42 for everyone

happy jackie robinson day!

i continue to enjoy seeing and collecting cards featuring the 1947 rookie of the year.

and today is one of the best days to share some new-to-me cards.

it's one of my favorite days of the baseball calendar, and i have a couple new "42" cards to show in addition to the 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary (which completed my dodger team set), the 2022 panini diamond kings art of hitting insert, and the 2012 panini golden age headlines insert card above, whose text continues on the back:

there are still a lot of people who were alive when jackie debuted in the major leagues which blows my mind. just a reminder how recently this actually happened.

these two cards are jackie robinson day variations from 2019 topps gypsy queen, and they feature carlos correa

and whit merrifield

wearing robinson's number 42, and they've been added to my "42" collection. 

i really do like seeing today's players wearing 42 on cardboard, but these cards from 2023 topps archives 

and 2023 topps update

are better at capturing the meaning of his legacy to a fan like me. without jackie robinson and his peers, there is no three-time world series champion mookie betts. 

a true legend.

thank you jackie robinson.

three down, nine to go

some may be aware that i have a "most wanted" list of cards as part of my want list. it's been around since the summer of 2009, and has seen a number of cards listed and removed as my collection has grown. i haven't done a great job of celebrating the arrival of these cards in the last few years, so i decided to focus a post on some of the recently obtained cards from my "nefarious 9".

1986 sportflics decade greats #32 duke snider

number on list: 8

why was it a "most wanted" card?: this card doesn't complete a team set, but it's from a set that i should have already completed so i decided to prioritize it.

how long was it on the list?: this is the reason for this post. i initially didn't recall when i added duke to the list because i didn't document the card his replaced and when that occurred. however, i remembered that fuji had knocked three cards off of my list last fall, and the snider card was one of the ones i added. so, it was on the list for about 3 months, as duke rolled in to my collection in early december.

how was the card obtained? duke's card was part of a sportlots order in december of 2024.

what replaced it on the list? i am continuing to prioritze the completion of my team set, so i added 1986 sportflics decade greats #33 roy campanella

2012 panini golden age #41 jackie robinson

number on list: 3

why was it a "most wanted" card?: outside of the steve garvey card from this set that is in my garvey collection, i didn't own any dodgers. targeting jackie robinson's card was a good start.

how long was it on the list?: i don't know. it was high enough on the list that it preceded the cards from fuji so i really can't say.

how was the card obtained? i added jackie's card to a comc order that i placed in january of 2025. it arrived on march 1, 2025.

what replaced it on the list? i try to replace cards obtained with cards from the same timeframe, so i am looking to complete a dodger team set by adding 2013 topps finest #47 hyun jin ryu to the list.

2023 topps heritage #445 dustin may

number on list: 4

why was it a "most wanted" card?: this short print card completes my 2023 topps heritage dodger team set, including the high numbers release.

how long was it on the list?: i don't know, just like with jackie's card

how was the card obtained? i added may's card to a comc order that i placed in january of 2025. it arrived on march 1, 2025.

what replaced it on the list? i need one more card to complete my dodger team set of 2022 topps chrome refractors, so i added 2022 topps chrome refractor #84 albert pujols to the list

i also keep a list of nine non-dodger cards that i'd like to have, although i don't number them in any way. i did pick up one of those cards in a sportlots order in january:

1996 upper deck collector's choice #299 fernando valenzuela

the card arrived on january 17, 2025 and i replaced it on the list with 1984 topps tiffany #35 don sutton

can you help a blogger out? you will be rewarded!

it's a nice day for a white bordered parallel

it's summer solstice, and it is completely fine to wear white this time of year. i figured it was as good a time as any to show a parallel that i acquired just over a year ago - a panini golden age steve garvey white border card:

there's not much to it, really. here's the regular version for comparison:

the white border looks kind of strange, actually. 

