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.

green grow the parallels

getting ready for st. patrick's day tomorrow, and what better way than to share some green cards, including a couple featuring steven patrick garvey. i recently added these green flash

and neon green

parallels from 2024 panini select to my garvey collection. the neon green one is numbered on the back

to 49.

this 2019 topps tribute corey seager green parallel

is numbered to 99, and is also not as green as the garvey cards.

i scanned two of duke snider's 2021 panini mosaic vintage parallel cards together - base mosaic and green mosaic

unlike previous years, i don't have any shawn green cards to include, but i did recently add this 2026 topps clayton kershaw parallel to my collection

st. paddy's day is not the holiday being represented there, but it still fits.

may the luck of the irish be with you tomorrow!

cards of future past

the latest in a long line of envelopes i've received from madding at cards on cards was packed with cards featuring some players from before we knew them and some players from before they weren't really known at all.

what i mean by that is that there were several cards from 2014 bowman draft, including some black parallels that were exclusive to asia packaging. here's corey seager's top prospects insert black (or some say asia) parallel

plus those same parallels of base cards featuring grant holmes, jeff brigham, and john richy

you know seager - he's a two-time world series champion - and grant holmes just recently made it to the major leagues with the braves. brigham has, at least to me, carved out a big league career under the radar, appearing in 94 games over parts of six seasons. he's currently with the cubs after pitching for the dbacks last year. richy made it to triple-a with the phillies after being part of the chase utley trade, but didn't get any further than that. richy was the dodgers' third round pick in the 2014 draft, with holmes being their first rounder and brigham their fourth. 

that just leaves the second round, and the dodgers used that pick on alex verdugo, whose chrome prospect card

was also included in the mailing. you know verdugo, of course, as he played for the dodgers and was sent to the red sox in the mookie betts trade. he struck out to end the 2024 world series, and then played half of the 2025 season for the braves. he is currently unsigned as i understand it.

kerry included some more recent cards of someone we may eventually know - 2025 bowman jesus tillero propsect and prospect chrome inserts

he's not quite 20 years old, and has pitched in rookie league and a-ball so far. let's see what happens!

here's an actual major leaguer card of edwin rios

it's a 2020 topps chrome refractor parallel. rios showed some pop for the dodgers in 2020, hitting 17 homers plus two in the postseason. his big league run ended with the reds in 2024.

dalton rushing's big league career is just beginning, and kerry sent a 2023 bowman platinum card

of the dodgers' backup catcher. he's in a tough spot with will smith firmly entrenched, but hopefully he gets his time or is spun off and given an opportunity elsewhere.

finally, a hyeseong kim ornament insert from 2025 topps holiday

kim is another current big leaguer who should see more action in 2026 than he did last year (if he's healthy) as tommy edman will miss some time to start the season.

all in all, another great envelope full of cards from cards on cards. thanks kerry!

something to look forward to

i was all set for this post to be a nod to blue jays fans and collectors with what they could expect to see in 2026 and beyond from topps until all of the strange and "you might never see that again" plays from games 6 and 7 of the 2025 world series transpired. so, now this post is about cards that i and other dodger fans and collectors can look forward to.

2025 topps chrome world series champions refractor

there are 16 cards in this insert set, but this is the one i wanted most. limited to 50 and, as a result, wildly priced on the secondary market, i had to act fast to buy this one that was undervalued by the seller. here's the back:

these cards were "new" this year and limiting them to 50 copies sucks. i would have loved to be able to complete a set, but there is just no way.

it is possible that topps returns postseason cards to the flaghip set in 2026. i think the last time they did that was 2021 - here's one of the world series highlights cards from that set (it's a yellow parallel)

topps has stayed true to the heritage sets, so there will be singular cards for the world series and the league championship series in the 1977 design next year, most likely.

blue jay fans can look forward to cards like these title clash inserts from 2024 topps dynamic duals

that feature al and nl champs. a shohei ohtani and vladimir guerrero card would be pretty nice.

of course, world series champions are an easy go-to for topps when coming up with inserts, like they did back in 2009 with their flagship and update sets. this one features duke snider

who won a pair of rings with the dodgers.

2014 topps update included another ring focused insert set

this commemorative ring card isn't anything that topps seems to be doing these days, but maybe they bring these back? 

the rings are certainly gaudier these days and would provide some interesting fodder.

traditionally, there have been world series champion relics in flagship each year, although i don't think they were included in 2025 topps. the first year i remember seeing these was back in 2004 and i think they were in update. i pulled a dave roberts relic card which was pretty cool. today, they are less interesting but sort of hard to come by. i added this 2021 topps walker buehler example

earlier this year. it's numbered to 99 which i think is the highest print run of these things. here's the back:

nowhere near as interesting as the johnny podres fake ring card.

this year, perhaps in lieu of relic cards, topps introduced world series champion autographs. i was sure to pick up buehler's

because of his series ending role. here's the back:

the only other two i have are justin wrobleski and tony gonsolin

the buehler and gonsolin are numbered, but the wrobleski is not. i couldn't find any info on non-numbered cards for some reason. the backs are the same as buehler's

these are sticker autos but still pretty pricey. the wrobleski and gonsolin cards were outliers that the sellers put buy it now values between $20 and $30.

and then there are the cards in the future where a world series title is referenced. i picked up this 2025 leaf metal inscription autograph of 1981 world series champion steve garvey

in part because the inscription is "81 ws champs", but also because it's numbered 6/10

garvey also showed up in 2023 topps update with another world series themed commemorative insert set

this is the gold parallel that i tracked down a few months ago. garvey is the guy who gets the most mileage out of that 1981 title, although it would be nice to see some others like ron cey, steve yeager, pedro guerrero, or fernando valenzuela on cards like these.

at least it's nice to see the commissioner's trophy on a card that is sort of easy to find. topps has taken to reserving it in 2025 for semi-rare parallels like a bunch of dodger golden mirror cards. case in point, here's edgardo henriquez's golden mirror parallel

i had to wait for quite a while for one of these - featuring any player - showed up with a decent enough price. here's the back:

henriquez pitched in 3 games for the dodgers in the 2024 regular season, and then 3 more in the postseason, although none of those were in the world series. this year, he pitched in a couple of world series games. i might target his 2026 golden mirror card to keep the set going.

i am hoping that 2026 brings more cards like these, but that they are easier to find. give me a stadium club base card showing clayton kershaw with the trophy like we had in 2021 rather than the golden mirror card we got this year, for example. to the champs go the spoils and i can't wait to add more world series themed cards to my dodger collection in the future!