i remain unsetisfied - 1978 topps signed edition

i have a saved search for 1978 topps signed cards. i have no intention of completing the set in autographed fashion, but there are a few cards that i wouldn't mind adding to my effort, and after the national last year where i failed to fully peruse one vendor's wares, i felt the itch to add to this collection.

over the course of the last few months, i've added 36 cards to the collection. this put me over the two-thirds mark for the set, as i now have 501 unique cards signed out of 726, and 547 total cards signed. anyway, here are the new cards to share:

ron guidry

i had tried to get guidry via ttm a couple of times with no success, so i went the third party route. once i added this card, i decided i wanted to get to 66.7% which meant at least 18 more cards to track down.

the next card i added was ken brett's

brett passed away in 2003 and i was surprised to see this card for a pretty low price. his '78 topps card was well known in my neighborhood because of the back

he was good for a dinger when we played the game using card backs.

rick rhoden

i have a rhoden ttm signed card as part of my dodger collection, but i didn't have a second one for the (semi) set build. the only other dodgers i need a second signed card of are johnny oates and ted martinez.

i'd like to get as many of the manager cards in the set as i can, so i added a few more in this endeavor. here's bobby cox

i guess that could be his signature. it's a leap of faith with many of these, and i was sure to not spend too much on this one in particular.

bob lemon

i am pretty confident about this one, which was one of the cards i most wanted to add.

gene mauch

danny ozark

earl weaver

i think the only managers i still need are vern rapp and darrell johnson. nope. i just checked and i also need herman franks, sparky anderson, chuck tanner, and billy martin.

mike flanagan

mark fidrych

two guys gone too soon

for some reason, the tigers featured a lot of players i either didn't try or don't sign ttm. so, here's chuck scrivener

and fernando arroyo

brian downing

doesn't sign at all these days from what i can tell. i have his certified auto from 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams, but was glad to add this card.

amos otis

as with guidry up top, i had tried to get otis ttm but was unsuccessful. one of my favorite lines from ted lasso was "way to notice, amos otis".

jamie quirk

and jim slaton

represent the brew crew

with this bombo rivera card

i am just three cards away from having the full twins team set signed.

marty perez

is good to have, but the a's i really wanted were mitchell page

and manny sanguillen

i would be absolutely giddy if i were able to find a willie crawford signed 1978 topps card.

right after sandy alomar sr passed away, i picked up his signed card, along with three of his teammates

tom paciorek

the former dodger signed a 1974 topps card for me in a private signing, but i didn't send his '78 card, prioritizing a dodger card over this effort.

bill plummer

from what i can tell, plummer signed all of his 1978 cards the same way in the same place

pepe frias

love the shiny jacket that the then-future dodger was sporting

stan bahnsen

the former rookie of the year reminded me and my friends of lenny from laverne & shirley

bob davis

like plummer, all of the bob davis signed cards i've seen make use of his bat

pat scanlon

came from a seller who also sold me a dave freisleben signed 1978 topps card, except he sent a 1976 card

by mistake. i was refunded so no harm no foul

freddie patek

was one i really wanted for the set, and he doesn't sign. i also added the stolen bases league leader card

but have no path i am aware of to have frank taveras sign it. i did find taveras' individual card

which features one of the more eclectic photos in the set. colors and stripes and netting, oh my!

tony perez

and fergie jenkins

were high on my list of players to add. i have a 1978 topps perez buyback auto from one of the archives releases, but am happy to have this loose version in my set.

finally, one of the cards i really wanted to add the most was that of bobby bonds

i settled for this one that is made out "to bill". there were a couple of authenticated bonds cards i came across, but the prices were high and the autos maybe not as bold. i have a couple of things signed by bonds, and the auto looked good to me with a reasonable price. besides, i figure if it's a fake, it wouldn't have the endorsement.

i wish that young gcrl had taken some 1978 topps cards to the hot stove events i attended as a kid instead of a ball that has now almost completely faded or an autograph book that is not as fun to flip through as a binder of cards.

i haven't added any new cards to this collection for a bit, but i am sure i will eventually get that itch again. stay tuned!

