a vintage chase of a different sort

with only two cards to go in my 1955 bowman set build, i don't have a lot of vintage to chase at the moment. i thought about reinstating my "sampler sets" of those topps flagship sets that i have not completed (1952-1956, 1958-1964, 1966-1969) and i just might do that although i think i still have most of the cards that comprised that part of my collection so there probably aren't a whole lot of cards to chase there either - mostly dodgers that migrated to my team collection.

what i have done is seek out some topps vintage stock cards for my collection. after seeing some from 2025 topps series 1, i was intrigued enough to pick up a couple of examples. here's clayton kershaw's card

just like last year, topps reimagined the current design for a simpler time. here's the back:

kind of christmasy.

i also picked up chris taylor's card

because it uses completely different colors than kershaw's, although the back is the same

and then i had the opportunity to add one of the checklist cards

that had another color scheme. here's its back:

which happens to be the only one of the three that is readily legible.

i also went back and found some vintage stock parallels from other topps releases for not a lot of money. here's a 2018 topps brandon mccarthy card

and a 2020 topps update terrance gore card

while i was happy for the short-timer gore to get a dodger card, this is probably one of my least favorite dodger cards in recent years because of the photoshopping and the design. but, i turned a blind eye to that fact when i found the vintage stock card for a very low price.

from 2022, here's tyler anderson's 2022 topps update card

in vintage stock form, and here's a dodger checklist card from 2022 topps flagship

that came from sluggo quite a while ago. that card is interesting because it appears that topps played with the image to make it look like an older photograph. vintage, if you will, in terms of irregular exposure. 

of course, 2024 was the first year that topps took vintage stock parallels in a whole different direction, and i recently added another example to my collection by way of jason heyward's card

i'm still annoyed by the addition of his number 23 to his jackie robinson day jersey.

another vintage pickup of mine has been a couple more dodger vintage embossed buyback cards from 2003 topps all-time fan favorites. you'll recall the 1979 steve garvey card i acquired, and now here is a 1975 topps roy campanella card (with yogi berra)

that includes the non-foil stamp. here's a photo that tries to show it in more detail

love seeing the "la" cap on campy!

similarly, here's a 1978 topps tommy john card with the stamp

with a photo for your benefit

the placement of these stamps seems to have been pretty willy nilly. for the record, the campy is listed as having 11 copies and the tommy john is listed at just 10. rare vintage adjacent pickups for my collection!

i really do doubt that i will chase any more vintage sets to completion. i would like to finish my 1953 topps dodger team set, but even needing only four cards (255 dixie howell, 258 jim gilliam, 263 john podres, 272 bill antonello) might be too much. luckily there are "other" vintage forms to keep an eye out for!

so much more than green

it's that day of the year when i typically show off some shawn green cards that i've acquired over the past few months. i don't aim to disappoint, so here's his 2024 topps archives fan favorites autograph

on the 2000 design. here's the back:

green's original 2000 topps card was one of the first to show him in dodger blue, but it featured a posed spring training shot. i like this card image more. i do wonder about the back - why did topps go for cities/states rather than team nicknames? the back of green's original 2000 card says "blue jays" all the way down. 

here's another one - 2005 donruss leather & lumber naturals insert

and one more - 2001 topps hd

that card was the penultimate one i needed to complete the dodger team set. here's the last card i needed - it's kevin brown

and brown is, of course, not green.

to continue the green theme, have a look at some other newish cards to my collection:

2009 upper deck spectrum matt kemp green

2011 bowman matt kemp green

2011 topps triple threads roy campanella emerald

2020 topps finest mookie betts green

that one came from sluggo a few months back, as did this next one

2021 topps walker buehler green foil

2021 topps gypsy queen walker buehler green

2022 topps gypsy queen max muncy green

2022 topps mookie betts gypsy queen green

and now back to 2024 topps archives for steve garvey's fan favorites autograph, in green parallel form

here's the back:

steve garvey side eye!

i don't care too much for colored borders on the 1995 design, but i did buy garvey's gold parallel, too.

it's more of a 2002 topps flagship gold than, say, a 2015 topps update gold

as modeled by joc pederson

2015 was a good year for colored parallels due to the card design and patterning of the border. here's a black parallel, also from update, of brett anderson

and, for comparative purposes, here's a black parallel from 2012 topps update (featuring jamey wright)

10 years later, we have a tyler anderson royal blue parallel from 2022 topps update

i've seen a couple of these royal blue parallels that almost look black

how about some purple? here's a 2010 topps chrome russell martin purple refractor

plus a 2012 bowman chrome ted lilly purple refractor

and a 2013 bowman chrome andre ethier purple refractor

it's not as bright as ethier's but i like lilly's dusk at dodger stadium card a lot more.

here are some 2013 topps chrome orange refractors

i am just two dodgers away from a complete team set of those.

pink is a color used on cards, too, and here's a 2020 topps chrome pink refractor parallel of mookie betts

i thought that this next one was also a pink refractor, but it turned out not to be.

that's a 2022 topps chrome magenta refractor parallel, sent by sluggo. it's numbered to 399 on the back

which was the only way i knew it wasn't pink. once i got the card to my dodger binders, i saw that the pink refractors from 2022 are a lighter shade.

here are a couple of cards dressed in yellow - 2020 topps update clayton kershaw

and 2024 topps emmett sheehan

the 2024 full border works better for colorization than the file folder border on 2020 cards.

i recently ordered some cards from burbank, including two copies of this 2011 topps rafael furcal red parallel

this is a factory set exclusive parallel, numbered to 245. i got one for the dodger collection and one for the double play collection.

i also ordered a couple of yasiel puig parallels from 2016 topps triple threads

those are amethyst and emerald, which are fancier ways of saying purple and green. however, let's stick with emerald as i show you the largest color border endeavor i took on over the past few weeks.

i completed my 2013 topps emerald parallel dodger team set with these three cards 

plus zack greinke's

when these were first introduced in 2013, i was really smitten, but at some point i stopped working on the team set. i'm glad to have it done now.

i also completed the update team set in emerald fashion

with hyun-jin ryu

and yasiel puig

rookies being the last couple of cards i needed.

one reason the color cards from 2013 struck a chord with me was the expansive border space, and now i've started working on obtaining the last few walmart blue 

and target red

parallels i need from 2013 to complete team sets in those colors, too. wish me the luck of the irish!