going for gold

the 2024 olympics are a few months away, so this post is about cards and not medals. i've picked up a few new topps flagship gold parallel cards recently and figured i would run through a full slate of these parallels now that 2024 series 1 is out.

the first gold cards showed up in 1992

i remember these being a pretty big deal, with one of my local shops offering a bounty for the barry bonds parallel. there was also a redemption offer in which you would receive these same parallels with "winner" stamped in gold above the team names. 

maybe one of the first "paraallel parallel" sets.

1993 saw a similar gold treatment

but with the addition of the "topps gold" logo

in 1994

there was only the name to make gold.

after that, topps took a break from the gold parallels. when they returned in 2001

there was full border foil, along with the names, and the cards were serial numbered (not shown) to the year of production.

the 2002 gold cards

aren't as obvious as scans because of the gold border that topps used for the base design. this was the first year that they added the "xx years of collecting", building from the "topps 50" logo on the 2001 cards. i've posted in the past about anniversaries vs. years of collecting so i won't bother to get into it again here.

in 2003

the names and borders were made gold, but topps left the remainder of the design blue.

2004

2005

and 2006

each had white border base designs that were changed to gold.

in 2007

the base design was black. there were no black parallels that year - instead topps used copper for the numbered "years of collecting" parallels

the next several years - 2008

2009

2010

2011

and 2012

had their white borders and names turned gold, but the "years of collecting" text fell off the cards in 2012

in 2013 

and 2014

topps applied the gold to the full design

after 2014, topps got more graphically creative with their flagship design. the golds were a pretty standard conversion in 2015

but in 2016 

the gold leaked into the photo as there was no border to color. same in 2017

and in 2018 it was all over the photo

partial gold borders were achieved in 2019

and 2020

and then back in full force in 2021

more of the same in 2022

but for some reason the gold cards in 2023

didn't get gold all the way around.

this year, 2024,

we are back to full bordered gold.

for my money the 2001 and 2007 gold parallels are my favorite, although i don't have  a lot of them. in fact, i've only completed the 1992 (and the 1992 "winners") dodger gold parallel team sets, although the last 1994 card i need is on its way to me. night owl just recently shared his complete 2008 dodger gold parallel team set, and i think i need to start making more progress in this regard - i mean just look how chunky the gold borders are on the 2007 topps dodger team card

my gold rush is on!

350 is a magic number - the not terrible 2s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350. 

i think i'll post cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've shown the 8s, 7s, 6s, and 3s. this post will be all about the 2s.

1962 topps #350

frank robinson won his first mvp award in 1961, so here we have a clear application of card number 350 as a hero number. in fact, robby probably should have been card number 100. he would go on to win his second mvp award in 1966 after winning the triple crown, and wouldn't you know it - his 1967 topps card is number 100 in the set.

1972 topps #350 

frank howard hit a lot of home runs, and had led the national league in that category as recently as 1970. he was starting to decline at this point in his career, but still gave the first-year rangers a spot at a hero number on the checklist. seeing this card in a box of 1972 dupes is what inspired me to look at starting this mini-collection, for whatever that's worth.

1982 topps #350

thad bosley! no disrespect to the "white sox' most effective pinch-hitter of 1980", but his inclusion here discredits the notion of hero numbers altogether. and it's not as if he had a big postseason moment in 1981 for the brewcrew that might warrant the card number - he only appeared in 1 game of the divisional playoff (or "mini-playoff" as the card back calls it) without a plate appearance.

1992 topps #350

gregg olson was the 1989 american league rookie of the year, and he followed that season with several solid years in the oriole bullpen. perhaps his role in the 1991 no-hitter mentioned on the card helped his case for being featured at card number 350?

2002 topps #350

the oakland athletics had the misfortune of being in the same division as the seattle mariners who won 116 games as opposed to their total of 102 in 2001. as a result, the a's took the american league wild card in and faced the yankees who had won only 95 games. it didn't matter, as the yankees beat the a's in the alds by coming back from a two games to none deficit in the series. it's an interesting choice of words topps used on the back of the card regarding the team's "destructive offense". "juiced" has a certain connotation in baseball, and i suppose topps could have done this intentionally given the timeframe. when the mitchell report was released in 2007, jermaine dye was not among those players included in the findings, but jason giambi was. 

