nefarious needs, some dirt cheap

after noting that the longtime most wanted card from my "nefarious nine" list was off the board (not because i had acquired it, but rather because i doubt its existence), i figured i should post some of the most recent acquisitions i have made based on cards that have been on that list at one time or another.

i'll show two "nefarious nine" worth's of dodger cards in roughly the order that i added them. unfortunately, i no longer have a record of where they sat on the list at the time of their entry into my collection. i don't have pricing handy either, although there were only a few that would have been more than a couple of bucks.

1. 1984 renata galasso baseball collector series sandy koufax

this is a pretty nondescript oddball, but i added it to the list after picking up the jackie robinson card from the same set and decided that i should go ahead and complete the two card dodger team set.

2. 2011 topps gypsy queen jon garland sp

garland seems like an odd choice for topps to short print, but they did with this gq card that completed my team set. garland rejoined the dodgers for the 2011 season (double dipper post here) but topps apparently chose to photoshop an image of garland pitching for the padres (note the lack of a red jersey number) rather than use a photo of him from 2009 in dodger duds.

3. 1998 topps chrome adrian beltre

not beltre's most sought after chrome rookie card, but this one helped me complete my dodger team set of '98 chrome. i had added this shortly after i picked up his 1997 bowman chrome rookie, which is the one most collectors covet.

4. 2003 topps heritage duke snider/alex rodriguez then and now

for a long time i resisted putting inserts on the most wanted list, but i have a thing for heritage then and now cards, and this one was the only one i was missing that featured a dodger in the "then" spot. i'm hopeful that we start to see some dodgers from the team of my youth in the "then" spot in the next couple of years, meaning i hope topps uses hits and stolen bases as statistical categories for these cards.

5. 2004 topps retired signature duke snider

another team set completer after i mistakenly ignored it thinking that duke was featured as a met as he had been in the 2003 set.

6. 2015 topps opening day yasiel puig opening day stars

this one eluded me for some reason. it's not as tough to find as these cards from 2014 opening day, but puig was pretty hot back then so maybe that's why.

7. 2014 topps update zack greinke red hot foil

i wanted to complete the 2014 red hot foil dodger parallel team set, and greinke was the last one i needed to do so. i see he is throwing in arizona, and i hope he signs with someone to get to 3,000 strikeouts sometime this year.

8. 1994 panini album stickers mike piazza

needed to complete the team set

9. 1998 topps tek gary sheffield

i just wanted one of sheffield's card to complete the team set. i have one of each of the four dodgers - i don't care about the background design - and i consider the team set complete.

10. 2005 upper deck flyball giovanni carrara

i thought this one would be on the list for a long time, but it really wasn't. it completed the team set, and someone actually listed it on ebay for a buck or so. i figured it would wind up being a comc find but that's part of the fun of collecting - you don't know where the card you are looking for will pop up.

11. 2010 topps 206 matt kemp sp

this is the kemp card that has a different photo and different back

than his base card, but is not considered a variation because there is no card number. it completed the team set.

12. 2017 topps chrome joc pederson green refractor

i went for a refractor rainbow of joc's 2017 topps chrome card, and this is the last card i picked up to that end.

13. 2001 upper deck decade 1970s manny mota game used bat

i had finally completed the dodger team set as far as bat cards from the 2001 upper deck vintage set was concerned, so figured i would do the same for this set. with the manny, i now only need maury wills' card to finish the four card dodger set (steve garvey and bill russell are the others included).

14. 1990 baseball wit manny mota

i already had a mota card from this set, but i needed the one that was numbered on the back

to complete the team set in that regard. to this day, the first mota i owned is the only dodger card i have that is the unnumbered version.

15. 2010 upper deck manny ramirez pure heat

it's been long enough that i miss upper deck baseball products. this was from their final release, and their lack of care regarding logos (even though it's barely visible) means it outshines panini product with ease.

16. 2023 topps mookie betts stars of mlb chrome

i needed mookie to complete the dodger team set of chrome parallels of the overproduced insert

17. 1989 pacific baseball legends joe black

another card for team set completion.

