out of the park with these prices

it's been almost 15 years since chan ho park pitched in his final major league game. he was with the pirates then, following in the footsteps of another dodger pitcher of the 90's who ended their career in pittsburgh - ramon martinez. unlike martinez, however, park has made a return to baseball card releases in 2025 with topps hyping his first autograph cards in quite some time.

i was interested in adding one to  my collection, but then i saw the prices. here's a sampling:

good golly miss molly. those are sandy koufax prices.

instead, i will show off a few new to me park cards that came via a sportlots order a while back. here's a trio of cards from 1998 topps stars

and here's one from 1999 fleer flair showcase

those will have to do for my collection unless the prices of the 2025 autographed product takes a dramatic downturn. 

so, instead of a chan ho park autograph, here's a 2021 topps clearly authentic zach mckinstry auto

that i picked up for just a couple of bucks. it's not in the one touch it was originally distributed in, but that's ok by me. maybe park continues to sign and gets a fan favorites autograph later this year that helps to dilute the market. i sure hope so.

league of nations

well i was up early enough to catch the dodger/padre game in seoul this morning. it was good to see the dodgers put together a rally (albeit one aided by jake cronenworth's faulty equipment) and a strong pitching performance from the bullpen. it's weird that the season is officially begun, yet there are still spring training games going on for the next week.

anyway, you are probably expecting some chan ho park cards (he threw out the first pitch before today's game) so i don't want to disappoint.  here's his 1998 upper deck national pride insert

as well as his 2000 upper deck united nations insert

both of which prominently include south korea's flag into the design. here's the back of the 2000 card:

i recall park being the first korean player to debut in the major leagues, but i did not recall that he skipped the minors altogether. since park debuted in 1994, there have been 26 more players from korea appear in the majors. that number will increase in 2024 once the giants kick off their season and jung-hoo lee takes the field.

i have a couple more country themed cards to show, including mike piazza's national pride card

as well as a couple of cards from the 2023 topps wbc set. here's mookie betts

and freddie freeman

freeman's card is an insert of some sort.

and, because the 2024 season is no underway, here's a 2024 card of betts

there were no home runs today, so i'm not sure what the hr trot thing will be this year.

i'm looking forward to the dodgers closing out the series tomorrow and returning to the states. i'll be heading out to target field to see them in april, and am looking forward to seeing a couple of players from japan in particular.

happy opening day!

one more for the murals

not every card that features a dodger in their home whites makes it in to the dodger stadium mini-collection. that said, i am not sure why i hadn't added this 2001 topps chan ho park card

to the binder. it shows the batters eye background which is not the most photogenic part of the stadium, but it also shows a bit of the murals from the 2000 season, specifically the "ger" in "dodgers" that was out in centerfield.

we've seen that part of the mural on a card before, thanks to a 2000 pacific omega ken griffey jr card that i shared in this post. speaking of junior, here's another card with dodger stadium's outfield wall in the background:

that's a 2001 fleer ultra decade of dominance insert. sure, the background is pixelated, but i'll put a ken griffey jr card in a mini-collection for less.

i also recently added the refractor version of randy johnson's 1999 bowman chrome card

that gives some refractory goodness to ron cey's mug on the wall behind him.

it was a few seasons before the dodgers began placing the murals on the wall when the photo for these 1995 score cards were taken

but the low panel right field fence will get a card, in this case orel hershiser's base and gold rush cards, in to the collection anytime.

it wasn't until last week that i owned this 1996 upper deck sp hideo nomo marquee matchups card

and i quickly realized that it features the right field pavilion in the background. this was a surprise, because the piazza card from this insert set does not feature dodger stadium behind him. furthermore, nomo is paired with ken griffey jr as the "marquee" part, and griffey's background is not dodger stadium. no worries - i just need to add another one of these for the dodger stadium collection now.

