topps overcorrected a bit

after missing out on a team break for the inaugural release of topps chrome platinum anniversary in 2021, i joined a team break of the 2022 release, and was able to complete the dodger team set a couple times over while also finding a couple of parallels for my collection. in 2024, i joined a smaller break of the 2023 product, and came away with some decent cards to kickstart my team set building effort. there was no chrome platinum anniversary set released for 2024, allowing topps to actually align the card design with the platinum anniversary of the year that it was released. 

this has always been my biggest beef with topps heritage. starting in 2001 with the 1952 design seemed misaligned to me at the beginning, and soon thereafter led to an annual annoyance around 50th anniversary buybacks that aren't really 50th anniversary buybacks. anyway, the 2025 release of chrome platinum anniversary would feature the 1955 design in a satisfying act of synchronicity, and that pleased me. however, it wasn't until the middle of 2026 that the product was released.

regardless, i was looking forward to the product, but unfortunately my team break success was pre-ohtani, and with the 2025 release, the prices for dodger slots in breaks has been way more than i was willing to pay. instead, i've been building the base team set through a steady stream of sportlots orders.

the first card to arrive was tyler glasnow's

and it was sooned joined by nine others

chan ho park's baseball card resurgence was a big part of 2025, and it's nice to see kirk gibson get some dodger cardboard time.

here are a trio of rookies from 2025

with river ryan being the odd man out as he is no longer a dodger due to the tarik skubal trade.

roki sasaki

was part of a single card order from a seller who is losing money on shipping.

most of the cards came as part of larger orders where i found a couple of dodger cards from other sets in order to maximize my shipping cost investment. these two cards - hideo nomo and blake snell

were from one such order. as was hyeseong kim's card

topps has brought orel hershiser

back to us collectors, and i appreciate that. i do wish he had more cards like this and fewer autograph only releases though. it seems he has been given the steve garvey treatment in that regard.

here's a trio of dodger legends that arrived together - jackie robinson, sandy koufax, and clayton kershaw

and here's a couple more - duke snider and mookie betts

jackie, sandy, and the duke were all in the original 1955 set, so it's nice to see them again 70 (71) years later.

i did not have adrian gonzalez

dodger cards on my 2025 or 2026 bingo card but i will accept it.

the last card i needed was ohtani's

and it was easily the most expensive with an all-in cost of just under nine bucks.

the card that i was most excited about was dusty baker's

now that he has retired from managing, i hope we see more cards of him in dodger blue. i even scanned the back

baker is my go-to on baseball reference's immaculate grid for dodger silver slugger, and i've used him for gold glover as well when garvey was already used in a different category.

that baker card, as well as this betts/robinson 1955 double header insert

would both be candidates for my favorite dodger card of the year except for the facts that this is a 2025 release (officially) and that there was a 2026 topps card of clayton kershaw to wrap up his hall of fame career.

i used ebay to add that insert above as well as the full six card 1955 world series dodger team set

the cards above, and the backs below, are shown in numerical order even though that means they are not in chronological order. you will see what i mean, as roy campanella's card starts with game 3 

no johnny podres card for game 7 which is a surprise, but pee wee reese is an acceptable substitute.

back to game 1 with jackie

duke's exploits in game 4 lead into gil hodges' in game 7

and to round out the team set, topps fit in another koufax card even though he wasn't part of the world series. again, it's something that i am a-ok with.

there are a multitude of parallels for these cards, as well as the autograph subsets. i've held myself to only picking up a couple of those. steve garvey is always a target, and so i added his base auto

with a very basic back

as well as his aqua refractor 

numbered to 150.

i've noted that a number of resellers don't understand the concept of a facsimile autograph that is part of the 1955 card design. there are so many listings for "auto" cards that are just base cards or base parallels. 

to date, the only base parallel that i have purchased is this platinum toile gold parallel of hideo nomo

it's numbered to 50 and is a nice example of the excess that has defined parallels of chrome platinum anniversary to date.

last minute update! earlier today i received these three blue prism refractor parallels

after purchasing them as a lot for about a buck apiece.

it's probably too much to ask for 2026 topps chrome platinum anniversary featuring the fantastic 1956 topps design to actually be released in 2026. hopefully topps gets things on track at some point.

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.