the finest cards not from the national

i saw fuji post a blog bat around yesterday about not being at the national. of course, chris started the bat around asking folks to post show worthy cards in lieu of attending the convention in chicago. well, i am not going to go that route, but i will share some of the recent additions to my collection that i might have found at the national if there were ever a return of bargain boxes.

these cards from 2026 topps finest are the newest to my collection, arriving in yesterday's mail.

yoshinobu yamamoto topps team finest insert

kirk gibson finest timelines insert

love this card. seeing another vin scully call on a card - especially one that features this moment - is fantastic. the back also shares jack buck's call

which i am fond of as well. i also added the card in refractor fashion

as denoted on the back

as you might suspect, i actually purchased two of each of these so that i could put one set in my dodger collection and one in my collection of cards featuring games that i have seen in person.

also in the mail with those cards yesterday was this 2025 topps update insert

commemorating a first pitch at dodger stadium by this gentleman name miyavi.

another card i received last week was this 2021 topps archives snapshots mookie betts 

it completes the (small) dodger team set for me.

the remainder of these cards are ones that have been in my scanned folder for a while, and it's time to show them on the blog. nothing big here, but the types of cards that i've found in dig boxes at past shows.

2004 fleer greats of the game blue parallels of davey lopes

and johnny podres

2013 topps triple threads amethyst matt kemp

and amber duke snider

2014 topps opening day blue foil parallels of carl crawford and hanley ramirez

2020 topps museum collection base and copper parallels of cody bellinger and sandy koufax

2023 topps update royal blue alex vesia

2024 topps cosmic chrome mike piazza galactic greatness insert

2025 topps holofoil parallels of joe kelly 

and justin wrobleski

that scanned differently for some reason

2023 topps clayton kershaw flagship insert

are those cards considered inserts? regardless, it's a bit odd to not be finding many new kershaw cards now that he is retired. chasing his stuff was a big part of the hobby for me the last 18 years so this year has been a bit of an adjustment. thankfully, there are still a ton of his older cards that i can chase. 

2024 topps allen & ginter minis of kershaw

and freddie freeman, 

although freeman's is an a&g back

2025 topps allen & ginter minis of freeman

and blake snell

and this time, snell's is the a&g back

i did find some bargain boxes at the national last year, but the primary reason i made the trip was to do the meet & greet with steve garvey and get a photo and autograph from the first baseman for the team of my youth. it was a great success as far as i am concerned. 

no in person autographs for me to show, but i'll share this 2025 topps museum collection sticker auto/triple relic card of the garv

that is my lone example from the legion of auto-relic cards that he had in the set.

there is a chance that i make it to the national next year in detroit, but regardless, i am sure i will have some cards to show off should this bat around be around again next year.

where has all the panini gone

about a month ago, i stopped in at twin cities sportscards to peruse their wares. i was really hoping that they would have some 2025 topps chrome platinum anniversary in stock (and better yet, busted), but they did not. they still had the nickel boxes and team sorted quarter/fifty cent boxes, however, so i spent a bit of time looking through those cards.

usually, this is where i find the panini and bowman cards that i add to my collection. it turns out that they don't get topps product directly for some fanatics-related reason. so, they have a lot of panini. anyway, even those releases seemed to be in short supply in terms of singles. i did find a 2025 panini prizm gil hodges blue ice parallel

along with a couple of base cards (2025 panini prizm and 2025 panini select) of dodger farmhand james tibbs iii

of course, these aren't dodger cards of tibbs. one is a san francisco giants card (the prizm)

and the other (the select) is a boston red sox card

tibbs was sent by the giants to boston in the rafael devers trade. the dodgers then picked him up in the dustin may trade, and now tibbs is raking in the minors. i am guessing he is going to be dealt later this month to yet another team (the tigers?) in a deadline deal.

i found some other cards, but not as many as i had hoped. so, i'll take this opportunity to fill out the remainder of the post with bowman and panini cards from my scanned folder.

this 2026 bowman mookie betts card

was a recent throw-in from an ebay seller.

these next several cards are remnants from a trade with sluggo from a couple of years ago. 

going back to 2018, here's a donruss card of corey seager

which is actually the blank back version

also from 2018, this donruss optic year in review card of cody bellinger

completed the dodger team set for me (there are two bellinger cards in this insert set)

here's a 2021 bowman cody bellinger 1991 bowman refractor insert

along with a 2021 bowman's best albert pujols refractor parallel

more 2021 panini stuff with a chronicles sandy koufax revolution groove parallel

a mosic cody bellinger will to win insert

a couple of mosaic reactive orange mosaic parallels of mookie betts and seager

a mosaic koufax all-time greats insert

and a prizm koufax old school insert

2022 was also well represented, with a freddie freeman bowman heritage image variation

a diamond kings pee wee reese short print

recognizable by the card number being greater than 100

a dk artist's palette trea turner insert

and a donruss walker buehler holo orange parallel

along with a donruss max muncy trending insert

a diamond parallel of a donruss turner hit list insert

a mosaic bang! turner insert

and a select cody bellinger phenomenon insert

this next card, a 2024 panini prizm don sutton orange pulsar parallel

was one that i purchased on ebay. it's numbered on the back

and, speaking of numbers on the back, one card that i did find at the shop was this 2025 panini select mariano rivera numbers insert

other than jackie robinson, rivera is probably the most iconic 42 in baseball. i love the concept of this recurring insert set, but i would do it a bit differently. i did get a kick out of the back

as panini throws some shade at hall-of-fame voters who think protecting the first ballot status by not voting for players is a noble cause.

i hope that the next time i visit this shop they have a bit more to dig through, but it was still a positive visit and good use of my time.