after completing the 1992, 1993, and 1994 topps dodgers gold parallel team sets (and seeing
night owl's complete 2008 topps series 1 and 2 dodgers gold parallel team set), i figured that it was time to complete a numbered gold parallel team set, and i decided that it would be 2007 topps. i chose that set mainly because it has big, chunky borders that allow for a lot of color, but also it does not include any rookie or early career clayton kershaw cards that i missed out on in real time!
i had maybe a third of the team set when i started, and it took me a few months to pull it all together, but i managed. so, here is the complete 2007 topps gold parallel dodger team set
j.d. drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal
jeff kent, james loney, jonathan broxton
brad penny, grady little, delwyn young
greg maddux, juan pierre, jason schmidt
matt kemp, randy wolf, luis gonzalez
takashi saito, russell martin, wilson betemit
derek lowe, chad billingsley, ramon martinez
dodger team card
but that's not all - i also completed the update team set
brady clark, david wells, mark hendrickson
olmaedo saenz, hong-chih kuo, tony abreu
andy laroche, russell martin, brad penny
takashi saito, russell martin (alex rodriguez) combo, russell martin (cole hamels) combo
scott proctor
the proctor card was the last of these that i acquired. there weren't too many options when it came to purchasing the vagabond reliever's card, but thankfully one of the two sellers who had high hopes with their buy-it-now prices sent an offer that was pretty reasonable and i was able to complete the set.
there are a lot of "let's remember some guys" up there, but i remember being pretty happy with kemp and martin and ethier showing up. luis gonzalez not so much. and, as you can see, there are definitely some differences in the pigmentation of the gold across the collection.
another difference is the numbering on the back. topps switched the orientation of the serial numbering between flagship series 1 and 2 and update. ramon martinez is from series 2 and olmedo saenz is from update
ok, so it's hard to see, but on the flagship card, the 2007 is closest to the topps logo, and in update it's closest to the player inset photo. and, how great is it that topps noted each of these as "gold parallel" on the back?!
with the black borders, topps was in need of a different treatment for the other-colored border parallels (this was before camo /25 and all that). they went with copper
which was numbered to 56
the low print run black border parallels debuted in 2003 and were numbered to 52 copies. since then they have increased in production by one to match the "years of collecting" on the front. as far as i can tell, 2007 is the only year that the border for these cards hasn't been black.
i have no plans to chase the copper parallel set, but i do have more 17 year itch to scratch. stay tuned!