it's been a year

another trip around the sun for us and for my favorite player, steve garvey. today he celebrates his 77th birthday. that's as good a reason as any to show off a bunch of garvey cards i've added to my collection this past year - ones that i haven't posted previously, anyway.

i will kick things off with one of the few padre offerings in 2025 products

that's a 2025 leaf metal savage autograph. it's a sticker auto, but the card is die-cut and unique enough that i went for it. it's numbered to 10 as seen on the back

and i think "savage" sums up 2025 for a lot of people.

this is the oldest garvey card i picked up in 2025

it's a 1976 hostess twinkie card - recognizable by the black bar on the back

this was an upgrade for the version in my dodger collection which had very little of the black bar showing.

i snagged a couple of after market garvey autographs to help fill out my collection - 1981 donruss

1981 fleer

1986 topps glossy all-star

there are a few other cards of his that i wouldn't mind adding to this ttm/ip collection, but it is by no means a priority.

certified autos (and relics) were a big part of garvey collecting this year, of course. here's a 2009 topps sterling career chronicles auto relic quad numbered to 10

i picked it up in february. here's the back:

if only garvey's career ops were closer to his postseason ops, he would be in the hall of fame. i also understand that if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle.

here's a 2024 topps triple threads single auto jumbo relic 

i picked up in january and a 2024 topps definitive collection definitive autographed relic

that i bought in april. some of this is due to 2024 product not being released until 2025. here's the back:

that card is one of the more paniniesque cards that topps has created, and speaking of panini...

i bought this 2024 panini national treasures legend jumbo lumber signatures card

in june and this 2024 panini impeccable illustrious ink card in october

i wonder if the players were meant to sign the jumbo bat rather than squeeze their autograph in under their photo. anyway, here's the back of the impeccable card

"fan favorite" and "face of the franchise" is right.

here's another autograph i bought in october:

it's a 2024 topps allen & ginter x silver ink auto, numbered to 25

parallels also abound, and i bought some 2024 allen & ginter/allen & ginter x minis

as well as a trio of parallels from 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary. this is the platinum toile white & green refractor

numbered to 99

this is the platinum toile cream & gold

numbered to 50

and this is the platinum toile white & orange

numbered to 25

another numbered parallel i added to some others i already had is this 2024 panini prizm white prizm 

that is numbered to 99

my garvey purchases didn't just feed the player collection, either. i still consider my team collection separate from my garvey collection, and this 2005 topps retired signature black parallel

that i picked up in march can go in the team collection as i already had one in the garvey binders. it's numbered to 54

also in march, i bought another 2023 topps heritage mvp buyback autograph

that's numbered to 74. this is a great concept and it is sad to know that i won't be able to chase a dave parker card like this in 2027 heritage.

of course, there were actual 2025 cards that i bought this year. here are a couple that i've not shown before from the 2025 topps all-star game release. this is the all-star greats insert gold parallel

and this is the black parallel of the same insert

gold is to 50 and black is to 10. as a two-time all-star game mvp, including garvey in this release was a no-brainer, although topps has left him out of other insert sets such as the "perennial all-stars" from 2019. here's the back of this particular insert

yes, 1974 was a very good year for the garv. not to say 2025 wasn't, as i am sure the highlight of garvey's year was meeting me at the national.  with that said, i wish him an even more memorable 78th trip around the sun!