18. 1994 topps gold roger mcdowell

this card completed my dodger team set of the 1994 gold parallels, and is the most recent card to be struck from the nefarious nine.

and now, just like the list itself, here are some bonus non-dodger cards. these all fit into a mini-collection or player collection, just like the nine bonus non-dodger cards that currently sit on the list.

1. 1998 upper deck fernando valenzuela national pride

i actually owned this card at one time but sold or traded it before i decided to collect fernando's post-dodger cards as part of a pc.

2. 1993 pinnacle delino deshields/carlos baerga team pinnacle 

deshields is on the front of the card, but it's the baerga side that i wanted for the double play collection. bonus glimpse of gene autry's retired number on the outfield wall at the big a!

3. 2020 topps allen & ginter 9 ways to first fielder's choice

another dp turn, assumedly unsuccessful as the point of the card is that the batter reached first base on the play.

4. 2016 topps (and topps chrome) byron buxton perspectives

and 

5. 2016 topps andrew mccutchen perspectives

technically, i only had the flagship cards of buck and cutch on the list, but picked up the chrome buxton at the same time. these are for my name/number on the back mini collection.

6. 2001 fleer platinum travis lee

it may be blurry, but that's dodger stadium's outfield wall behind lee, so this was wanted for that mini-collection.

7. 2004 donruss alex rodriguez

same for this arod card. don newcombe's mural is on the wall behind rodriguez, who may well be turning two here.

8. 2004 fleer ultra preston wilson

mookie's kid is also in dodger stadium, with steve garvey's mural in the background! this is one of two cards that will forever be on the most wanted list - the other is kent bottenfield's 2001 fleer triple crown card - because of garvey's appearance in the background. i've considered doing the same with thurman munson's 2023 topps stadium club card, but haven't pulled the trigger on that yet.

i currently have 10 bottenfields and the same number of wilsons, but only scanned five, along with one of the gold medallion parallels

i would love to add more!

9. 1980 topps football dan dierdorf

this card was wanted because of the black armband dierdorf is sporting. the st. louis football cardinals added the memorial for teammate j.v. cain who passed away during training camp prior to the 1979 season. it's only the second football card i have in my memorial collection, with the other being a card showing the patch the cowboys wore for tom landry.

lastly, i will show this 1993 pinnacle mike piazza home run club

card for some reason. this card came from a box set and is the lone dodger, so my team set is complete! i am not sure why it is here because it was never on the most wanted list, but yet i scanned it and added it to an early draft of this post. perhaps it was a card that was destined to join the list but was acquired before that could happen.

at any rate, there are nine dodger cards on the list today, along with nine non-dodger cards, so please take a look at my "nefarious nine" and see if you can help a blogger out. you will be rewarded!

thank you jackie robinson

i showed off a bunch of 42 cards earlier in the week, so today i will celebrate jackie robinson day with a few cards of the trailblazer himself.

this one is from 2022 topps archives

and uses the design of the 1992 topps rookie debut set to great effect. 

this 2017 topps insert

also recognizes the memorable moment that was his major league baseball debut.

some other cards i've added to the collection in the past year include:

1982 tcma superstars card

1984 renata galasso baseball collector's series card

2009 topps update & highlights legends of the game career best legends

2010 topps hta logoman insert

2010 topps walmart legends chrome cereal box platinum

and one of his most recent cards coming from 2022 topps pristine

i also had an ebay seller throw in a couple of well done reprints of his 1950 bowman and 1948 leaf cards

as part of a non-jackie purchase i made. i don't know who is responsible for these, but they are pretty good looking and seem professionally printed. 

the best thing about these cards is that they all feature different photos of jackie, which is fairly rare considering that most of those cards are from the pre-google images era.

my jackie robinson collection, which is just a subset of my dodger collection, now stands at 414 unique cards which slots me into third place on tcdb. overall, jackie is the 9th most represented player in my collection

and i think i will see if i can make eric karros give way.

it's always a good idea to reflect on the trail paved by jackie and recognize that the effort continues. thank you jackie robinson.

showing up to the card show

today was the monthly card show here in the twin cities, but this post is about july. i attended last month's show - the first show i had been to since the fall of 2019 - october, i believe.  anyway, i got there just as it started and so it wasn't too crowded at first. i made a lap around looking for a couple of regulars, and found one of the guys who always has a dime box.

