these garveys are gravy

i do not know what the delay was that kept 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary from hitting the market in a more timely manner, but i am happy that it was resolved. for the first time in a long time (19 or 20 years depending on whether you count release years or actual years), steve garvey got the chrome treatment in a base set. the last time was 2002 topps chrome traded when he was given a "who would have thought" card.

anyway, here's his base card from the 2021 release:

and here's the back:

i am happy he was featured in the set as a dodger and more grateful after seeing that the yearly stat lines on the back are all from his padre tenure. it would have been easy for topps to put him in his taco bell uniform for sure.

of course, we know that this set offers a ton of parallels and i didn't shy away from them.  here's the base refractor:

the aqua wave refractor:

the prism refractor:

the blue prism refractor:

the xfractor:

the black & white mini diamonds refractor:

the blue mini diamonds refractor numbered to 199:

the red atomic refractor numbered to 100:

the green/yellow 70th anniversary refractor numbered to 99 for some reason instead of 70:

and the rose gold mini diamond refractor numbered to 75:

by my count there are six more refractor parallels that i do not own, including the superfractor 1/1.

while i am pleased to see garvey in this set, i wish topps had chosen a different photo. this is a zoomed in version of the photo that was used on his 1972 topps card, and we saw it again in 2016 on the 1979 design as a short print in that years' archives release. that said, a young garvey works well with the 1952 design.

back to the cards i picked up, which include the autographs, of course. here's the base:

and its back:

i also have the refractor auto, but i guess i didn't scan it.

here's the aqua refractor:

numbered to 150:

this is the blue prism refractor:

numbered to 99:

and here is the gold refractor:

numbered to 50:

i am missing six of the autograph parallels, including a 70th anniversary version that is, in fact, numbered to 70.

while i don't know why that set was delayed, i do know that 2021 topps big league was held up due to the action figures that accompanied some hobby boxes.  once the set was released, it was revealed that garvey was featured in the autograph subset.

i have only seen four or five of these hit the secondary market, and none of the supposed parallels. i was happy to snag the second one i saw for just less than what the first one went for.  and speaking of scarce, the 2021 topps chrome black garvey autographs are tough to come by, too.

i added that green parallel (numbered to 99) from comc a while back. it came without its case which was disappointing (and not noted by comc). all they said when i asked them about it was that they post images of all cards. i guess i should have noticed that it wasn't in its case.  according to the checklist, garvey has an unnumbered base auto in this set along with one numbered to 150. i have seen neither of those nor the versions numbered to 50, 5, or 1. i do also have the orange parallel numbered to 25 though.

each of these cards are ones that i count myself fortunate to own given the issues that surrounded their release or availability. they are great additions to my collection of my favorite player who just happens to turn 74 tomorrow. happy birthday to the nl iron man!