lastly, i waited for the hype to die down in terms of 2020 gavin lux cards before i added this topps gallery master & apprentice card 

to my dodger collection. i also picked up a second copy for the dodger stadium collection, since the drawing places the two dodgers out in the parking lot beyond right field at chavez ravine with the back of the right field scoreboard visible over lux's shoulder.

bonus mini-collection content!:

i stumbled across a couple of new-to-me double play cards recently. this 2019 topps jose altuve 150 years greatest players card

and this 2020 topps chrome dee strange-gordon refractor

are welcome additions to my collection!

my most wanted cards walked the plank

i recently sent some cards that i'd been stacking to matt at bob walk the plank. he returned fire by trying to single handedly obliterate my nefarious 9 list of most wanted cards that i keep on the sidebar of my blog. he also mentioned that somewhere in his collection lies a joc pederson card with my name on it. can't wait!

the first card i'll show is one of the non-dodger bonus cards that i list as an appendix to the nefarious 9.  matt found the 1986 leaf dusty baker card

i assume with relative ease. currently, my most wanted non-dodger card is 1995 score #361 brian anderson. it's for my lurker collection.

the main focus of the nefarious 9, however, are dodgers. sometimes, they are cards that will complete a team set, like this 1994 fleer roger mcdowell card

and this 1994 pacific henry rodriguez card

other times, they are cards that i have in parallel form, and i feel weird not having the base. that was the case with this 2019 topps big league kenley jansen card

i had actually ordered the card from sportlots and the seller sent me the gold parallel instead. so the base version went up on the most wanted list.

sometimes, i will add a card that i thought i had but don't. this 2001 topps chrome shawn green card fit that description.

i was a pretty serious green collector in the early 2000's, and thought that i surely would have had at least one of his 2001 topps chrome cards. when i saw that it was on my want list, i double checked and was surprised to find that it was indeed a need. on to the most wanted list it went!

matt sent some other chrome cards from my regular want list - these are from 2001 bowman chrome

a nice 4-pack of vets that whittled my needs for this team set down to a couple of rookies. maybe they will show up on the nefarious 9 in the future.

matt attempted to knock off one more of my most wanted cards, but sent the optic version

instead of the regular 2017 panini donruss jose de leon card. somewhere between those two releases, panini followed de leon to tampa bay. it's an easy mistake to make, and matt still gets an "a" for his efforts.

thanks matt! the list has been refreshed if you (or anyone else) wants to take a run at it. you will be rewarded!

jonerosity recognized

jon from a penny sleeve for your thoughts started the 'free stuff friday' posts, which made sense to me as he had previously proven himself to be one of the most generous blog traders out there. he inspired several others to follow suit, which resulted in a lot of people adding a lot of cool cards to their collections with no strings attached.

i claimed a few cards from his posts myself, including a 1972 topps harmon killebrew card

and later on, a 1978 tcma the 1960's dick farrell card

the farrell card is great because it is really his only dodger card.  sure, he's in the 1961 topps set as a dodger, but the photo used for that card shows him with his phillies cap on. then, in 1962, when he's wearing a dodger jersey (but not a hat), his team affiliation is the houston colts.  even the 1990 target dodger set features farrell in a colts uniform.  that target card is also interesting as it has his name as dick on the front and turk (his nickname that also appeared on some topps cards in the mid-1960s) on the back.

as jon does, he included some other cards for me in his pwe's. here are a 2018 topps chrome justin turner pink refractor

and a 2013 topps randy choate walmart blue parallel

that were "throw-ins" for my collection.

jon is one of the bloggers that i would most like to meet in person. i've appreciated our email conversations and have used him as a sounding board in the past. i'm glad that i've been able to find cards to send to him for his collection, even as it has evolved over time.

every once in a while, i'll get an email from him asking if i need certain cards. such was the case with some 2013 panini cooperstown colgan chips of tom lasorda and duke snider (spoiler alert - i said yes)

and some 1994 and 1995 score gold rush cards. jon sent me eric karros and jose offerman from 1994

chan ho park from 1994 score rookies and traded

and henry rodriguez and jim gott from 1995

all appreciated.