only 46 cards in the set (cards numbered 101-146) were given the parallel treatment, and they are limited to 58 copies, although the cards are not serial numbered. 

i appreciate that panini left garvey's jersey number red here, in what is a nice shot from a home game in dodger stadium. someday i will do some research and figure out what years garvey used rawlings gloves as opposed to louisville slugger.

enjoy the longest day of the year!

of diamond and other kings

not sure if it was don or russ who came up with the concept of 'diamond kings' for their sophomore release, but i was happy to see the subset when opening packs back in 1982. that year, it gave me an extra card of my favorite player (steve garvey) while opening my eyes to cards that were meant to be art - as in, purposefully using aa painting as opposed to bad airbrushing trying to make an altered photograph look semi-real. remember, at that time, i had seen some stuff like the 1978 topps greg minton card. soon, fleer and upper deck were featuring art cards as part of the base set, and it was not a big deal anymore.

anyway, the diamond kings eventually became inserts and were therefore more difficult to track down. 11 years after their inaugural release, the reigning national league rookie of the year was featured, and it took me about 27 years to obtain that card.

eric karros looks pained. now, i wasn't actively looking for that card until i put it on my most wanted list sometime last year, and i finally added it to a comc or sportlots order sometime later.

2005 was a big year for donruss and their diamond kings, as they issued a huge set with a ridiculous number of parallels.  here's one of steve garvey's parallels that i picked up sometime in the last few months

that is a 'green frame' parallel (trust me), numbered to 50.  here's the back:

glorious text on the back as it mentions the game on april 16, 1983 wherein garvey surpassed billy williams on the all-time consecutive games played list. yours truly was at that game, and i've recently been putting together my "games i've attended" mini-collection. so, you will see more about that game in a future post.

over the last few years, panini has continued the diamond kings brand, and in each of the last two releases, they've included steve garvey on their checklist.  unfortunately, they are limited in their print runs, and in 2019, his cards were of the redemption variety.  i was able to secure three redemptions for two different print runs; the purple, numbered to 10

and the holo blue, numbered to 25

the checklist also notes that there is a "base" version that is unnumbered, but i did not see any of those redemptions hit ebay. this year, the diamond king garvey cards are pack inserted, and there are only two varieties. the purple, which is numbered to 20

and a one-of-one.  as you can see above, i managed to pick up the purple card, but the one-of-one went to fellow garvey collector mrmopar.  congrats curt!

as the title of this post mentions, there are other kings than diamond.  case in point, here is a 2012 panini golden age steve garvey mini card that i purchased

it is the fourth variant that i have, and this one is the 'ty cobb" back variation

i was not sure if cobb was the king of the smoking tobacco world, or if he had his own line of tobacco and it was the king of the smoking tobacco world, but recent (2018) developments have shed light on this topic. apparently, there was a product that featured cobb although it was not widely distributed, nor did it stay on the market for long. so, cards with this particular back are rare.

another type of diamond king to show off are some of the cards i've received in the recent 'diamond 9' giveaways at the diamond king blog!  kevin has been offering up some great cards, and i've been able to send him a few as well.

some of the cards he has sent me include this 1997 topps finest brett butler refractor

super shiny! 

i was also able to claim a 2005 donruss champions j.d. drew parallel

which is serial numbered to the number of time drew landed on the disabled list

kidding, of course. it just felt like 75 times.

another card for the dodger collection that i claimed was this 2011 bowman platinum blake smith xfractor

i have claimed a few non-dodgers, including a 2008 upper deck baseball heroes card featuring vladimir guerrero

for my big daddy vladdy collection, plus a couple of braves cards.  this 2006 topps chuck james black parallel

and this 2011 topps lineage jason heyward stand-up insert

were added to a couple of trades that i've made recently that were borne out of a comment on another blog. i will have a post dedicated to those trades in the future, but it won't do the trades justice.

thanks kevin and don and russ and dick perez, and even ty cobb i suppose. kings all around!