surprisingly, there aren't too many dime boxes at these shows, but more on that later. i wound up pulling 190 cards from his boxes to start my day. a couple of highlights were this 2016 panini diamond kings jose abreu mini which is numbered to /25

some 1980 topps burger king cards, including one of the late, great jr richard

a 2004 topps cracker jack vladimir guerrero card

which is actually the sticker parallel

some cards from the 2018 topps cody bellinger highlight set

a 2002 topps greg maddux card

showing him pitching in dodger stadium, which is not all that exciting but it's a new card for my dodger stadium collection.

here are the rest of the cards, give or take one or two i didn't scan, from this particular seller:

i have a soft spot for inserts and parallels if you couldn't already tell.  i haven't quite finished sorting these cards, but let me know if you see something you want/need.

next up i went to one of the vintage dealers to look at his 1957 topps supply as i continue to try to finish that set. i wound up buying a couple of cards of catchers

for $5 each. this was not a bargain, but whatever. 

the last table i spent any appreciable amount of time at was another regular dealer who seems to be one of those guys who doesn't want to bother with non-mojo cards. i say that in the best way possible because he is a really nice guy and is a longtime member of the twin cities sports card collectors club as far as i can tell. he just has a lot of good base and insert cards in a bunch of 5 for $1 monster boxes.

when i started digging through, there was just one other collector that i've run in to at other shows and events looking through these boxes. being the considerate card show attendee that i am, i started on the opposite end of the table. as we worked our way towards each other, we would show cards that we found that were steals at $0.20.  like this 2008 topps joey votto rookie card

there were two of them.

then there was this 2011 topps chrome colin kaepernick rookie card

plus gold parallels of 2008 topps joe biden

and john mccain cards

how about a 2008 topps moments & milestones tim lincecum blue parallel, numbered out of 10

less interesting is a 2011 bowman gold parallel of derek jeter

but i did find three online only cards from 2017 topps archives snapshots

and three 2000 fleer ultra gold medallion edition cards that i needed

that eric young card is one of my favorite cards from 2000. it gives a solid look at the jackie robinson heroes patch. the other two cards go in the dodger stadium collection.

here are the other cards i picked up for twenty cents apiece:

that duke snider card

is from a 1984 renata galasso set that i hadn't seen before. the back 

is done up like a '53 bowman. there are cards in the set of sandy koufax and jackie robinson, and i've added the sandy to my list of most wanted cards.

there's the other votto

the adam jones card is a dice back

and the heritage aparicio 

is already in my double play collection, but i added this one because i am pretty sure that the player sliding in is gil hodges in a play from the 1959 world series. in to the lurker collection it goes!

the 2011 topps chrome cards are atomic refractors, and the troy tulowitzki

goes in my double play collection.

that 2014 bowman jed lowrie is worth a closer look

it's probably the most aesthetically pleasing card i picked up on the day!

with the ryu, puig, and magill, i picked up a needed complete dodger team set of refractors from whatever bowman chrome draft picks set that is.

buybacks!

more buybacks! including this 75th anniversary stamped 1977 topps dave lopes league leader card:

most of the dodger buybacks i have are from 2015, but i was stoked to find this one.

a couple more buybacks and perhaps the last keibert ruiz card i will ever buy.

i tend not to pass on roberto clemente cards in bargain boxes

the degrom is the raised snowflake parallel, and the judge rookie is actually a reprint

kershaw is the back of the jackie robinson card in the previous scan. i was excited to see the ted williams card from 2019 topps. that really was a great moment at the 1999 all-star game

and i put this card in my lurker collection thanks to mr. padre there. the only way it could have been better is if williams had worn a red sox cap.

i don't think arozarena rookies would have been in this box last fall.

i put that rainbow foil parallel of the 2020 topps domingo leyba card

in my double play collection even though he held on to the ball

a full page of 2020 bowman ohtanis.

not a bad haul for just under $70. as always, i will try to make my money back and also send some of these out to trade partners. let me know if you see something that strikes your fancy!

bonus content! today was also national baseball card day. here's a card from 2019 nbbcd

that i picked up online after the fact. i'll report on whether or not any of the dealers who have stores brought any 2021 nbbcd product to today's show in a future post.