there is one more card that jon emailed me about that i will save for a future post, but i'll end this one with a card that i didn't know was coming.

that's a 2016 topps mike piazza mlb debut manufactured medallion card.  i liked this theme, as it generated some new piazza dodger cards, although i do feel the need to point out that piazza wore 25 during his first run with the dodgers, and he made his debut on the road at wrigley. i have another card from this set (not the medallion, but the regular insert) that did a much better job matching the photo with the actual debut of that player.  that's a post for another day, as this one is an overdue thank you to jon for offering up and sending me some cards!

thanks jon!

a day for cards from canada

it's canada day, eh? grab a molson (or labbatt's) and take a look at some cards that i ordered from baseballcardstore.ca.  like most others, i found the site to be a little clunky to navigate, having been spoiled by comc, beckett marketplace, and sportlots. still, i was able to hone in on 100 cards that i unfortunately split over two orders. i was quick to close out my first order lest some cards become unavailable, and shortly after doing so i remembered that i had wanted to search for some other cards, too. in all i wound up spending $19.98 (just about half of that in shipping), but i think i got my money's worth. i was happy to see that they have since instituted a "wait to ship" option, and i already have another 100 or so cards on "layaway".

the cards that i've received included a few cards for my collection, a few to send to trading partners, and yes, a few to flip. in fact, i've made most of my money back after selling just a few cards over the last couple of weeks.

as for the keepers, i'll start with a former nefarious 9 want, a 2000 topps gallery adrian beltre card

in addition to coming off of my most wanted list, that card completes a team set, for me, so good times. 

this next card also completed a team set, in that it was one of i think two cards in the insert set featuring dodgers

finding a 2013 topps chrome connections die-cut card of adrian gonzalez for a dime was nice. i saw in a recent post that dimebox nick picked up the other dodger card from this insert set (matt kemp) from the site. everybody wins.

the most recent release i found was from 2020 panini donruss, and i picked up a tony gonsolin card

as a result. of course, i have since received three more copies of this card thanks to a couple of trade packages, but one of the dupes will make a fine addition to my dodger stadium mini collection. it's also nice to see a card with the players' weekend uniforms that isn't a short print.

speaking of my mini collections, i wasn't able to search for them as well as hoped due to the lack of photos, but outside of targeting specific cards that i needed to complete team sets or were part of my most wanted list, i found it easy to search by set or parallels.  as a result, i found a few more dodger needs like these silver signature parallels from 1996 upper deck collector's choice

and these black gold cards from 1992 leaf

and a couple of gold/gold rush parallels of professional pinch-hitter dave hansen

one of the sets i searched for was 2002 topps 206 which i am still trying to complete. i did find one card that i needed

jason pridie was drafted out of high school in 2002, but received a card (and variation) in this set. he didn't hit the majors until 2008 with the twins.

another easy way to search the site was by player name, and one name i searched was mike piazza. i have mentioned a few times here and in comments on other blogs lately that i am continually amazed at the number of piazza dodger cards that i don't have.  i found two cards of his to add to my collection

so that's a start. these are from the 1994 baseball aces playing card set by bicycle. brett butler and tom candiotti also have cards in this set, but they weren't available on the site.

another player i searched for (along with a "dodgers" filter) was milton bradley. not sure why his name came to me, but i came away with a couple new cards of him 

yes, that prosigs card on the left is a dodger card even if bradley is still wearing a cleveland uniform.

one of the searches that prompted my second order on the site was vladimir guerrero. i was perplexed by the 2018 topps update walmart exclusive hall of famer highlights insert set and was looking to add some non-parallels from that set. i was able to find one, which was nice.

after searching for a large number of sets, parallels, and players, i gave some thought to what else might be out there. and then i remembered, you can't go wrong with pacific. i found a few cards to add, including some crown royale cards that hit a few different collections for me:

in hindsight, i should have cleaned out their stock.