you may well be familiar with the "four if by sportlots" ongoing series of posts at sportscards from the dollar store although i think shipping woes may have dented his 4-card pwe pursuits as there hasn't been a fibs post in about a year. if you have ordered from sportlots, you know that four cards ship for the same price as two, and some sellers even charge less for shipping if you buy more than one card. i don't intend for this to be an ongoing post topic, but i figured i would share some cards that i have received over the last few months that helped me optimize shipping per card costs while also filling a need while not being the primary driver for any particular order.
perhaps the best card to demonstrate this fact is this 2001 topps chrome tampa bay devil rays team card
it may have become, someday, a specific target of an order, but this time i added it to an order because i had run out of other obvious options. the reason i wanted this card in my collection is due to the fact that former dodger bill russell is sitting in the front row, above the manta ray. he was a coach for the team for a couple of seasons. i have this card, and others like it, in my bill russell post-dodger collection.
sometime last year, sportlots partially revamped their website and added more image capabilities to the inventory hosted on the site. that improvement allowed me to find the next three tatooine cards while perusing "shopping cart seller" inventories for cards to add - 2010 bowman chrome jason kubel
and 2024 topps update willie mays autumn tales
i specifically searched for the jansen (i had a chrome sparkle refractor parallel but preferred the base) but found the mays by perusing willie mays cards by image. i am always interested in cards showing "the catch".
one of my go-to searches to fill out orders is fleer ultra gold medallion parallels. sometimes that gets me to add a base version, like this 2004 zach day card
day is pitching in dodger stadium, and his right hand is situated in front of the mural that recognized the long running dodger infield that i am so fond of. another go to within ultra is the 2004 preston wilson card
and one each from 1999
as a result.
usually, though, it's other dodgers that become filler. i am working on a post that i wanted to have some new-to-me dodger cards to use, so i sought out some topps tiffany cards. i needed to add a few more cards to the order, so i added fernando valenzuela's 1989 topps tiffany card
and 1998 upper deck special f/x
1999 fleer ex century is another one i've searched for cards from, and one shopping cart seller had todd hundley's card
new hall of famer jeff kent's 2006 fleer ultra diamond producers insert
that was a random inventory find.
available.
some other random dodgers i've added are a couple of black & white variations from 2004 bowman heritage
and a 2005 upper deck pros & prospects brad penny card
was added to an order just after his election was announced, and this 2016 topps allen & ginter x alex wood card
was part of that same order. ginter x is another set that i will search since i don't see these cards anywhere other than on sportlots.
here's a 2020 topps heritage sticker preview insert of clayton kershaw
sometimes i will notice that a seller has some of the online only sets in their inventory and i will add some of those cards. these cards are from a couple of different 2022 topps x collaborations with bobby witt
and derek jeter
and then there is the 2024 chris berman collab.
i bought bert blyleven's card when the set was first issued because i liked that nickname, but i passed on the dodger cards in the set. well, when a seller has them for cheap and i can add a card or cards without increasing shipping costs, i will bite on even the silliest of cards. here are freddie freeman
and mookie betts
from that set. these guys have nothing to do with berman or his baseball announcing, and the card backs make that pretty obvious
that looks just like a 2024 topps chrome card. the back does designate it as a "lids" card
sometimes the cards are more basic, like this 2025 topps insert of teoscar hernandez
and this 2025 topps 1990 35th anniversary insert of betts
these are cards that i would have expected to find in a dime box at a show, but hadn't to that point so i paid slightly more to add them to an order.
still, they are dodger cards.
one seller had some cards from the 2024 topps chrome lids mitchell & ness promotional set, so i bought the freeman card
the last card i will show is from 2025 topps chrome cosmic and it's kershaw's
one seller recently went above and beyond and included a vinyl sticker of ol' number 22
that is now on my water bottle.
it takes some effort to fill out orders, but it's much easier these days with the different filters that sportlots has made available. just be sure to have your want lists handy!
