be my be my a-a-angel

i see that the cult is (or at least was) touring with black rebel motorcycle club. that would be a great show. i skipped their twin cities appearance, however, as i have previously seen both bands in concert (each as the headliner) at 1st ave, and i don't think my current aged ears could take the pounding.

lil' devil is a song form the cult's "electric" album, which was a shiny followup to their fantastic album "love". it's a catchy tune in which ian astbury implores his lil' devil to become his lil' angel, and that is where the title of this post comes from. what i am trying to say is that i recently bought a big lot of angel cards.

the reason i did so is sort of dumb (it had to do with combined shipping), but the price was right and i figured i would get some new vladimir guerrero cards out of the deal, which i did.

2005 donruss zenith vladimir guerrero epix orange play

these epix things are pretty neat. this one name checks another former favorite player of mine, don baylor, on the back:

2006 topps stars insert

2008 topps stars insert

so not a whole lot of new vladdy cards, but i did add a few other halos to various other parts of my collection.

for the double play collection a cognac parallel from 2011 topps

a base card from 2006 topps chrome

and a gold parallel from 2011 bowman

for the dodger stadium collection, a pair of parallel cards from 2011 bowman draft picks & prospects

for the name/number on the back collection, a couple of jered weaver cards from 2011 and 2012 topps update

and for the lurker collection, one from 2021 topps

featuring shohei ohtani in the background.

speaking of ohtani, the lot included an insert from 2021 topps big league

but not anything else of his. i am not surprised, although there were a fair number of mike trout cards. one of the more mundane is this 2021 topps update insert

there were a bunch more inserts of various angel players through the years, but there really isn't much of a market for anthony rendon or josh hamilton cards these days. i am glad that i salvaged a few cards from the lot.

i also received some angel cards from nick, who is a fellow vlad collector. he sent me a 2009 topps 206 card

i was all in and completed the 2002 206 set, including all the variations, but was not nearly as interested in the 2009 version.  he also sent a 2022 panini donruss card

that i think would look better if panini had stayed true to the original 1988 design.

my collection overlaps with nick's in other ways, as we both collect double play turns, and he sent along a 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg card

plus a few others for me to add to my collection

the schoendienst card in the middle top is a sample, if i recall correctly.

and, of course, nick sent some dodgers. here's a mashup between 1988 donruss and 1988 donruss baseball's best featuring will smith

no logo catcher cards are generally the best of the bunch.

i already had this 2001 upper deck legends of new york jackie robinson card

but i wanted to show it to you because i just noticed that upper deck got the month wrong for jackie's debut which is ridiculous. inexcusable, really.

very rarely do i get dodger team issue cards in a trade package, but nick sent along a couple of cards from the 1989 dodgers smokey set 

wally moon and jim lefebvre are a couple of dodgers that i can appreciate for sure. 

finally, in addition to that angels lot i mentioned at the start, i bought a couple of additional large random lots for some reason. there was a lot of panini stuff, and i found a few cards to keep for my collection, including a pair of 2022 panini donruss jose altuve cards

for the double play collection, and a pair of bryce harper cards from the same set

for the name/number on the back collection.

the seller who sold me the angel lot doesn't seem to be selling anymore which is fine as i am trying to stay away from purchases like this now, but who knows if the mood will strike again.

ciao baby!

matt kemp held on, but topps didn't

matt kemp is my current favorite non-dodger, and i was looking forward to adding a 2020 topps update card to my "favorite non-dodger" year by year mini collection. kemp spent the entire 2020 season with the rockies, but topps left him out of the update set.  they did include him in the topps now summer camp set, so i bought one of those cards instead.

oddly enough, kemp wasn't in series 1 or 2, but he was included in 2020 topps gallery and 2020 topps fire - both as a marlin.  i only have the fire card

which i bought on sportlots sight unseen thinking it would be a rockies kemp card. i've since sent it to nick as a "short-term stop".

for the record, here is the other kemp card in my "favorite non-dodger" collection, a 2019 topps big league gold parallel of kemp with the reds

i actually saw kemp play in person as a red - it was the game in which he hit his only home run with the team.  

previously, kemp had been my favorite dodger from 2007 through 2014, and he is represented in my "favorite dodger" year by year mini collection by these cards:

2007 topps finest rookie finest moments

2008 upper deck timeline 2004 legends timeless teams

2009 upper deck sp authentic

2010 topps chrome

2011 bowman blue parallel

2012 topps museum collection

2013 topps chrome chrome connections die-cut

2014 topps archives

the collection is a good use of some of my dodger doubles. of course, i pick up other kemp dodger cards for my dodger collection as well. here are a couple that i added to my collection a few months ago:

2014 topps gypsy queen blue framed parallel 

2011 topps allen & ginter mini framed silk #/10

2018 topps update photo variation

i hope kemp is able to continue playing in 2021, and i will continue to follow his exploits, but i think i might find a new favorite non-dodger who plays a bit more regularly. any suggestions?