the shipping hit the fan

last november, i placed an order at comc. i hadn't done so for a while, and when i decided to request shipment, i dutifully wore my store credit balance down to $5.99 by adding some random cards to my purchases. the joke was on me, however, as i was not aware that they had changed the pricing of their shipping.

i had more than 50 cards in "my possession", so i was lumped into bulk shipping. not much to do but upload some more cash and get the cards. i was a bit bitter about it as i know many of you have been. not sure how i missed this change, but it is a flaw in comc's system that you can't check shipping costs without advancing to the request shipment page. sure, you don't have to follow through at that point, but i guess i am used to sportlots or ebay where the shipping is more transparent.

once i requested shipment, the original estimated ship date was december 10, but it was later moved to late january. the cards arrived sooner than that - in late december - so i can't complain too much about that.

much of what i ordered was intended for specific posts, or has now been set aside for specific posts, but there were still quite a few cards that were "add ons" or one offs and so i'll post them here.

some of the cards that will be shown in the future revolve around targeting specific parallel sets (to completion!) but these 2013 topps update target red parallels of clayton kershaw

ronald belisario

and skip schumaker

bring me only slightly closer to finishing that particular dodger team set. maybe someday.

this 1992 panini french sticker of mike scioscia

is the penultimate sticker i need for the team set (now just need the sparkly dodger logo sticker) and this 2016 topps gypsy queen duke snider short print

was also the second-to-last card i needed for the team set. i have since acquired the last card, but i still need that last panini sticker.

this 2022 topps holiday walker buehler card

was a throw in to wear down my credit balance. i am not focused on this team set and still need five other cards to complete it.

i did, however, buy the last five cards i needed to complete the 2002 upper deck 40 man dodger team set. those cards featured brian jordan

mark grudzielanek, paul quantrill, dave hansen, and victor alvarez

not the most obscure bunch of dodgers from that set.

i also targeted examples of cards, as i know i will never complete team sets of such things as 2021 topps uk edition union jack parallels

or 2024 topps heritage high number blue borders

i did complete the dodger team set of 2024 topps heritage high number combo cards with this one (and only) dodger card

and am left needing only shohei ohtani's card to complete my 2025 topps all-star game dodger insert set of all-star game greats after adding this mike piazza card

to my collection.

these two jackie robinson cards - 2025 topps finest finest timelines insert

and 2025 topps series 1 1990 35th anniversary insert

were the last cards i needed for those two team sets. i still have some of the 1990 needs from series 2, though.

my order also paid attention to a couple of my post-dodger player collections, with these 1985 topps tiffany

1988 score glossy

and 1996 fleer ultra gold medallion edition

cards joining my don sutton and fernando valenzuela collections, respectively.

while building my order, i searched for some autographed cards of certain players, including milton bradley who was, for one season, my favorite active dodger. i pulled the trigger on his 2005 topps auto card

for a pretty low price.

the card that started this order was one i saw somewhere. it's a 2024 topps transcendent collection clayton kershaw transcendent icons chrome photo variation

it caught my eye because of the unique angle of the photo and the dodger stadium background. it's not one that is frequently seen on cardboard. i liked it so much, i bought two of them. one goes in the dodger collection, and the other in the dodger stadium collection. 

is this the last of comc for me? maybe. never say never, especially when i come across some harder to find cards that would fit nicely into my collection. still, the shipping will make future purchases slightly less likely. stay tuned i guess.

the luck of the irish

last summer, when i began entering my dodger collection on tcdb, i was surprised to find out that there were a couple of the 1962 topps green tint dodgers that i was missing. i may have ignored them back when i picked up the lee walls, frank howard, and wally moon variations since they aren't as striking as those three (two of which use different photos), but if that were the case i had forgotten about my decision, and present day gcrl wasn't having it! 

i was curious to see if i had a green tint pete richert card in my dupes box, but instead found this one:

yes, the babe ruth dodger card is the other one with a green tint variation, and i actually had one stashed away in a box. with that stroke of luck, i decided to lay out a couple of bucks for the richert variation

so that i could feel complete with my dodger team set.

with st. patrick's day coming up in a couple of days, i may as well continue the green theme and show off some shawn green cards that entered my collection in 2022, and there were a few!

the newest cards come from 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary

those would be the base, xfractor, and black & white mini diamonds refractor. green looks a bit creepy on these cards, like topps put him through a de-aging cgi program.

green wasn't included in the dodgers' 2000 topps stadium club set, which is probably why i did not have his 2000 topps stadium club chrome card until last year

and the same goes for his 2000 topps stadium club chrome refractor card

the checklist i was using was just a straight copy of the non-chrome set. this is one of the things that tcdb did for me - clarify some old team sets that were cobbled together from sometimes less than reliable sources.

here's his 2000 topps stars card

which i think was among my most wanted cards for a while.

green had a second card in the 2000 bowman's best set

and he has a bunch of cards in 2000 topps tek

thanks to all the patterns involved. these four cards got me up to six different patterns, i believe.

i already had his 2003 upper deck first pitch season highlights card, but added another

since it highlights his 4 home run game in milwaukee that i had the good fortune to attend in person. in to the "cards featuring games i have seen in person" mini collection!

2004 bowman chrome

is one of the more forgettable bochro designs with the speed hump. topps wasn't trying very hard.

