the one where saturday morning errands included a stop at the card show

while there is no official twin cities sports card collectors club show in july, they promoted a show set for a july saturday on their website that was held in the town in which i live. while the regular shows aren't too far away, this one saved me some travel time for sure. with it being so close, i was able to wrap a visit into some saturday morning errands pretty easily.

i wound up with 25 new to me dodger cards from just two sellers. the space in the "mall" was fairly narrow, and the one regular seller with the good bargain boxes was set up across from the busiest part of the mall - a restaurant bustling with weekend brunchers. anyway, here are my top 5 pickups from the "hometown" show:

5. 2006 upper deck epic brad penny

i have never seen too many cards from this set out and about. the few cards i have from the set have been targeted relics or inserts, so it was nice to find a "base" card that was listed for a buck. i consider this card to have been a freebie, however, as i will explain later.

4. 2015 topps joc pederson career high autograph

this was in the $2 box that the regular seller had out on his table. it's a rookie card that, for some reason, lacks the rc shield. even though it is a sticker auto it was a good find for the collection. and, for what it's worth, the career high ops value there is a minor league stat for joc.

3. 2024 topps heritage clayton kershaw highlight black border parallel

i doubt that this card would have been in the dollar box if it were actually numbered to 50 (the print run), but i am not complaining. there were a couple other black borders in the box that i took home with me, too.

2. 2017 topps archives jackie robinson photo/no signature variation

a jackie robinson variation in the $2 box was another nice find. i don't know how this seller continually updates his inventory but i sure do appreciate it.

1. 1997 bowman chrome hideo nomo refractor parallel

it's not adrian beltre's refractor, but the nomo card is still a very nice pick up. it was marked at $40 but placed in a 75% off box by the same seller who had the brad penny card up top. i offered $10 for both and the deal was done.

the pederson, kershaw, and jackie cards all came from the regular seller, and when all was said and done, i had spent an average of $0.75 on each card i took from his boxes.

in other news, i am pleased to report that i will be attending the national this coming sunday. it will be the first national i have attended since the late 1990s when i went to one held in anaheim. it would be cool to connect with some folks so shoot me an email if you will be there and we can introduce our wallet cards to each other.

a moment for ryne sandberg

i have mentioned previously (here, here, and here are good examples) my fandom and affection for ryne sandberg, but i couldn't let his passing go without doing so again.

in 1984 i caught cubs fever. sandberg's coming out party that year, along with the fact that he was a second baseman (a position i was transitioning too at the time) made him an easy choice for me to follow. of course, ron cey was in chicago at the time, and davey lopes joined the cubs later in the season, but ryno was the one that i focused on.

i had a nice pc of his cards going from that point on through 2002, with his 1983 topps rookie card

being the anchor.

i have a couple of dozen ryno cards in my double play collection, including one of my all-time favorite dp cards - his 1994 topps card

which was one of the first cards i scanned when i started my first blog (you can tell by the blue background). i later had this card signed through the mail, which was shown in one of the linked posts above.

sandberg exists in my steve garvey collection, too, thanks to this 2004 donruss leather & lumber rivals insert

that reunites the clubs from the 1984 nlcs. sandberg was more of a "rival" of tony gwynn, but i am not going to complain about having a garvey/sandberg card to collect!

i had read recently that sandberg's cancer had returned or spread, but nothing in the news i read would have indicated that his death was imminent. i am really feeling for his family, friends, teammates and fans.

one of my favorite final tribute cards of his is this 1998 pacific invincible card

one last tip of the cap for the hall of famer. rest in peace, ryno.

another 5 bites the dust

the mets retired david wright's number 5 last weekend in a ceremony that also included his induction into their hall of fame. that means that i can officially add this 2013 topps archives card

to my retired number collection. i have also updated my collection post to include this card with the rest of the cards in that collection.

wright becomes the 8th person across major league baseball for whom number 5 is retired, and is the only one of those eight to not be in the national baseball hall of fame. he had a great career, however, and is atop the franchise's leader board in many offensive categories. for example, no met player has ever accumulated more hits, extra base hits, or walks; scored more runs or made more plate appearances than david wright. i think the mets made the "wright" call with this number retirement.

