long gone are the days where it was possible to collect all of the cards of any given player, let alone team. and, while i've tried to finish off a dodger junk wax year (1989) there are still a few oddballs that i haven't tracked down yet - partially due to a lack of focus - and there are probably other dodger cards from that year that i don't know about.
over the last year or so, i've tried to be a bit more focused when looking back and picking up dodger cards from past years and i've had some success doing so. whether it's targeting a specific team set, insert set, parallel, or something that spans both of the latter, i've been able to fill some holes in my collection that are more meaningful to me than random cards here and there. case in point, i went out to add more topps heritage chrome parallels to my collection.
with don mattingly in the news late last year for making it to the fall classic for the first time (he was a coach for the blue jays if you didn't know), i'll start with his 2011 topps heritage chrome parallel.
mattingly was the dodger skipper when their current run of nl west dominance began but he was gone before they returned to the world series. here's the back:
i thought that numbering the chrome "base" to the year of the topps design made sense once they made that switch. unfortunately, topps hasn't maintained that element with these cards.
i should note that it's been over two years since i published this post detailing my status with these cards, but i hadn't forgotten about my appreciation of them. here are some more i added in 2025 that weren't shown in other posts
the hiroki kuroda and ross stripling cards completed my 2011 topps heritage and 2016 topps heritage high numbers chrome dodger team sets, respectively, while the aj pollock card from 2019 topps heritage high numbers was the second to join my collection from that set.
i picked up my first chrome parallel from 2002 topps heritage in the form of chan ho park
in 2003, the chrome cards (here's kazuhisa ishii's)
switched to the full year numbering to match the card design year
so /1954 for these cards. the refractors then used the 500 series numbering.
topps introduced non-numbered, retail colored refractors in 2011, although i think they skipped 2012 and 2013 before becoming a mainstay. here's a 2015 purple chrome refractor of yasmani grandal
that shows the /999 numbering on the back
you'll note that topps didn't really prepare a space for the serial numbering on the back of any of these cards.
from 2015 topps heritage high numbers.
in 2013, topps switched the numbering of base chrome parallels again. here's a 2018 topps heritage high numbers matt kemp chrome parallel
ok - speed round with some other heritage chrome pickups from last year!
2019 max muncy purple refractor
2020 high numbers mookie betts chrome /999
and purple refractor
plus a 2024 high number purple refractor of "zero year" card recipient andre lipcius
2021 high numbers albert pujols chrome /999
and purple refractor
2022 walker buehler chrome /999
2023 high numbers clayton kershaw chrome /999
in 2024, topps really changed things up. they released a limited number of chrome parallels as they typically did with the initial heritage release. these were numbered to 999 as they had been for years. then, when high numbers came out, all of the cards that had not been paralleled in the initial release were included, but numbered to 699. here's the chrome parallel of the yogi berra/roy campanella card
that i found in a pack of heritage high. note that they also moved the numbering to the front of the card. this change didn't make the numbering any easier to read, however. i suppose i should also note that topps decided to show berra's actual 1951 card here, even though they used a modified version of it back in 1975. the campy side is the same - it's a card that didn't exist until 1975.
plus some sparkle refractors - dusty baker (and son)
and teoscar hernandez
and kiké hernandez (along with a regular refractor of kiké)
this next bit is more for me to make things easier as i continue to track down the dodger base chrome parallels. after 25 years of these sets, i still need a lot of them, and here's a year by year breakdown of my needs vs. haves:
in 2025, topps got rid of the numbering for the base chrome and base refractor cards altogether. here's freddie freeman's card
these next few from 2025 heritage high numbers arrived in early 2026 - light blue sparkle refractors of alex call
2001 - need 2 (have 1)
2002 - need 4 (have 1)
2003 - need 2 (have 3)
2004 - need 1 (have 1)
2005 - need 1 (have 3)
2006 - complete (have 4)
2007 - complete (have 3)
2008 - complete (have 10)
2009 - complete (have 10)
2010 - complete (have 6)
2011 - complete (have 9)
2012 - need 1 (have 4)
2013 - need 3 (have 2)
2014 - need 5 (have 2)
2015 - need 4 (have 5)
2015 high numbers - need 4 (have 1)
2016 - need 2 (have 1)
2016 high numbers - complete (have 4)
2017 - need 2 (have 2)
2017 high numbers - need 3 (have 1)
2018 - need 7 (have 1)
2018 high numbers - complete (have 1)
2019 - need 5 (have 4)
2019 high numbers - need 1 (have 2)
2020 - need 8 (have 4)
2020 high numbers - need 3 (have 1)
2021 - need 4 (have 1)
2021 high numbers - need 6 (have 1)
2022 - need 4 (have 1)
2022 high numbers - need 1 (have 1)
2023 - need 3 (have 1)
2023 high numbers - need 4 (have 1)
2024 - need 4 (have 1)
2024 high numbers - need 27 (have 1)
2025 - need 22 (have 6)
2025 high numbers - need 8 (have 2)
the 2026 topps heritage checklist is out, and the dodgers have 22 base chrome cards (the full set is paralleled). i've pre-ordered some product from topps and am looking forward to adding to this list! stay tuned!
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