the art (and the garv) in the deal

i may well be the last of the beneficiaries of nick's generous 10th anniversary giveaway to show my haul, but that's ok. the number of cards and effort put forth by nick should continue to be acknowledged - it really was a tremendous undertaking by him, and i am grateful for it.

it turns out that my favorite card of the package wasn't even one i requested. it was this 2020 topps gallery max muncy card:

fantastic. muncy's 2019 topps gallery card is on my nefarious nine (my most wanted list) as it will be a team set killer, but this card would have been on that list had i known what it looked like. it is the most artistic of the dodger base cards in the set and the background really reminds me of a paul klee work. i like paul klee works.

that's not to say that the rest of the cards weren't great - they definitely were! i mean, i don't receive reggie smith cards

in a trade package too often! even though i already had both his 1989 smokey dodger greats and 1981 topps scratch-off cards, it was great to see the right fielder from the team of my youth make an appearance.  ditto for the penguin

whose scratch-off card was also included.

there were plenty of cards that i did need, like this 2005 topps pristine johnny podres card

and this 2020 topps chrome will smith insert

this 2021 topps stadium club chrome gavin lux card

got me one step closer to completing that team set, as did this 1990 cmc glenn hoffman card

the then-future dodger manager is featured as the uncommon player/coach which is always fun to see.

this 2020 topps holiday metallic snowflake clayton kershaw card

was my first card from that set. 

nick is a fellow double play collector, and he sent a couple of regional oddballs for me to add to my collection - a 1998 msc brewers jose valentin

(hello sammy sosa), and a 1993 donruss mcdonald's blue jays roberto alomar

(hello kent hrbek).

one of the first cards i claimed in the giveaways was this 2019 topps big league mike trout wall climbers insert

it and this 2011 topps lineage david ortiz card

that i also claimed fit in my "name/number on the back" mini-collection.

there were usually plenty of vladimir guerrero cards that were included in the giveaways. i didn't claim any, but nick did send a few my way. a couple of them that were new to me are this 2003 topps 205 card

which is a variation due to the white in the expos logo, and this 2005 leaf card

always great to add to my vladdy collection!

the one card i claimed that i was most excited about was this 1986 fleer league leaders card of dave parker

it's not a rare card, nor is it of any real value, but it does feature ryne sandberg and (i am pretty certain) joe garagiola lurking in the background. but the biggest thing for me is the player to parker's left. i am confident that it is none other than steve garvey. the photo used here comes from the 1985 all-star game in the metrodome, and you may recall that parker and garvey (and dale murphy) were featured on a 1986 fleer superstar special card in the flaghsip set from the field of the homerdome. those three, along with sandberg and jack clark, represented the national league in the first all-star home run derby held prior to the 1985 midsummer classic.

i will admit that i didn't notice garvey there until after i had claimed the card and took a closer look. i am very thankful to nick for featuring this card and allowing me to add a card to my garvey collection! 

thanks nick and congratulations again on 10 years of producing enjoyable, entertaining, and informative posts! 

scratching an unscratched itch

for the longest time, my steve garvey collection contained only 1 card from the 1981 topps scratch-off set. i guess there were two - his card, separated from one of the three-card panels

and the intact three-card panel that featured garvey along with fellow infielders from the team of my youth ron cey and dave lopes

that remained unchanged even as i was handed a huge lot of three-card panels from this set by my dad late in 2018. i was back home visiting my parents and he told me to take some of his collection (along with the sets i had left behind with him from my early collecting days) back with me when i left. i obliged, but the scratch-offs sat in a box for almost two years.

sometime last summer, i decided to look through the scratch-offs i had been given as i was taking stock of some of the "loose" items i had in my card area. i found that my dad had compiled a complete set with all panel variations along with a healthy number of duplicates. i was also reminded that steve garvey was among those with panel variations. so, as any good player collector might do, i decided to add the variations to my player collection.

in addition to the garvey-cey-lopes panel, i now have the garvey-greg luzinski-lopes panel

the garvey-luzinski-ken griffey panel

and the garvey-mazzilli-flynn panel

it seems like that last panel escalated quickly, with garvey being the only link to the previous panel. i'm not sure what drew my dad to this set, but i do recall him buying some packs at the local card shop back in the day. i wound up selling the complete set to fuji, but i still have a bunch of doubles if anyone has any needs. i'll help you scratch that collecting itch!