2025 topps chrome blaster pack by pack

i am really enjoying the experience of ordering product directly from topps. i don't have to stalk the local big box card aisles hoping to see new products (or remember to check the end caps in the toy sections) and i don't have to pay card shop prices if i don't want to. instead, i sit back and find a box on my porch when i get home from work.

that was the case on wednesday when i received the blaster (or value box) that i had ordered from topps. right on time with the product release date, too. i wasted very little time opening it up.

roki sasaki is the poster boy for this release - here's a wrapper

unfortunately for me, this is the closest i got to a dodger. but i am not disappointed.

the blaster contained 7 packs with 4 cards each for 28 total cards. but then there are 4 additional exclusive sepia refractors, so it's really 32 cards per blaster. here's what i found.

pack 1

i have been a coby mayo magnet this year. the chris bassitt ray wave refractor scanned a bit aqua, but it's just a regular ray wave.

pack 2

another ray wave refractor, this one of old friend miguel vargas.

this pack also had the first of the 4 sepia refractors

this ozzie albies card will come in handy if i can kickstart another trade with sluggo.

pack 3

blake dunn is a regular refractor.

i found my second sepia parallel in this pack

rocker hasn't done anything to make the mets regret not signing him a few years ago, but he's just 25.

pack 4

three more base but a nice prism refractor of the reigning american league cy young winner.

pack 5

the rangers have a lot of young up and comers and i seem to find a lot of them in the packs i open. this pack also yielded the second white sox ray wave refractor. two too many perhaps.

the third sepia card was in this pack

the tigers are keeping up with the white sox in terms of parallels.

pack 6

ok. another tiger (and it's skubal) refractor, plus another white sox parallel. the purple rookie chrome autograph is numbered to 250 as usual. that's probably more than i should have expected from a blaster.

pack 7

another straight refractor, and the fourth and last sepia refractor - it's another brave.

you may be wondering why i showed the sepia refractor with the main cards from the pack when it is a "bonus" card. that's because this pack also yielded the big hit from the blaster:

that's a dylan crews shadow etch insert. these fall at 1:481 packs, and with 15 cards in the set, the odds of pulling a crews card specifically would be 1:7215 by my "california math" (as bert blyleven would say).

not seeing any dodgers was disappointing, but i can't complain. plus, i still have a mega box that topps will be shipping out soon. stay tuned for more chrome in the future! 

it's time to spot the difference!

with series 2 out, we are at the point in the year where i can post the annual "spot the difference" writeup comparing the topps factory team set to the flagship releases. i suppose there was a chance that i would have to wait for update again this year, but topps was not averse to getting a shohei ohtani card on to the mainstream series 2 checklist and so here we are.

first, i want to show you how the sets are packaged this year

same sort of hanger/blister packaging as always, but they (thankfully) reduced the size of the plastic blister. last year it was ridiculous. they also resumed printing the checklist on the back

which is much appreciated. however, i bought this set online and didn't really need to see the checklist to make up my mind and i haven't been in any retail settings where these are on display to peruse the checklists of other teams. still, i like that it is there.

speaking of backs, the guaranteed difference between these cards and their flagship counterparts is the numbering on the back

man, i really like the backs of clayton kershaw's flagship cards.

ok - here we go, with flagship on the left and the team set on the right!

lad-1 mookie betts

it's the same, but the factory set is easier to read when scanned (as usual) due to the lack of foil. 

lad-2 andy pages

just like last year, the team set does away with the future stars designation. otherwise, the card is the same.

lad-3 kiké hernandez

same.

lad-4 james outman

same

lad-5 yoshinobu yamamoto

no more future star, but otherwise the same.

lad-6 tommy edman

at first glance, it sure seems like they are the same. however, after last year, i know to check the positions and sure enough, edman gets a position variation on his team set card. he went from being a ss-of to a 2b.

lad-7 freddie freeman

no reason to change freeman's position, so we are back to the same.

lad-8 tyler glasnow

same.