2004 donruss studio

gives us a shot of downtown la. i've always enjoyed being able to see downtown from dodger stadium.

2004 fleer showcase

captures green with his goatee 

2005 donruss prime patches

is called "prime patches" but this is just a big piece of blue jersey.

2005 topps gallery artist's proof

i like this impressionist rendering of green's swing.

and now for some shiny. sort of.

i have learned that 2001 bowman heritage chrome

does not scan well.

slightly better is 2003 topps heritage chrome

and better than that is 2004 topps heritage chrome

but only because the background wasn't black to start with.

not a lot of difference (besides the card design) between that 2004 heritage chrome and green's 2005 topps heritage chrome card

but the refractor really sings!

one more refractor, this one from 2005 topps chrome 

that's a lot of green, and as any competent leprechaun knows, there is always gold

at the end of the rainbow post.

have a happy and safe st. patrick's day and don't forget your green!

they won one for the baker

it is hard for me to believe that it is already february and that pitchers and catchers will be reporting in just a couple of weeks. it seems like just a month ago (it's been just under three) that the astros won the world series and topps fully engaged in the dusty baker love.

i was there for it, picking up his topps now card that was released the day after the clinching game

along with the one issued the day after the parade in houston

i also picked up his entry in the topps living set

which came out that same week. it makes sense to show baker as the astros manager given the milestones he achieved in 2022, but i will say i was a bit disappointed that topps put tommy john in the set around the same time as a yankee. it is looking like his appearance in the 2021 topps chrome platinum set as a dodger is a one-off as he was also featured as a yankee in 2022 topps archives and chrome black.

enough about john - this post is about johnnie b!  all three of those cards above are welcome additions to my post-dodger dusty baker collection for sure. however, they are not the only baker cards i've added since the end of the world series.

friend of blogs mr. haverkamp sent me an unannounced envelope containing this gem:

which is known as a 1994 san francisco chronicle giants card on the checklist. it's actually the card backing for a pin - you can see where the pin was under the newspaper's phone number.  here's the back:

i am happy to have the card without the pin, to be honest. it's much easier to store!

with all of the attention baker received in 2022, wouldn't it be great if topps gave him a card in 2023 heritage? with his coaching staff? yes, it would be great. i'm not holding my breath though.

mr. haverkamp included a couple more baker goodies for me - these ticket stubs 

from 2001 and 2000 (i put them on the scanner wrong and didn't bother to correct them in post editing). i am a big fan of ticket stubs as souvenirs and like when teams featured players or managers on them. these are also a great addition to my baker collection.

the other item mr. haverkamp sent was one that he wasn't too sure about:

it's dusty's old teammate and first base coach (with the nationals) davey lopes. thankfully, i knew exactly what it was - a "panel" from the 1977 dodgers photo album. it's paper thin and has a bio and stats on the back. it never occurred to me to separate these out from my album, but they are perforated for that purpose. who knew?

in between baker's managerial stints in san francisco and houston, he managed the cubs, reds, and nationals. here's a 2005 topps gold parallel card from his cubs tenure that i added recently

and here's one more dusty baker card that is new-ish to my collection. 

it's baker's card from 2005 topps all-time fan favorites in refractor form! seeing a shiny version of the 1978 design was a trip for me back then.  i am definitely looking forward to 2027 topps heritage and the chrome parallels! of course, this card goes in the dodger collection not the baker post-dodger collection.

many thanks to mr. haverkamp, one of a handful blogosphere mainstays that i have met in person (i recently added to that list, by the way) and a person who has contributed mightily to my dusty baker collection over the years. it is much appreciated, and i'm hoping he continues to keep an eye out for those hard to find regional releases! and to topps, keep making those dusty baker cards!

he's championship material

if you had told me back in 2005 that the dodgers would win the world series in 2020 and there would be world champion relic cards issued the following year, i would have told you that i would own several of those cards. the truth, however, is that i own none. a big part of that is how irrelevant i find most relic cards to be these days. back in 2005 i was still intrigued by them.

i used to buy a couple of boxes of each series of topps flagship each year, and my guaranteed hit in one of my 2005 series 2 boxes was this world champions bat card of dave roberts

roberts began the 2004 season as a dodger but was traded to the red sox at the july 31 deadline. he had stolen 33 bases up to that point of the season and been caught only once. he had worked with maury wills since becoming a dodger to improve his base stealing skills, and said that maury once told him that there would come a time where he would have to steal a base even though everyone in the stadium knew he was going to run.

that moment came for roberts in game 4 the 2004 alcs against the yankees.

the card back spills the beans, but roberts did, in fact, steal a base in that game. it came in the bottom of the 9th, with the red sox down 3 games to none and facing elimination. leading the red sox by a run, mariano rivera walked kevin millar to open the inning and roberts was sent in to pinch run. he stole second on rivera's first pitch to bill mueller and scored on mueller's single on the next pitch. that tied the game and set the stage for david ortiz to walk the yankees off in extra innings.

you know all that, of course, but i can't look at this card without reliving such an exciting half inning that gave lots of fans a glimmer of hope that the yankees would be denied another trip to the world series.

roberts, of course, was the dodger manager when they won it all in 2020, and even though he doesn't have a card in the 2021 topps world champions relic insert set, i suppose i should probably look for a card of a different dodger for the memories it would trigger down the road.