compelled to completion

i logged on to tcdb earlier in late march and took note, for the first time i believe, of the "oh,so close" section of the home page. what caught my eye was that it was a dodger card that was needed to complete the image database for 2017 topps chrome refractor parallel checklist, and it was that of andrew toles. i thought that maybe i could help out (i've uploaded a few images over the last couple of years) but as it turned out, i did not own the toles refractor card.

it was one of three chrome refractor parallels missing from my dodger collection, so off to sportlots i went. a few days later, voila!

by this time, another user had already uploaded the card image, but this was not for naught. accompanying toles was adrian gonzalez in refractor form

and a couple of days later, an ebay purchase of cody bellinger's refractor arrived

this completes my team set of the base refractors from 2017 topps chrome, and it's a good thing for my collection that bellinger has settled into a level of performance below his 2019 campaign. i can't imagine what this rookie refractor was going for back then.

over the last year or so, i've added a couple other bellinger rookies - 2017 bowman high tek

and 2017 bowman platinum rookie radar

but his 2017 bowman chrome base card remains one of my "nefarious 9" - my most wanted cards. 

i don't have all of the dodger refractor cards from 2017 topps chrome scanned, but i do have a bunch of joc pederson refractors to refer you back to! who knows where the inspiration to complete a team set will come from next? i sure don't, but i'll keep my eyes open.