by kemp, kershaw, ethier, martin, and manny.

in 2011, if i recall correctly, the chrome cards were included in heritage and chrome? is that correct? anyway, there are nine dodgers and i have six of them. i am missing don mattingly, kuroda, and billingsley, but have casey blake, loney, kershaw, etheir, the kemp/ethier combo card, and kemp's solo card. here's his chrome parallel
that also graces my collection.

2012 heritage included five dodgers and i have three of them, including kuroda in base
and refractor format
i am missing ethier's card and the matt kemp league leader card, but i have kemp's solo card and kershaw's league leader card in chrome form.

2013 heritage only had five dodgers as well, and i own ethier and kershaw cards but need hanley ramirez', kemp, and adrian gonzalez. for 2014, hyun-jin ryu, zack greinke, and yasiel puig joined kershaw, ramirez, gonzalez, and kemp. i have kershaw and kemp
and i also have purple refractors of greinke and kemp

i don't have kemp's 2015 heritage chrome card, but i do have greinke's
i also have kershaw, dee gordon, puig, and gonzalez, but am missing ryu, ramirez, and kenley jansen. as for the high numbers, i have jimmy rollins but none of the other dodgers (yasmani grandal, trevor cahill, alex guerrero, and brett anderson).

there were only three dodgers - greinke (need it), puig (need it), and kershaw (got it) - given chrome cards in 2016 heritage, but high numbers gave us four more. scott kazmir and ross stripling are the two i am missing as i have julio urias and kenta maeda

it was more of the same in 2018, with four dodgers in the base run of heritage - kershaw (got it), maeda (got it), corey seager (need it), and urias (need it). then, in high numbers, there were four more. i need andrew toles, rob segedin, and cody bellinger, but have jansen.  

in 2019, topps returned to a greater number of dodgers included as chrome subjects as seager, maeda, bellinger, yu darvish, walker buehler, alex verdugo, puig, and kershaw were all included. kershaw's is the only card of those that i own, although i do have a couple of refractor parallels of others.  in high numbers, there was only matt kemp, and while i need his base chrome card, i do have his refractor parallel
man it was good to see him back with the dodgers in 2018.

things got sort of confusing for me in 2019 when i was putting together the checklists. i guess some of the chrome cards were only available in mega boxes, like this jansen
and this joc pederson 
while matt kemp was among those getting true "base" chrome cards. i don't have kemp's card, but i do have his refractor parallel
in all, i still need buehler, kemp, maeda, and max muncy from the base chrome checklist (i have kershaw), and i need only bellinger from the mega box checklist (i have seager in addition to the pederson and jansen cards above). high numbers included chrome cards for a.l. pollock and alex verdugo (along with russell martin in the mega boxes), but i have none of those.

twelve dodgers were included in 2020 heritage chrome (combining base and mega box exclusives). of those twelve, i only have bellinger
jansen, kershaw, and verdugo. i am still on the lookout for muncy, dustin may, gavin lux, will smith, seager, buehler, justin turner, and pederson.  i do have refractor parallels of bellinger 
and jansen
and they look pretty sharp. i would love to add the mookie betts chrome card from 2020 high numbers, along with any of the other three dodgers (edwin rios, brusdar graterol, and david price) but i have yet to do so.

in recent years, as you can tell, i've paid less attention to completing team sets of chrome, and that is true for 2021 where i only have kershaw and need the other four dodgers (muncy, betts, seager, and bellinger) plus the seven dodgers in high numbers (dj peters, victor gonzalez, price, lux, zach mckinstry, albert pujols, and buehler). 2022 is the same, where i am missing all of the chrome cards from the base heritage (buehler, urias, betts, trea turner, and bellinger) and only have kershaw from the high numbers release (missing craig kimbrel).

finally, 2023. so far, there are four dodgers to chase in chrome form - james outman, betts, freddie freeman, and buehler. i have buehler's card
and am looking forward to high numbers and what i will assume will be another kershaw card.

i mentioned that i have a number (actually all) kershaw chrome cards, including purple refractors from 2021 
and 2022
and i figured i would show the complete run of base kershaw chrome cards, starting in 2009
2010
2011
2012 (no base chrome card for kersh)
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
as i mentioned, i am looking forward to seeing kershaw's heritage card this year - might it resemble claude osteen's 1974 card? - and whomever else is in high numbers this year. 

thanks for sticking with this post - it was a lot of cards for sure!

5 comments:

  1. I always point to Heritage Chrome as the prime example of something I shouldn't like as much as I do. Don't think I'd ever seen one of the 2001 Chromes before this post, either.

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  2. Imagine if Topps started reprinting entire vintage sets in chrome form. Refractors, foil, color parallels, etc. You could do a rainbow of a random card like 1970 Topps Jim Fregosi . . .

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  3. Your Dodgers Heritage Chrome collection is very impressive. One of these days I'll sit down and organize my A's and Padres. I think the only way I'd ever try and complete a team set is if I had 80% or more already in possession.

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  4. I guess it's because I wasn't collecting when they first started doing them, but the Heritage, and it's chromed versions, have never held much appeal for me. This is quite a collection though, and obviously one that you've been working on for quite a while now.

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  5. Still an impressive collection without the missing cards!

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