four for four twenty

here's a 1981 donruss tommy lasorda card

that has something in common with these next four cards - 2019 topps heritage kenley jansen (this is the chrome parallel)

2020 topps mookie betts

2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary joe kelly (this is the refractor parallel)

and 2022 topps austin barnes

those four cards represent a four year run in which topps had assigned a dodger card to number 420 in one of their sets

i took note of it in 2021 when i saw the checklist for platinum anniversary. alas, there was no continuation of this in 2023, but i couldn't help but wonder if it were an intentional thing, similar to what upper deck did with number 666 in their early days.

not that it's a bad thing - 420 is a number associated with cannabis use, thanks to some california teens in the 1970s and i pass no judgement. it was just conspicuous to me that topps put a dodger in that spot four years running.

speaking of four years running, if cody bellinger (seen here on a 2022 topps allen & ginter chrome mini)

homers today, he will have hit a home run on 4/20 in four consecutive seasons. bellinger, as you might know, has a few 420 themed memes out there.

i almost forgot to mention - the donruss lasorda card up top is the first dodger card that i am aware of to slot at number 420 in a major set. these days, the dodgers have a 1 in 30 chance of being there in just a handful of sets each year. i took a quick look and found that no other team had more than two consecutive seasons at 420 in a topps set. donruss put the a's at 420 three years in a row in their flagship set in the mid-1980s, and the rangers were at 420 three years in a row in major pacific releases. it makes some sense to me as it has to be easier to set a checklist by starting with the previous year's, but maybe, just maybe, there were some shenanigans afoot.

it's time to spot the difference!

with series 2 out, we are at the point in the year where i can post the annual "spot the difference" writeup comparing the topps factory team set to the flagship releases. i suppose there was a chance that i would have to wait for update again this year, but topps was not averse to getting a shohei ohtani card on to the mainstream series 2 checklist and so here we are.

first, i want to show you how the sets are packaged this year

same sort of hanger/blister packaging as always, but they (thankfully) reduced the size of the plastic blister. last year it was ridiculous. they also resumed printing the checklist on the back

which is much appreciated. however, i bought this set online and didn't really need to see the checklist to make up my mind and i haven't been in any retail settings where these are on display to peruse the checklists of other teams. still, i like that it is there.

speaking of backs, the guaranteed difference between these cards and their flagship counterparts is the numbering on the back

man, i really like the backs of clayton kershaw's flagship cards.

ok - here we go, with flagship on the left and the team set on the right!

lad-1 mookie betts

it's the same, but the factory set is easier to read when scanned (as usual) due to the lack of foil. 

lad-2 andy pages

just like last year, the team set does away with the future stars designation. otherwise, the card is the same.

lad-3 kiké hernandez

same.

lad-4 james outman

same

lad-5 yoshinobu yamamoto

no more future star, but otherwise the same.

lad-6 tommy edman

at first glance, it sure seems like they are the same. however, after last year, i know to check the positions and sure enough, edman gets a position variation on his team set card. he went from being a ss-of to a 2b.

lad-7 freddie freeman

no reason to change freeman's position, so we are back to the same.

lad-8 tyler glasnow

same.

lad-9 teoscar hernandez

here we go! i am pleased that topps changed up the photo on teoscar's card only because the photo used on flagship cost some collectors some money early on. you can't have a ssp parallel of some dodger cards showing them "dancing" (although teo is not dancing) and then use a similar photo on one of the base cards. buyer beware, of course, but not the best move by topps. that said, i like the photo on the flagship card and my only issue with it is that it would have been suitable for one of the ssp versions. at any rate, i am happy to have one photo variation in the team set.

lad-10 clayton kershaw

back to same.

lad-11 shohei ohtani

same, although i could have used ohtani's series 2 pitcher base card. in fact, here it is

i like that topps is giving him two cards so we get the different stats on the back, but there wasn't much point this year since he didn't pitch at all last season. for the record, i am not considering this any sort of variation.

lad-12 will smith

same.

lad-13 chris taylor

same.

lad-14 miguel rojas

well, i may be jumping the gun. maybe miguel rojas shows up in update, but for now, this is a bonus dodger card and i love it.

lad-15 river ryan

same.

lad-16 justin wrobleski

same.

lad-17 michael kopech

same.

for what it's worth, this checklist features an almost complete reset from last year's, with 11 new players featured. gone are walker buehler, tony gonsolin, max muncy, austin barnes, brusdar graterol, bobby miller, emmet sheehan, jonny deluca, miguel vargas, michael busch, and gavin lux. some of those were omitted for obvious reasons, and some just gave way i suppose. muncy is the biggest question mark for me; seems like he should have been included this year.

