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.

do you miss upper deck baseball?

i was a late adopter to upper deck baseball. i wasn't buying a whole lot of cards by the time 1989 rolled around, and at that time i was loyal to topps when it came to baseball with my limited hobby spending. i did buy a lot of upper deck hockey starting with their 1990-91 release through 1994 or so. still, i didn't pay a lot of attention to upper deck baseball until i saw some 1992 packs for sale at my college campus convenience store.

later on in the 90's, i went back and started building the 1989 set and completed numerous dodger team sets from their flagship (and other releases). reading "card sharks" in the early days of blogging gave me a new appreciation for what the founders of the company were trying to do. as it mentioned in the book, the cards were certainly an upgrade to what the other companies were putting out at the time.

they put out some weird stuff, too, like this 1997 upper deck sp special fx card of eric karros

which demonstrates their commitment to holographic imagery and die-cut experimentation. 

by the end of the 1990's, i was all-in on upper deck baseball. they had, it seemed, more sets with legends than topps and i collected many of them. maybe fleer was the only one giving them a run for their money in that regard. here's a 2005 upper deck artifacts don drysdale card

which is the only one of four dodger "legends" short printed as part of the team set that i currently own.

they put out repetitive and redundant sets, too, like their annual obsession with "x". these three dodgers are from 2009 upper deck spx

they look pretty good scanned, i will admit.

my favorite upper deck baseball flagship set is probably 1994

there was a lot of "stadium club" level photography as andre dawson's card can attest, and i liked the design. topps, of course, took the "phantom zone" inset image and used it in their bowman release the next year, as well as in their 1996 flagship set. that dawson, by the way, is the "electric diamond" parallel, which was upper deck's answer to topps' "gold" full set parallels.

a couple of things that were pointed out in "card sharks" were the large numbers and the holograms on the card backs

one of the pet peeves of the founders (who owned a card shop) were small and/or hard to read card numbers. i am also very frustrated by that as my eyesight declines. the 1990 eddie murray card above is testament to upper deck's commitment to legible card numbers for sure. i don't know if anyone was clamoring for hologram authentication technology back then, but it certainly was a differentiator from the other card manufacturers at the beginning of the junk wax era when reprinting of key cards was somewhat rampant (of course, upper deck reprinted their own cash cow - the 1989 ken griffey jr rookie card - at will).

eventually, upper deck began to stray from some of these design tenants. the numbers got smaller

and there were releases later on in their existence that lacked the holograms on the backs, too. however, in the mid-2000's, they introduced my favorite innovation - one i wish topps would fully embrace. they put the set name on the card back

this was done as far back as 2004 from what i can find - some of their sweet spot base cards from 2004 say "2004 sweet spot" on the backs - but their flagship set in 2007 seems to be the first primary set that included this for all cards. it was issued in two series, and they identified each one on the backs. that nomar garciaparra checklist card is from series 1. that's great to know, although i consider series 1 and 2 of flagship releases to really just be one total set (although i have stopped combining the checklists in my want lists). still, it's a nice touch - one that topps has sort of embraced by putting "series one" or "chrome" under the numbers of their base card releases.

however, here are a couple of insert cards from 2024 topps chrome releases

gerrit cole got an "all-etch" insert in both topps chrome and topps chrome update. they are different, but how do you know which is from which set? in this case, topps added a "u" to the card number

so those who understand the nomenclature might also understand that one of the cards is from the update set. still, would it be so hard to add text above the copyright box stating which sets these cards come from?

here are another two cards, this time from 2025 topps series 1 and series 2

coby mayo was featured in the "stars of mlb" insert set in both releases. here are the card backs:

there is really no way to know which is from series 1 and which is from series 2 without finding a checklist database as topps even restarted the numbering with series 2. i am pretty sure that series 1 is on the left, but i forget at this point.

upper deck treated their cross-release inserts differently. here are a couple of starquest inserts from 2009

the one on the left is one i own and is from their flagship set - series 1. i know this because the back says so

the one on the right is not in my collection but i know straight away that it is from a different release - in this case 2009 upper deck first edition - because they identify that set on both the front of the card and its back:

they are both numbered sq-9, but the set information tells me that they come from different sets. so helpful.

now, upper deck wasn't perfect by any means - check out these 2007 nomar garciaparra and takashi saito cards

that are from series 1

now check out these nomar garciaparra and takashi saito cards

that say they are from series 2

trust, but verify.

i do wish topps would go all-in with set identification and include the information on every card they print. they do it on their autograph and relic cards (for the most part) as well as the base cards (again, for the most part). it would make me miss upper deck a whole lot less.

memorial patches for whitey herzog

it's been almost a year since whitey herzog passed away at the age of 92. the hall of fame manager led four different clubs following his playing career, and i first knew of him as the royals' skipper thanks to his 1978 topps card. the royals were his third managerial stop, following short stints in texas and california. he is most closely associated, however, with the st. louis cardinals.

after his death, the cardinals added memorial patches to their jerseys in their standard style for legends of the franchise, which includes their retired number and a facsimile signature. they also color coordinate the patches with their various colored uniforms, and i think we have examples of each of them on cardboard.

here's the home whites on masyn winn's 2024 topps archives at the break insert

2024 topps chrome update included a tommy pham card (here's the xfractor)

with the away grays.

masyn winn's 2025 topps card features the powder blues

and sonny gray's card from that same set shows the cream throwbacks

and it's back to 2024 topps chrome update to see brandon crawford and the red version of the patch

as part of their city connect unis.

herzog's cardinals won three pennants and one world series in his 11 seasons. he is third all-time in wins behind fellow hall of famers red schoendienst and tony larussa.

bonus content!

in 2023, the cardinals wore a similar patch for bruce sutter. they didn't wear them for long - maybe about a month - and the only example on cardboard that i was aware of shows the away grays. recently i found jordan walker's 2023 topps upate black gold insert

that shows the home white version of sutter's patch. no powder blues (so far) but happy to have this example.

the '90s are here

last season, the dodgers had more players wearing numbers from the 90's than in any other year. kevin kiermaier flipped his usual 39 (retired by the dodgers for roy campanella) and wore 93 during his stint with the team. here he is on a 2024 topps chrome update prism refractor

short-timer dinelson lamet wore 94 during his stint with the dodgers. he pitched in three games and was featured in 2024 topps update

his three dodger appearances plus a topps card matches fellow 90's numbered dodger onelki garcia, but is still more than zach lee and bruce brubaker.

and then there is landon knack, who wore 96 for the dodgers last season.

that is a 2024 topps chrome update aqua & blue lava lamp refractor, by the way.

not pictured are michael peterson (i was really hoping to see a dodger card of the brit) who wore 90, and joe kelly who turned to number 99 when he vacated 17 for shohei ohtani, but hasn't had any cards released with his new, higher number.

99 was first pioneered for the dodgers by manny ramirez, seen here on a 2010 bowman chrome refractor card

and was also worn by hyun-jin ryu, who is featured on this 2014 topps tribute forever young relics orange parallel

i remember it sort of being a big deal when joe beimel became the first dodger to wear a number from the 90's in 2006. these days, it's just another series of numbers.