lad-9 teoscar hernandez

here we go! i am pleased that topps changed up the photo on teoscar's card only because the photo used on flagship cost some collectors some money early on. you can't have a ssp parallel of some dodger cards showing them "dancing" (although teo is not dancing) and then use a similar photo on one of the base cards. buyer beware, of course, but not the best move by topps. that said, i like the photo on the flagship card and my only issue with it is that it would have been suitable for one of the ssp versions. at any rate, i am happy to have one photo variation in the team set.

lad-10 clayton kershaw

back to same.

lad-11 shohei ohtani

same, although i could have used ohtani's series 2 pitcher base card. in fact, here it is

i like that topps is giving him two cards so we get the different stats on the back, but there wasn't much point this year since he didn't pitch at all last season. for the record, i am not considering this any sort of variation.

lad-12 will smith

same.

lad-13 chris taylor

same.

lad-14 miguel rojas

well, i may be jumping the gun. maybe miguel rojas shows up in update, but for now, this is a bonus dodger card and i love it.

lad-15 river ryan

same.

lad-16 justin wrobleski

same.

lad-17 michael kopech

same.

for what it's worth, this checklist features an almost complete reset from last year's, with 11 new players featured. gone are walker buehler, tony gonsolin, max muncy, austin barnes, brusdar graterol, bobby miller, emmet sheehan, jonny deluca, miguel vargas, michael busch, and gavin lux. some of those were omitted for obvious reasons, and some just gave way i suppose. muncy is the biggest question mark for me; seems like he should have been included this year.

there was only one dodger in series 1 omitted from the team set (hunter feduccia), but there were 11 dodgers featured in series 2 who didn't make the cut for the team set. i've shown the cards of feduccia, along with series 2 dodgers austin barnes, max muncy, ben casparius, kirby yates, landon knack, roki sasaki, hyeseong kim, bobby miller, and blake snell previously, but here are the flagship cards for the others - michael conforto

edgardo henriquez

and joe kelly

the other dodger card i needed to complete my series 2 team set was a checklist featuring teoscar hernandez

not only does the card feature hernandez and the field for the 2024 home run derby, it featues a ton of fans. that's a lot of people on one card. i wonder why nobody told pete alonso that his pose was inconsistent with the others (as are teo's and jose ramirez's for that matter).

as for the differences between flagship and the team set, there is really just one significant change in terms of dodger cards (teoscar hernandez) plus what is as of now a bonus dodger card (rojas). not sure if two cards make the set worth it for the casual collector, but for a team collector like me, you bet it does!

i have been keeping a running list of these posts, and have now updated the list below. 2016 and 2018 are partial set posts, and there was no team set issued in 2021. otherwise, click and enjoy!

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

2017
2018

2019

2020

2022

2023

2024

maybe i will see you next year with another edition of spot the difference!

i didn't have this on my bingo card

as cool as it is to see hideo nomo back on cardboard this year, it was not too surprising given the popularity and interest in japanese born players over the last few years. shohei ohtani is the best in the game, and ichiro is going into the hall of fame so there is no better time to bring nomo back on to card checklists.

one related item that did surprise me, however, was finding a new dodger card of yu darvish this year.

that card is from the 2025 topps tokyo series set, and is a "stars of japan" insert, patterned off of the "stars of mlb" inserts in this year's flagship. rest assured padre (and cub) fans - darvish is featured in other uniforms in the insert set, too (but not the rangers as far as i can tell).

here's yoshinobu yamamoto's stars of mlb card from 2025 topps series 2

no cherry blossoms!

while i don't have any other darvish or nomo cards to show, i do have some recent and semi-recent dodger additions that are relevant to the post. i found this 2025 topps flagship collection of yamamoto

at the card show last month. his 2024 topps big league

and 2024 topps heritage high numbers

cards have been languishing in the scanned folder for a bit longer than that.

hopefully roki sasaki returns to the mound in the second half of the season. here are a couple of 2025 bowman inserts of his i added to a sportlots order recently - rookie of the year favorites die-cut

and rockstar rookies

i wonder if dime box nick would include those cards in his "getting the band back together" mini collection.

finally, here's an ohtani card that i've had for a few months now - his 2024 topps archives wrecking crew insert

given his status among players today, there are plenty of japanese dodger cards to chase, but i appreciate seeing darvish and wouldn't mind some others like kaz ishii or hiroki kuroda back in dodger blue for some new cards to pick up.