highly surprising and completely appreciated

although he's been quiet on the blogs, brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary is still out there and i have some cards to prove it! brian sent me a package sometime last fall, and it's a shame it has taken me so long to share.

first up is a professionally printed "card that should have been" 1967 topps sandy koufax

i created one of these missing final tributes a long time ago, and it is great to have this version in my collection. the back

meets the final tribute criteria by having his complete career stats on the back, even if they don't have the year by year stats and they also show a line for 1967. it's still great. you can see that the card was produced by or for the greater boston sports collectors club in 2008 based on the "celebrating 23 years" note in the text. there are some other similar "cards that never were" under the gbscc name out there, including a 1957 bob feller that would be nice to have.

speaking of nice to have, i've been eyeing a complete dodger team set of 2020 topps total after brian sent this will smith card

from the online only set. we will see if i pull the trigger (spoiler alert i am certain that i will). i just miss topps total so much.

this is a 2022 topps mike piazza insert

and i appreciate topps showing him as a dodger from time to time. of course, he had to be a dodger in this "welcome to the show" set.

brian also hit some mini-collections, such as the dodger stadium one with this 1985 donruss mario soto card

and the double play mini-collection with this 1994 fleer ricky gutierrez card

nice cameo of hall of famer jeff bagwell there, too.

this next card

wasn't a need, but it is such a great card that i had to show it anyway. fernando valenzuela's final topps flagship card as a dodger, and the photo selection and design complement each other so well.  although, this isn't topps but instead is o-pee-chee!

oh my!

here's where i remind folks that i once dedicated an entire blog to the differences between topps and o-pee-chee cards. check it out if you haven't already!

a couple of the cards that i featured on that site were also included in brian's package, including this 1991 dodger/mets mashup of bob ojeda

and a blue jays/padres card of joe carter

forget the "now with" - card packages from brian always have the good stuff. thanks brian!