there was only one dodger in series 1 omitted from the team set (hunter feduccia), but there were 11 dodgers featured in series 2 who didn't make the cut for the team set. i've shown the cards of feduccia, along with series 2 dodgers austin barnes, max muncy, ben casparius, kirby yates, landon knack, roki sasaki, hyeseong kim, bobby miller, and blake snell previously, but here are the flagship cards for the others - michael conforto

edgardo henriquez

and joe kelly

the other dodger card i needed to complete my series 2 team set was a checklist featuring teoscar hernandez

not only does the card feature hernandez and the field for the 2024 home run derby, it featues a ton of fans. that's a lot of people on one card. i wonder why nobody told pete alonso that his pose was inconsistent with the others (as are teo's and jose ramirez's for that matter).

as for the differences between flagship and the team set, there is really just one significant change in terms of dodger cards (teoscar hernandez) plus what is as of now a bonus dodger card (rojas). not sure if two cards make the set worth it for the casual collector, but for a team collector like me, you bet it does!

i have been keeping a running list of these posts, and have now updated the list below. 2016 and 2018 are partial set posts, and there was no team set issued in 2021. otherwise, click and enjoy!

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

2017
2018

2019

2020

2022

2023

2024

maybe i will see you next year with another edition of spot the difference!

i bought you back

when i shared my first thoughts on 2024 topps heritage a while back, i ended the post with a look at my boxtopper - willie crawford's 1975 topps card bought back and stamped

and since then i've picked up some others. 

my primary focus since 2019 has been to track down buybacks of the infield, and i've had mixed results. in 2019 (1970), only bill russell had a card and i found one easily. in 2020 (1971) i only found russell's card and i am not sure that there are any buybacks of steve garvey's rookie. in 2021 (1972) i found exactly none of the cards as russell, garvey, and ron cey all had high numbered cards in the psychedelic tombstone set. in 2022 (1973), i found russell and garvey, but not cey or davey lopes who were both featured on three-player rookie cards. finally, last year (1974) i was able to collect buybacks for each of the infielders, although garvey's card was only available as a "mvp autograph" buyback.

this year, i've seen exactly one steve garvey base card offered in buyback form and it went for about triple what i paid for his 1973 buyback two years ago. i did pick up his other two cards from the set - the mvp

and nlcs

subset cards - for what were decent prices. ron cey's card

set me back more than i had hoped, but there were others i saw offered that went for much more so i am not complaining.

bill russell's card

was the first i obtained, and was the cheapest of them all. here's davey lopes' card

to round out the infield. next year lopes will have three cards that could be offered as buybacks - his base, record breaker, and league leader cards - and i will take a shot at all of them.

had i not received crawford's card in my box, i probably wouldn't have allowed myself to purchase any other dodger. but i did and so i did. to date, i've added al downing

von joshua

andy messersmith

manny mota

tom paciorek

and world series game 2

featuring joe ferguson returning to the dugout after his home run. it's worth noting that garvey was just a few feet behind the dodger outfielder when the photo was taken as he was on first base when ferguson took vida blue deep.

that does it for buybacks, for now. i am keeping an eye out for another garvey and i was watching a don sutton card but the seller wouldn't budge from their high buy it now price. i did pick up sutton's "other" box topper - the oversized one

because it features a certain dodger first baseman lurking in the background.

in non-boxtopper news, i've completed the dodger team set, non-sp edition. here are some of the latecomers to my collection - joe kelly

shohei ohtani, who inexplicably does not get the bobby murcer all-star treatment

mookie betts

freddie freeman

walker buehler

bobby miller

and will smith

miller's card seems to have the background filter applied less liberally than the others, and looks more like clayton kershaw's short print highlights card

i still need freddie freeman's short print highlights card, but i did pick up his blue sparkle chrome parallel

along with that of emmet sheehan

and kershaw

i went a bit further with kershaw, addiing his chrome refractor

chrome base and chrome hot box purple refractor

as well. i don't understand why topps decided to shoehorn the serial numbering onto the front of the card this year. it doesn't fit. 

here's another hot box parallel of sheehan

and betts

for good measure.

this is our 25th year of heritage, and each year i look forward to the "then & now" inserts. it used to be because of the dodgers of the 50's and 60's, but now we are getting into the timeline where "my guys" might show up. until they do, there are two dodger cards to collect and i've added them both. 

shohei ohtani shares the card with fred lynn

celebrating the american league slugging percentage leaders

and he also appears with mike schmidt

on a card that recognizes the 1975 national league home run leaders and the 2023 american league home run leaders. reggie jackson led the al in '75 and matt olson led the nl in '23, so not sure why this card exists in this fashion. in fact, both cards celebrate feats achieved by ohtani as an angel so i am even less certain as to why he is shown as a dodger.

a couple more inserts i picked up include betts

and kershaw

mirroring each other as new age performers.

i already showed the dusty baker mini card i picked up, and it came with kershaw's

although i have no desire to complete the team set.

bringing the post back to buybacks, here's a 2014 topps 75th anniversary buyback of jimmie hall's 1966 topps card

i am really looking forward to the buybacks in 2027, but as i mentioned previously there will be some nice ones to chase next year as well.