wilson!

over 14 years ago i discovered that my 1990 topps dodger team collection was missing mike davis' card (sorry mike!). history repeated itself earlier last summer as i was entering my dodger collection in to tcdb. when i got to the 1992 score set - a set that i had marked "dodgers complete" - i found that i was missing steve wilson. and, unlike the 1990 topps davis card, i did not have a bunch of 1992 score wilson cards sitting among my dupes.

i quickly added a wilson card to a sportlots order

and now my team set is complete.

similarly, i found that i had a promo version of this card

from 1992 donruss triple play but not the actual card. that, too, has been rectified and tcdb has been updated.

speaking of tcdb, it has taken me awhile to get to entering cards from my mini-collections, but i have been able to add most of them. there are still some i haven't entered, including my dodger stadium and my double play collections. i keep adding cards to those collections, however, including this fantastic 2001 topps fusion card

that nick at dime boxes turned me on to. it features one of the great moments in dodger stadium murals - manny mota's, in fact - that i love to see on cardboard so much. i don't know how i missed this example back when i was scrutinizing cards from the early 2000s for any sign of the murals.

i went back and forth about picking up this 2022 topps now turn back the clock card of jim palmer

but finally relented. it shows him pitching in dodger stadium during the 1966 world series. long gone are those low-rise paneled railings, but they are a dead giveaway for dodger stadium with pre-mccourt era photos.

as for double plays, i've added a 1985 topps sticker showing the dp combo of alan trammell and lou whitaker eliminating luis salazar

during the ninth inning of game three 1984 world series. not shown is tony gwynn who grounded to whitaker to start this play. gwynn made it safely to first base, but then steve garvey flew out to end the game.

more current twin killings include a 2006 topps marcus giles gold parallel card

a 2020 topps jonathan villar gold foil parallel card

a 2023 topps chrome vaughn grissom card

and a 2023 topps heritage jonathan india card

i am assuming mookie betts will get some double play cards in 2024 and i am looking forward to those, but first i want to get the rest of my mini-collections loaded in to tcdb. wish me luck!

subset collecting is definitely a thing

the first year that i collected cards, i thought that completing the set (1978 topps) was the only thing that mattered. it was more of the same in 1979, although i began keeping my dodger doubles for a team set, and i started a couple of player specific collections.  once the 80's hit, i had formally added team collector and player collector to my set building resume.

1981 was the year that my dad started collecting with me, and he focused on player collections as well as los angeles dodger topps team sets from 1958 to 1969, as i had made it known that i wanted to build the team sets from 1970 on. he soon thereafter added topps angels team sets from 1961 to 1969 to his pursuits, as well as the 1969 topps expos team set and the 1977 topps blue jays team set.  i remember asking him about trying to complete the full topps sets for those years, and he told me that he wasn't interested - he only wanted those specific team sets.  while i was still building the complete topps sets in addition to my dodger team sets and burgeoning player collections, he was only picking up cards from each set that fit in his collection. mind blown.  i suppose it would have dawned on me eventually that my collection was subject to my rules for collecting, but i was happy to have had this wisdom imparted so early on. i quickly applied it to subsets.  after all, what is team or player collecting if not subset collecting?

i had never really expected to be able to complete topps sets prior to the year i began collecting (that was one reason that i put together my "sampler" sets) but there were cards that i definitely aspired to have, such as the 1976 topps sporting news all-star subset, the 1974 topps hank aaron special subset, and the 1973 topps all-time leaders subset.  eventually i completed those subsets and then (much later) the complete sets.  they are all safely in my set binders, but i may wind up completing a second set of those specific cards to include with my other subset collections.

oh yes, i have other subsets that i have completed while eschewing the complete sets from which they come.  the first one i will show is the 1992 score barry halper collection subset.

this was a five card subset (cards 878 - 882) that featured memorabilia from the famous barry halper collection. it consisted of five retired greats:

ty cobb

babe ruth

honus wagner

lou gehrig

and satchel paige

being a fan of the history of the game, i was immediately drawn to these cards when i first came across the wagner in a dime box somewhere. i wasn't buying many non-topps cards in 1992, so it took a while for me to notice these gems. they made me think of exhibits that i might see in cooperstown with the authentic memorabilia and cards shown rather than photos of each player. just a unique group of cards from a "junk" wax set.

as a side note, i used to spend a fair amount of time browsing in book stores (cheap entertainment), and in 2000 or so, my local borders had a copy of the barry halper collection auction book. i would take that book, grab a beverage with the wife, sit in the cafe and get lost in the breadth and scope of halper's collection. it was amazing. i probably should have just purchased the book, but i never did. instead, i have these 5 cards as an example of what was certainly the greatest memorabilia collection of our time.