who says rounded corners are bad?

i found this 2000 fleer ultra jt snow card 

in a dime box at a show earlier this year. it's the gold medallion edition parallel, and this was the first year that fleer decided to round the tops of the cards.

if it hadn't been for pacific invincible's release in 2000, the base version of the snow card would have been my favorite card of the year. the throwback unis make for a colorful card and remind me of my early days of watching the giants and a's play the dodgers and angels, respectively.

i also found a dodger card for the collection - a 2004 gold medallion edition parallel of brad penny

by this time fleer was just rounding corners. but in a non-damaging way.

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!

love is a bottenfield

usually when i host one my "almost free stuff friday" trade posts, i prefer to receive cards directly from my want list. many of my mini collections are subjective as to cards that i would want to add, and i only have "have lists" posted for them. my want lists are cards that i want (to varying degrees) but definitely need for dodger team sets or player collections or what have you.

bo did not send cards from my want list in exchange for the cards he claimed, but i couldn't be happier with the cards he sent.  here is the big gun:

that is a 2001 fleer triple crown kent bottenfield card. he sent it for my dodger stadium mini collection, as bottenfield is standing out in right field at chavez ravine. i know this because of the mural behind him.  now, i would have sworn that i looked through the entire comc inventory of fleer cards from 1998 through 2005 - including sold out cards - looking for cards that featured the murals in the background, but i never saw this bottenfield card.  

what really amped me up was that the mural in the background features none other than steve garvey, who was being celebrated in 2000 for reaching the 1,000 consecutive games played milestone in a game at dodger stadium, along with other great moments in dodger stadium history.  it was a great surprise and one that impelled me to act further. more on that later.

bo also sent a new double play card for me - a 2003 upper deck ricky gutierrez card

and a 1995 upper deck sp edddie murray card

that goes in the tattooine collection.

back to bottenfield, i quickly added another card to my garvey collection

and then decided to add as many as i could.  i have permanently added this card to my nefarious 9/most wanted cards list, and am up to 10 of them as of this writing

they come in varying shades it appears.

the only other card that a clear view of a garvey mural appears (that i am aware of - please prove me wrong if you can!) is the 2004 fleer ultra preston wilson card. 

that's the gold medallion parallel, which i realized was lacking from my garvey collection. i also picked up a base and another gme parallel

for the dodger stadium collection.  and, like the bottenfield, these cards have also been made permanent residents of my most wanted cards list.  as of right now, i only have one extra base and two extra gme parallels

but maybe you can change that?  the mural that shows up here, by the way, is part of the dodger record setters murals, and this one in particular features the full gcrl infield. it shows up on a few other cards of pitchers, but is not as clear. i would love to find another 2004 fleer tradition dodger team set darren dreifort card, though.

i did see a new ichiro card that featured the 2001 retired number murals, and quickly snapped one up for my dodger stadium collection

this is from 2022 topps 587 montgomery club set 3 if you are curious. just a couple of hall of fame center fielders (that's duke snider on the wall if you can't tell) hanging out on the same card.

and then there are a couple more traditional dodger stadium cards that i've added over the last couple of months...

a co-worker gave me some cards which included a 1989 donruss dave meads card

with the right field scoreboard behind him. i had also thought i had scoured 1980s astros cards for dodger stadium backgrounds as they seem to have a lot - the stadium's color scheme worked well with the astro uniforms back then - but i missed this meads.

and finally, i somehow became aware of this 1990 topps rick reuschel card

featuring big daddy and the always popular dodger stadium pickoff move to first photo. the card is a box bottom, and i saw it thanks to one of my saved searches for the 1989 fleer orel hershiser box bottom card (white back version) which has sat atop my most wanted list for a long, long, long time.

and that is how you bring a post full circle - from want list to want list with some nice dodger stadium cards in between.  as always - help a blogger out and let me know if you have any cards i need.  you will be rewarded!