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.

a simple shop to occupy my time

i was out and about in the twin cities a few weeks ago and had some time to kill before an event. it didn't make sense to head home and double back, so i took penn ave to 494 and then lyndale, not to the quarry, but to three stars sportscards.

over the years, these folks have taken their singles inventory from almost exclusively online to having a large number of monster boxes at various pricing to dig through. i used to avoid this shop and their other location in the north metro, but with this newer development, i've been visiting a couple of times a year.

i knew that they typically had some oversized stuff, and quickly found a box of it near the back of the store. with everything priced at two bucks, i didn't think twice to grab this 2009 topps allen & ginter manny ramirez n43 boxtopper

here's the back

that's a pretty decent snapshot of mlb in 2009.

more bigger dodger cards were there for the taking, like this 2017 topps heritage high numbers advertising panel featuring brandon mccarthy

with an actual ad on the back

and this 2018 topps heritage panel featuring walker buehler and alex verdugo

that is ad-less but features anthony rizzo on the back

the backs aren't exclusive to the fronts, if that makes sense, but i don't think there is a kershaw or bellinger back with the verdugo/buehler card on the front.

one more for the post, a 2020 topps heritage willie stargell 1971 topps greatest moments insert

this one is showing a little wear, but it's still pretty cool. here'st he back:

stargell was a very strong man. i recall him taking bp at dodger stadium and hitting the ball very hard.

there were some quarter boxes that were all jumbled up with all sports mixed together, so i fairly quickly started looking at a dollar box. i found a few cards to pull, such as this 2018 bowman draft jeren kendall chrome prospects sky blue refractor /402

2019 topps finest walker buehler refractor

and 2019 topps heritage high numbers aj pollock chrome purple refractor

sure, a dollar is more than these cards are worth in hand, but i'll support retail brick and mortars. plus, with shipping costs rising, i may not be able to get these cards any cheaper anywhere else.

about this time i noticed another patron walking around with a matt kemp autographed card in hand. i asked him where he found it and he pointed to some "as priced" boxes in the center of the store. i mentioned my affinity for kemp, and he noted that he, too, was a dodger fan. in a scene reminiscent of that clip of henry cavill and joey batey quickly bonding over warhammer 40000, we exchanged tcdb handles and by the next day, we were "friends". he's "wischeese", by the way.

we wound up going through some of the 3 dollar boxes at the same time, and i asked him if he was finding anything. his reply was "a lot of dollar cards" which made me laugh. he wasn't wrong, but i still found a few cards to take home for the 3 dollar price.

this 2022 topps update all-star stitches tony gonsolin relic card is the silver parallel, numbered to 50

it was probably marked down because there is some film damage on the right edge, but i'll take it!

wischeese and i agreed that this 2021 panini donruss gavin lux red relic parallel numbered to 99

was at an ok price for the wisconsin native

how about a 2023 topps update jayson heyward card?

seeing that in a 3 buck box let me know that there was more than meets the eye, and sure enough, it's the advanced stat parallel, numbered to 300

one more numbered dodger card i pulled was this 2018 topps archives tommy lasorda purple parallel

it's numbered to 175 on the back:

and it had a "friend" that i will get to later

back to the dollar boxes, here are a couple of non-dodger cards i took. a 2019 topps chrome kevin pillar purple refractor

numbered to 299

and a 2019 topps gypsy queen blake snell fortune teller insert

which is also an indigo parallel, and numbered to 250

the back there predicted a no-no from snell in 2019. they were off by five years, as he threw his first career no-hitter in 2024. matt garza is still the only ray to achieve the feat.

returning to the cards i took from the three dollar box i perused, here's the other 2018 topps archives card i alluded to above - larry doby purple parallel

i guess purple was catching my eye, because here's another purple card i bought. this is a 2020 topps rip card of ozzie albies in purple parallel form

it's numbered to 25, but it's also already ripped

whatever card was inside was long gone, unlike my first encounter with a ripped rip card in a bargain box. just a few more cards to share, here's a 2021 topps update freddie freeman all-star game insert black parallel

numbered to 299

and this is a 2023 topps stadium club orange foil parallel of dontrelle willis

that is numbered to 199

seeing the commissioner's trophy on a card is always fun.

my favorite card of the day was this 2020 topps stadium club travis demeritte autograph card

i think we all agreed back then that demeritte's topps base card was one of the best of the year, and this card features a photo from the same weekend, at least. the scoreboard behind him explains that it was taken during negro leagues weekend, and we recognize the detroit stars uniform demeritte is wearing. i also appreciate the fact that this card provides the best representation of the tigers' retired numbers hanging in the outfield at comerica park that i have seen on cardboard. this one is a keeper for sure.

i made it to my event on time, even though i spent more time in the shop than i had intended. i'll definitely be back to peruse the boxes i didn't get to this time. i'm hoping that wischeese left some dodgers behind!