2012 topps #350

evan longoria was a solid choice for this spot on the checklist in my opinion. he was the face of the rays at this point, and had, as the card back states, just put the rays in the postseason as the wild card winner with a walk-off home run on the final day of the season. i remember watching the end of that game, and it was fun to see it happen in real time. longoria actually hit two homers that day as the rays came back against the yankees and a 7-0 deficit to win in 12 innings. although longoria's second dinger won the game, let's not forget dan johnson, who hit a solo home run with two outs in the ninth inning to tie it at 7. not so pleased were the red sox, who wound up missing out on the postseason as a result of longo's heroics.

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 2 (frank robinson, robin yount)

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 7 (frank robinson, steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 7 (mel stottlemyre - complete games; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; kenny lofton - sb; chase utley - runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era)

subset types: 2 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights (2))

number of repeat players: 0

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (4), mets (3), dodgers (2), astros (2), braves (2), twins (2), a's (2), reds (2), brewers (2), white sox, giants, indians, phillies, red sox, yankees, cubs, blue jays, angels, rangers, orioles, rays

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!

i've got a mind to show some cards from my parallel collection

what if there were a parallel universe where there were only base cards? back in 2005, there were so many parallels being produced thanks to releases like diamond kings and studio portraits. actually, studio portraits was all parallels with no 'base' cards, really.  here's a kirk gibson card from that set that came my way via trade last fall with greg of the collective mind:

that is a diamond kings red parallel card, one of 56 different cards from this set for the 1988 national league mvp. daunting.

here's another parallel, one that is far easier to come by - a 1992 topps darryl strawberry gold winner card:

and another, a 1994 upper deck electric diamond tim wallach card:

now for something somewhat different - here's a 1998 donruss preferred mike piazza

nope, not a parallel. just the second of his cards in the base set - noted as 'grandstand' for obvious reasons. there are parallels of this card, but this isn't one of them.

same goes for this 2003 playoff absolute memorabilia shawn green card

just a simple base card that also mentions 5/23/02 on the back.

this 2004 donruss adrian beltre

features don drysdale and one of the dodger stadium murals in the background

here's a 2005 donruss leather & lumber rivals insert featuring beltre and the big unit

and a 2005 donruss elite adrian beltre carreer best

you guessed it - that one is a blue parallel.

here's another parallel - this one is a radiance parallel of hideo nomo from 1998 upper deck spx finite

these cards had some high serial numbered print runs - this one is numbered to 4500.

now for some 2004 donruss elite paul loduca parallels

the 'turn of the century' parallel is for some reason numbered to 750 (and issued in 2004), while the 'aspirations' parallel is die cut and numbered to 84. the numbering of the 'aspirations' parallels varied from player to player, but doesn't seem to be tied to anything as far as i can tell. i wonder if donruss was just spinning wheels and picking numbers out of hats when it came to deciding what treatments and numbering to give to parallels back then.

here's one more - a 2005 donruss team heroes derek lowe blue showdown parallel

these blue parallels weren't numbered, but the bronze, gold and silver versions were, with the silver being numbered to a smaller print run (/10) than the gold (/50). make sense? 

in addition to dodgers, greg and i came to an agreement on some other cards to be sent my way including a nice batch of vladimir guerrero cards

featuring more parallels!

and finally, some 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary inserts of varying subjects

i had at one time given some thought to building this set until i realized that many of the photos were used on multiple cards. still, it was nice to see a variety in what greg sent - that dr. j card is fantastic.  here's a closer look at my favorite, however

i put this card of qe ii in my lurker mini-collection thanks to old friend johnny oates being present. the oriole shaking the hand of hrh is ellie hendricks, i believe, although it could also be tom mccraw, al jackson, curt motton, or even frank robinson, i suppose. this meeting occured about a week before robinson was fired and oates was named the manager of the o's, and all of those men mentioned were on robinson's staff.

thanks for the trade greg!