topps overcorrected a bit

after missing out on a team break for the inaugural release of topps chrome platinum anniversary in 2021, i joined a team break of the 2022 release, and was able to complete the dodger team set a couple times over while also finding a couple of parallels for my collection. in 2024, i joined a smaller break of the 2023 product, and came away with some decent cards to kickstart my team set building effort. there was no chrome platinum anniversary set released for 2024, allowing topps to actually align the card design with the platinum anniversary of the year that it was released. 

this has always been my biggest beef with topps heritage. starting in 2001 with the 1952 design seemed misaligned to me at the beginning, and soon thereafter led to an annual annoyance around 50th anniversary buybacks that aren't really 50th anniversary buybacks. anyway, the 2025 release of chrome platinum anniversary would feature the 1955 design in a satisfying act of synchronicity, and that pleased me. however, it wasn't until the middle of 2026 that the product was released.

regardless, i was looking forward to the product, but unfortunately my team break success was pre-ohtani, and with the 2025 release, the prices for dodger slots in breaks has been way more than i was willing to pay. instead, i've been building the base team set through a steady stream of sportlots orders.

the first card to arrive was tyler glasnow's

and it was sooned joined by nine others

chan ho park's baseball card resurgence was a big part of 2025, and it's nice to see kirk gibson get some dodger cardboard time.

here are a trio of rookies from 2025

with river ryan being the odd man out as he is no longer a dodger due to the tarik skubal trade.

roki sasaki

was part of a single card order from a seller who is losing money on shipping.

most of the cards came as part of larger orders where i found a couple of dodger cards from other sets in order to maximize my shipping cost investment. these two cards - hideo nomo and blake snell

were from one such order. as was hyeseong kim's card

topps has brought orel hershiser

back to us collectors, and i appreciate that. i do wish he had more cards like this and fewer autograph only releases though. it seems he has been given the steve garvey treatment in that regard.

here's a trio of dodger legends that arrived together - jackie robinson, sandy koufax, and clayton kershaw

and here's a couple more - duke snider and mookie betts

jackie, sandy, and the duke were all in the original 1955 set, so it's nice to see them again 70 (71) years later.

i did not have adrian gonzalez

dodger cards on my 2025 or 2026 bingo card but i will accept it.

the last card i needed was ohtani's

and it was easily the most expensive with an all-in cost of just under nine bucks.

the card that i was most excited about was dusty baker's

now that he has retired from managing, i hope we see more cards of him in dodger blue. i even scanned the back

baker is my go-to on baseball reference's immaculate grid for dodger silver slugger, and i've used him for gold glover as well when garvey was already used in a different category.

that baker card, as well as this betts/robinson 1955 double header insert

would both be candidates for my favorite dodger card of the year except for the facts that this is a 2025 release (officially) and that there was a 2026 topps card of clayton kershaw to wrap up his hall of fame career.

i used ebay to add that insert above as well as the full six card 1955 world series dodger team set

the cards above, and the backs below, are shown in numerical order even though that means they are not in chronological order. you will see what i mean, as roy campanella's card starts with game 3 

no johnny podres card for game 7 which is a surprise, but pee wee reese is an acceptable substitute.

back to game 1 with jackie

duke's exploits in game 4 lead into gil hodges' in game 7

and to round out the team set, topps fit in another koufax card even though he wasn't part of the world series. again, it's something that i am a-ok with.

there are a multitude of parallels for these cards, as well as the autograph subsets. i've held myself to only picking up a couple of those. steve garvey is always a target, and so i added his base auto

with a very basic back

as well as his aqua refractor 

numbered to 150.

i've noted that a number of resellers don't understand the concept of a facsimile autograph that is part of the 1955 card design. there are so many listings for "auto" cards that are just base cards or base parallels. 

to date, the only base parallel that i have purchased is this platinum toile gold parallel of hideo nomo

it's numbered to 50 and is a nice example of the excess that has defined parallels of chrome platinum anniversary to date.

last minute update! earlier today i received these three blue prism refractor parallels

after purchasing them as a lot for about a buck apiece.

it's probably too much to ask for 2026 topps chrome platinum anniversary featuring the fantastic 1956 topps design to actually be released in 2026. hopefully topps gets things on track at some point.