we've come a long way from the 1970's when there was one major card release to chase, along with some oddball sets that were fairly easy to ignore if you so chose. there weren't too many cards of retired players, so photos were assumedly easy to come by to populate those few sets. there were many similarities between the annual topps set and, say, the photos used for the hostess set, but they weren't the same.
with some recent additions to my garvey collection, i've noticed some repeat photos (just as i did in
late 2022). it doesn't annoy as much as it did a few years ago, but with all of the releases and parallels i will admit to some fatigue. still it is up to me to buy them or not so i am not complaining. much. this is a long post so bail out now if you have no interest in seeing a bunch of steve garvey cards from the last 50 years or so.
back in 1991, this card
was issued by impel (i think) called "line drive". the set featured nothing but retired players, and used the same photos there were used in the 1991 swell baseball greats set
i didn't notice this at the time, because i was not really chasing garvey oddballs or really anything other than topps flagship back in '91.
by the time 2004 rolled around and upper deck released their annual legends set (this time they added "timeless teams" to the title, i did a bit of a double take at the photo used on one of the four garvey cards
that is one of his certified autograph cards in the set (i recently picked up that second version so i would have one in the dodger collection). a year later, donruss joined in the fun, using that same photo for their ridiculously paralleled studio portraits release. here are a few cards from that set that i've added over the last year
that's the studio red black & white version
numbered to 45
that's the diamond kings blue
numbered to 50
that's the leather & lumber blue black & white
numbered to 35
that's the throwback threads white
numbered to 30
and that's the zenith sepia
numbered to 45
in 2012, topps used the photo (for the first time, i believe) in their triple threads set
and then it showed up again in 2013 on a bunt digital card
seeing that card got me excited for 2020 heritage, but garvey was not included anywhere in that set, unfortunately.
the photo appeared again last year on garvey's 2023 topps allen & ginter cards
i went ahead and chased the parallels and added a few since the last time
i posted about the garveys in the set, including the black bordered mini
and the brooklyn back mini
along with the base card from the "x" release
and the mini, too
as if that weren't enough, the same photo was used for garvey's card in the topps living set
which is almost the highest numbered garvey card
he's #686 in the 1972 set. once i saw that tommy john was included in the living set, i was pretty sure garvey would get there, too, as both have been featured in recent topps releases as autograph subjects. speaking of which...
yes, topps used the photo on the 2023 heritage dual 1974 mvp autograph card of garvey and jeff burroughs. here's the back
i would guess that i've seen maybe five of those cards up for sale in the last year, so i was happy to grab one. note that, in true modern heritage fashion, topps photoshopped the background of the photo.
i also added another 2023 heritage garvey card a few months ago - his flashbacks auto relic
here's the back
not sure why folks get a card like that graded, but to each their own.
i've seen that photo before, both on a postcard type issue and a card. topps used it in 2011 in their marquee set
red patch!
i believe the first time topps repeated a photo on a garvey card was that same year. back in 2002, they gave us this dual relic with gil hodges
in their tribute release. then, in 2011, they recycled that photo for a topps 60 relic card
the photo is reminiscent of the one used on garvey's 1972 topps card,
and that photo seems to be one of their standbys for new garvey cards. here's yet another 2023 topps heritage card from my collection
that uses the photo, and here's his 2016 topps archives card
that was, i believe, the first instance of reusing that particular shot. it most recently showed up on 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary
which is ok because the early career photo works well for garvey's first appearance on the 1952 design.
archives was a double disappoint to me in 2016 in terms of garvey cards, as this was his card in the snapshots release
that's just his 1976 topps photo
recycled. i thought the whole point of the snapshots release was for topps to used photos from their archives. maybe they sold all of the unused garvey photos through their vault store on ebay. who knows.
here's a 2022 topps allen & ginter x red parallel mini
that i bought last fall. it's numbered to 5
and features another photo that was reused that same year on garvey's chrome platinum anniversary cards. i've added a few more of the garvey parallels to my collection since
the first post on the subject last september
yellow ray wave
platinum toile white blue
blue atomic
fuchsia atomic
platinum toile cream rose gold
and red atomic
all of those card images are posed photos, but garvey does get an action shot onto cardboard every once in awhile. here's his 2023 topps chrome black base auto
and his 2023 topps museum collection base auto
that use the same photo. this photo was also used in 2022 on
garvey's stadium club autograph cards.
topps used a different action photo of garvey for his 2023 finest autos - i have the base
and blue
versions, but used that same photo on his 2023 pristine cards.
i've picked up his base
gold
numbered to 50
purple
numbered to 99
loose cards so far, along with his encased refractor
and blue refractor
cards. the photo used on the finest and pristine cards was familiar to me because topps used it back in 2017 on their bunt digital release
i am glad to have the photo on real, tangible cards now, but i still wish they would have printed up their digital cards!
speaking of which, in 2023 topps issued this bunt digital card of the garv
i am thinking we will see this photo on physical cardboard at some point in the future.
i realize that there are a limited supply of photos of garvey from his playing days so i will take what i can get. i will say, however, as i get older i am less inclined to chase everything with garvey's photo on it. despite what the evidence presented in this post might indicate.
thanks for making it through the post! i promise i will limit tomorrow's post to just one garvey card.
i did not have any 2003 pristine cards in my collection until late last year as it was way off of my radar. also, i have no idea what happened to paul loduca's uniform in that photo. at no point did the dodgers wear black uniforms, and he is still wearing a dodger uniform in the picture. 
i didn't pick up any of this set, either, but i was acutely aware of pristine in 2005 because of....
don newcombe
reveals anything. these uncirculated refractors are numbered to 549
the dodger infielder who was left out was bill russell, so that means that davey lopes (not pictured) and steve garvey got cards.
truth be told, it was primarily the fact that garvey was on the checklist that i paid close attention to the set. as it stands, i am missing don zimmer's base card although i have his uncirculated card.
when i saw that the 2023 set was coming out, i noticed that the design wasn't too different from the 2022 version. i figured i would join the group break and that would be it. 
a steve garvey refractor (!)
plus all-star cards of freddie freeman
and tony gonsolin
and encased pink /15
parallels.
