deja vu, but not all over again

a week or so before christmas i found myself across the border in wisconsin. i chose not to pick up any new glarus, but i did make a stop at iconic sports cards just off of i-94 in hudson. it was the second time i've been to the shop, and this time was as positive as the last.

i headed over to the monster boxes sorted by team but first saw a random box of miscellaneous cards sitting on a table. this 1996 pinnacle summit card

was fronting one of the rows. i grabbed it thinking that it was probably not anything on my dodger team set list because the front has it as a very clear jason kendall card. the back

does identify piazza and includes a dodger logo. at any rate, it did not look familiar to me so it was among the cards i purchased. when i got home, i realized that this card was on my team want list and that it was one i did not previously own. i was sort of surprised that i need cards from a mid-90's set like this but i guess i do.

it's getting to the point where i can't just pick up a panini clayton kershaw parallel and safely assume it is a need, but this 2021 mosaic mosaic parallel

was one that i didn't previously own.

boxes like these are good for finding base cards from higher end or obscure releases, and i found a 2021 topps tribute duke snider card 

and a 2025 topps all-star game hyeseong kim card

as evidence.

i don't think anyone was asking for a chrome version of allen & ginter, but in 2022 there was a chrome release separate from the regular a&g set. this walker buehler card

is a numbered magenta parallel

parallels like that are the primary thing i look for these days in these sorts of situations. here's a 2024 topps update gold parallel of dinelson lamet's card

along with three parallels from 2024 topps chrome update/2024 topps chrome sapphire edition

sapphire is something that shows up a lot in boxes like this. i am guessing people buy the sets and pull a couple of specific cards and dump the rest?

in addition to parallels, i am on the lookout for inserts. here is a foursome of freddie freeman inserts that were all new to me

those are from 2024 topps cosmic chrome, 2024 topps heritage high numbers, 2025 topps, and 2025 topps chrome, respectively.

one more dodger insert to show - jason wrobleski's 2025 topps silver pack card

at some point, checklists switched from calling these "silver pack" cards to "chrome" cards but that gets confusing when there are 35th anniversary cards (without the "mojo") in chrome releases so i've stuck with the silver pack nomenclature.

the last time i visited the shop, i picked up a couple of non-certified autographs, and i grabbed one this time around

the late tim crews' 1989 donruss card is really a nice looking card in my opinion and i am happy to be able to add a card he (supposedly) signed to my collection.

it wasn't all dodgers that i purchased - here's a 2024 topps cosmic chrome willie mays galactic greatness insert

and a 2025 bowman dylan crews rookie of the year favorites insert

that i added to my stack.

one more that i will show is this 2022 topps chrome sapphire owen miller green parallel

it's a nice double play card and is numbered to 75 on the back. in all, i wound up with 29 singles for which my cost was $15.

i asked the guy at the counter to grab a hanger pack of 2025 topps allen & ginter, and here's what that contained

it was nice to find a new orel hershiser card in a pack. the mel ott card at the end is a short print

and it sort of looks like the short prints have slightly different coloring.

my pack also included a francisco lindor foil filigree parallel

along with a pair of mini parallels

one gold (obviously), one base mini (less obvious)

the main (full size) inserts this year are "wicked curves" and "sweet victory" and i got one of each - both yankees

the checklists for these inserts is not bad, with some players and moments that don't typically get a lot of play in the current hobby (like sparky lyle) showing up.

i also asked the guy at the counter if he had any old 9-pocket pages lying around from people bringing in old binders of cards to sell. the card shop in the western twin cities used to have some of these binders but i hadn't noticed any the last time i was there. and, the monthly card show used to have one or two people selling binders with junk wax era star cards that i bought once or twice more for the pages. i used these pages for sending cards and i had recently run out of my most recent batch.

anyway, the guy looked over and picked up a binder and handed it to me. it was very clearly a 1993 leaf collection of national league teams

i am guessing that the former owner put this together sometime after 1997 as the brewers were in the american league when the set was released but they were in the binder. since i was in wisconsin, here's a look at some of the brew crew cards that were in the binder

i wasn't looking for ultra pro platinum sheets to cut up, but that's what i got. there was no charge for this binder or these sheets or cards, which included a couple of the heading to the hall inserts

pretty cool move and much appreciated.

in all, my total was $22 and i handed over $2 plus my second 2025 topps chrome shohei ohtani card which was easier for me to find than many of the cards i picked up at the shop. it will probably be a few months, but i'll be back to wisconsin and this shop for sure.

ivan rodriguez is in my hall of famer collection

it's a bit of an ivan rodriguez week here, as the hall of fame catcher was featured in friday's post thanks to the rangers retiring his number 7. this post is all about him entering my hall of famer collection with this card as his entry:

that is a 2021 topps tribute tribute to topps 1982 autograph numbered 94/99. here's the back:

topps provides some of the highlights of irod's career that qualified him for cooperstown, so i won't be repetitive. instead, i will note that one of the reasons i am just now adding him to my collection is that i wanted a card that showed rodriguez from his tenure with the tigers.

i know he spent most of his career with the rangers, but it was his time in detroit that sticks in my mind the most. that's because it was during that time that my son started catching, and he asked me to add detroit's old english "d" to his helmet so he would look like pudge. of course, it wasn't too long after that that he pivoted to joe mauer as his favorite player and catcher icon. still, i will alsways think of rodriguez as a tiger first.

he did win a pennant in detroit, and was an all-star in each of his four full seasons there, so it's not like he wasn't producing as a tiger. welcome to the collection, pudge!

i used to show my entire hall of famer collection in these posts, but not anymore. as a reminder, you can see my complete hall of famer collection here.

tribute-iful

aside from 1978 and maybe 1981, i think 2001 was the year that blew my mind the most when it came to collecting. discovering cards existed in 1978 was obviously the seminal moment in my collecting experience, and having three manufacturers make full sized sets in 1981 was a game changer. however, the sets that were released in 2001 seemed to align with my collecting sensibilities like no other year.

my appetite for retired players appearing in sets had been whetted by upper deck's 1999 century legends offering, and fleer's 2001 greats of the game set, separated now from sports illustrated, was an instant favorite. add to that the inaugural topps heritage, tribute, and archives (yes, topps did three archives sets in the 1990's - 1953, 1954, and brooklyn dodgers - but i am considering those to be different from the set issued in 2001) sets, plus upper deck legends, upper deck vintage, upper deck's ud decade 1970's, and the explosion of game-used cards in sets like leaf's certified materials, and my head was spinning. i am sure i spent more money on those products than i had ever spent on cards before, and i have completed most of those sets that i mentioned (still working on heritage!). still, my favorite set of the bunch was the very first topps tribute set.

that set focused on retired numbers, and subsequent years had themes like hall of famers, perennial all-stars, milestone moments, and the like. i haven't paid a lot of attention to tribute in recent years, but still add some cards to my collection if the opportunity and mood align.  this year, however, i was on the hunt for some tribute cards, as steve garvey was included on the autograph portion of the checklist.

his cards came in base (/199) form

as well as blue (/150):

green (/99):

purple (/50):

and orange (/25):

there is also red (/10) which i haven't acquired. yet.

i did score the black 1/1 version though

so i will try my hardest to complete the print run with that missing red parallel and possibly a printing plate.

i was disappointed that garvey wasn't included in the 2001 version of tribute even though his number is retired by the padres, but these cards are so fantastic looking that i might just forgive topps for that oversight.