cards from and inspired by an arbitrary source

brian at hsca is one of the many bloggers who took a cue from jon to offer up free stuff fridays. i was able to claim some cards throughout the spring for my various mini-collections, including a 2012 topps tyler greene double play turn

along with another card from that set for my dodger stadium collection, this one featuring brad brach

i also claimed a 2011 topps chrome rookie autograph

and a 2019 topps magneuris sierra rainbow foil parallel

for my tatooine collection.

speaking of that particular collection, a long while back brian showed the 1981 donruss tim stoddard card as part of his 9-card, team by team posts featuring 1981 cards.

i realized after seeing that post that the stoddard card would also fit in my "name on the back" mini-collection, but then i remembered that i hadn't formally christened that collection yet. still, it's an early entry in my tatooine collection that i honestly hadn't looked at in years and figured i would scan and post it for posterity.

there were a couple of other cards that brian posted that gave me inspiration. one of them was one that i was too late to claim, so instead i went to sportlots and bought a copy for my collection. that was this 2019 topps stadium club andrelton simmons card

which in turn inspired me to review some 2020 topps images in hopes of finding other missed double play cards to add to my cart. as a result, i found this cesar hernandez card

that was new to my collection. while i was at it, i took a deep dive in to some other sets (using comc to browse through photos), and found a nice dodger lurker card from 2006 upper deck

looks like sandy alomar jr. is the catcher here, but i'm not sure who is in the background. one of the best things about this card is the umpire's head and leg positioning. not only does this card hearken back to 1973 topps photography, but it fits nicely in my lurker collection.

the last card i added to my sportlots cart from that particular seller (in order to maximize shipping costs, of course), was this 1994 score jeff kent card.

i had received the gold rush version of this card in a different trade, but lacked the base version.  when brian included this 1994 upper deck jeff kent card in one of his packages

it reminded me and inspired me to go get the base version of the score card. both cards hit a number of my mini-collections as the cards feature dodger stadium in the background, dodgers lurking on someone else's card, memorial patches (although i only keep one representative card for each memorial), and, in the case of the score card, a double play turn.

i'll end things with a few more cards that brian included in one of his pwe's. first up are some 2020 panini donruss cards. here's walker buehler

and here's clayton kershaw

in true panini fashion, one of these cards is a variation. and, in true panini fashion, it's a fairly lame variation, but at least they make it easy to spot.  here are the backs of the buehler

and kershaw

cards.  you'll notice that the donruss logos are different. the red one on the kershaw card indicates the variant, in this case it is the location listed under kershaw's name.  yes, this is a 'chavez ravine' variation.  this is the second case this spring where i've received cards from another blogger that featured a buehler base and kershaw variation where i wondered if the sender was aware of the variation. not because of value or anything, but rather out of curiousity. i've not shared the other trade yet, but as for this one - brian, what say you?

this variation is easier to spot

that's a max muncy holo orange parallel.

one more donruss card to share, and it's a cody bellinger diamond king

i remember opening packs of 1982 donruss and being super excited about diamond kings. of course, it helped that steve garvey was the dodger representative in the inaugural version of the subset, but i thought it was a cool way to feature another card for the stars of the day, as opposed to what donruss (and fleer) did in 1981 with random additional star cards.

this has turned in to a long post which makes sense given brian's generosity, but i'll wrap it up with one more card. it's a 2020 topps opening day sticker preview card of cody bellinger

i think the sticker release is the last thing to hit target shelves for a while.

thank you brian for the free stuff fridays (although i see those posts more as trade bait than giveaways) and for the extra cards and for providing some inspiration for me to discover and add more cards to my collection!