and it's all over now, 2007 topps chrome blue

it was just over four years ago that i posted about completing the 2011 topps chrome atomic refractor dodger team set and was turning my attention to completing the 2007 topps chrome blue refractor dodger team set.  at that time, i needed just four more dodger cards, and, for the last two years and three months, i have needed only one.  it has sat at the top of my 'nefarious 9' list of most wanted cards on the sidebar of my blogs for pretty much that entire time. last week, it arrived.

2007 topps chrome takashi saito blue refractor

i had multiple ebay saved searches for this card, with no luck, although i did recently see someone selling a lot of 151 blue refractors, and was considering asking them to pull this card out of the lot for me.  i would also periodically check comc and the beckett marketplace.  more frequently, i would search on sportlots which is where i ultimately found the card.  it had been listed for no more than a week, i would say.  it is strange to many i am sure, but there is so much joy in finding a card that has been so elusive. 

i've received some other blue cards recently:

2005 upper deck jayson werth blue parallel

jon of penny sleeves fame sent the werth with a few other cards. i had to do a little bit of research to figure out exactly what this was, which was good because i learned that the blue parallels were only part of series 2 that year. this fact that helped me understand that the card i have of milton bradley and thought was a blue parallel is really a retro parallel. so thanks jon!

1998 leaf rookies & stars raul mondesi true blue parallel

this one came from nick at dime boxes.  i did not know that these true blue parallels existed, but they fall right in line for dodger collectors such as myself.  they are not numbered, but are marked as "1 of 500" on the back.

nick sent some other colorful and chromy stuff:

2002 topps chrome dodgers team refractor

the 2002 topps chrome refractors are very nice. this one will go in my dodger stadium binder. it has a nice shot of the right field corner there behind the team with the stadium club restaurant in the upper right part of the card.

2005 topps chrome hee-seop choi red refractor

this is the first red refractor i've seen from 2005 topps chrome. it's cool and numbered to 25.  the thick borders of 2005 chrome lend themselves nicely to color parallels, but alas, there were no blue parallels that year.

i mentioned that the saito card at the top of the post was a-number 1 on my list of most wanted cards.  nick also knocked a card off of that same list with this 2018 topps big league corey seager card

 

and i picked up another in this 1997 fleer ultra darren dreifort card

little d looks strong! i appreciate the no batting gloves look, too.

so, with the 2007 blue refractor team set now complete, what's next?  well, i had already noted that i was going to target 2003 topps chrome in 2019, and i've finished the base set.  now, my primary team set focus will be on the 2003 topps chrome refractors, which just happen to come in blue, as dave roberts can attest:

hideo nomo's card in the set has been added to the most wanted list, but i also need a few more:

19 hideo nomo
91 adrian beltre
202 franklin gutierrez fy rc

and that doesn't include the chrome traded refractors:

t7 todd hundley
t73 rickey henderson
t99 fred mcgriff
t125 chin-feng chen
t162 james loney oros
t187 thomari story-harden fy rc
t205 eric riggs
t242 shane victorino fy rc

can you help a blogger out? this may take another 4 years...