grab some bench

there is one recent card pick up i've made for my half-arsed effort at completing the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph parallel set that i did not show in wednesday's post.

johnny bench certified auto! it's the second one in my collection, and the first from this set. i was a steve yeager fan but sure did appreciate the talent of bench.

i added another bench for my dodger stadium mini-collection around the same time:

that card is from 1975 tcma national league most valuable player set. i had no idea this set existed (primarily because they didn't include steve garvey) and only learned about it because this card

showed up in my mailbox. that is maury wills' card from the set, and it forced me to go to comc to find out what it was. it was there that i saw the bench with the dodger stadium pavilion roof in the background. what a great find!

the wills card was sent my way by nick of dime boxes in one of our latest card swaps. i know there will always be some great variety in a package from nick and this proved no exception. here are just a few of the cards nick sent that prove that point

2001 topps jackie robinson through the years

even though i own 1952 topps #312, i enjoy having standard sized versions, too.

1997 bowman's best mike piazza best cuts

at first glance, i figured this card was from 1996 topps laser, but i guess topps held on to the "laser" for some '97 releases, too.

2008 upper deck ultimate collection matt kemp

numbered base cards are not too common 'round these parts.

2006 upper deck first pitch jeff kent

this card could pass for a panini insert except for the dodger logo in the background.

2023 topps big league ryan pepiot

and miguel vargas

big things were expected from these two in 2023, but one was injured for the majority of the season and the other never found his groove. maybe 2024 will be their year.

i can always count on nick to send me some new double play cards for my collection, and this time he sent a 1994 bowman mariano duncan

jay bell

and greg gagne

trio. not sure how i missed these!

same goes for this 1995 select jose lind

that gives prime real estate to mr. marlin jeff conine.

i already had a 2016 topps jj hardy card in my dp collection, but now i have his rainbow foil parallel

too.

one more new dp, and it's a good one:

that's a 1998 donruss damion easley card, featuring the kid.

this 2019 topps stadium club whit merrifield card

also features a dynamic player sliding in - mookie betts. i already had this card in the dp and tattooine collection, so this one is for the lurker collection. 

nick is also a fellow collector of vladimir guerrero cards, and he improved my collection by sending this 2021 topps update 70 years of topps card

and this 2005 topps bazooka comic

that also features mike scioscia if you want to be technical about it.

always great stuff coming from the land of lincoln. thanks nick!