mini post for mini collections

here's a quick post celebrating some of my mini-collections and some recent cards added to said collections.

2015 topps chrome derek jeter

this one is for the "final tributes" collection as it includes all of the captain's career stats on the back

i grabbed this card from a bargain box at a show earlier this year.

same with this 2022 topps stadium club chrome hank aaron card

that features willie mays and so goes into my "lurkers" collection.

2002 donruss originals albert pujols

2015 topps rookies rising gold parallel

2016 topps stadium club bryce harper

2018 panini donruss nolan ryan retro 1984 variation

these cards all slot into my "names/numbers on the back" collection. the pujols is a card i've had since 2002, but the gold card and the harper came from those same bargain boxes as the jeter. i picked up the nolan ryan card in a san jose card shop when i was there back in the spring. 

2020 topps chrome dee gordon sepia refractor

2024 topps holiday carlos correa

these two are obviously for my "double play" collection. i found the gordon in a bargain box at a show, but the correa was sent to me by rod at padrographs.

thanks rod!

still kershing it

in lieu of packs this year, i've been just targeting singles from ebay and sportlots. i am less concerned as the years go on of completing dodger team sets, but i am not opposed to the endeavor. i find myself looking more for mini-collection cards, but will add a dodger card to the cart to fill out an order. usually, my first stop for such cards is clayton kershaw.

kershaw is the guy that i would keep collecting should he leave the dodgers after this season to pitch in texas. he is my current favorite dodger, but more on that later.  one of the first sportlots orders i created this spring had me adding both his base and variation cards from 2021 panini donruss

no, i don't know which one is which.  i also added his base and world series card from 2021 topps flagship

it's interesting to see these cards grouped together. you can really see that topps is essentially telling us to not buy donruss since we can get the same design from them, but with logos (and small font).

i found a seller with 2021 topps walgreen's yellow parallel cards for cheap and bought a couple, including kershaw's world series card.

if i were an a's fan, i would be all over these for my team. i am, however, a dodger fan, but even then i am not too interested in seeking out the walmart royal blue parallels. go figure.

kershaw was included in topps' 70 years of topps insert set - he received 1953

and he was also included in the 52 redux insert set

both cards look a little strange given that 1953 is a painted set, and there are no action shots on 1952 cards. still, i actively chose to add these cards to my collection because kershaw.

here's another insert i added to a sportlots order - a 2021 topps "stars in service" insert

this one depicts kershaw in a pseudo tux. my first guess was that this was a photo from his charity ping pong tournament, and it turns out that it is. that's cody bellinger in the gray tshirt next to kershaw.

here's kershaw's card from the 2021 topps "through the years" insert set

this set caused some confusion at first, but it features reprints of high end cards. i know that some people were fooled and likely spent a lot of money on cards like this when they first hit the market. even now, some jackwads are posting cards from this set (like derek jeter's which features a reprint of a 1/1 card) for big money. can you imagine spending $110 on a card like this and then realizing it is just a reprint? i can't imagine that topps was naive as to the confusion that these cards would cause.

moving on from flagship, i also picked up kershaw's 2021 topps heritage base card

i like that the heritage backs are true to the complete stats on the back tradition.

and with a sandy koufax reference in the cartoon. fitting.

the last of the 2021 kershaw cards i have added (so far) is this insert from topps opening day

it celebrates his "outstanding opening day" in 2013, and even uses a photo from that game. back on the day it happened, i posted about how kershaw put on something close to a one-man show. here's the back of the card to explain:

except what the back doesn't say is that kershaw broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the eighth inning with his first career home run. it was awesome! that fact leads us in to the last part of this post where i share the cards that represent kershaw in "my favorite dodger of the year" mini-collection.  he took over the honors when matt kemp was traded to the padres prior to the 2015 season.

2015: topps "first home run"

so if you put this card together with the opening day insert above, you get the whole story.

2016: topps stadium club

this is what clinching the division looks like. and in san francisco, no less.

2017: topps chrome refractor

2018: topps heritage

2019: topps chrome "150 greatest players"

2020: topps opening day "spring has sprung"

featuring a photo that we will likely not see the likes of again for a while.

2021 topps "52 redux" 

kershaw had a bad start to the season (a bit unlucky, but certainly not sharp) but was his old vintage self on tuesday night against the a's. in that game, he passed bartolo colon and moved in to a tie with javier vazquez for 34th place on the all-time strikeout list. with another 20 k's he will tie jerry koosman for 33rd all-time and i'll be here for it.

team set completion to close out the year

it's been a while since i've not had an open order on any of the regular card shopping sites - ebay, sportlots, or comc - but that's where i stand at the end of 2018.  i do still have a few open trades, however i do not expect to see many of them result in return packages sent my way at this point.

there have been a few recent mailers show up from fellow bloggers - fuji sent a couple of cards in return for some stuff i sent him, including this 2015 topps museum collection sandy koufax card

the koufax is now the only dodger i have from this set, so i am a few away from a complete team set.

thorzul's trade me anything netted me some dodger inserts from 2018 topps update, including these cards

that tied a bow on the dodger team sets for the salute and the storybook endings insert sets, respectively.

night owl sent me the card i won in his recent giveaway along with this 2016 topps stadium club clayton kershaw isometrics insert

which is in and of itself a complete team set.

my comc order which had been growing since the summer was ordered on black friday so as to take advantage of the free shipping.  i used this order to pick up a wide variety of cards for my many collections, but at the same time grabbed the last remaining card/cards needed to complete a number of team sets:

1992 upper deck team mvp holograms (darryl strawberry)
1997 donruss elite (brett butler)

1997 fleer (mike piazza checklist)

1998 fleer sports illustrated (raul mondesi, mike piazza, dennis reyes)
1998 fleer sports illustrated then and now (paul konerko)
1998 fleer ultra (todd worrell, paul konerko)
1998 fleer ultra artistic talents (mike piazza)
1998 fleer ultra double trouble (mike piazza/hideo nomo)
1998 fleer ultra rocket to stardom (paul konerko)
1998 leaf heading to the hall (mike piazza)

1999 topps chrome (gary sheffield)
2012 topps gypsy queen (dee gordon)

2013 topps allen & ginter mini framed relics (matt kemp)
2013 topps tribute (adrian gonzalez)

2016 topps allen & ginter (zach lee)

i do not consider the 'no number' julio urias to be part of the team set, although i have my eye on one of those cards at the moment.

same with sportlots, where i have been buying and selling cards for the past several years. i've used the sportlots box option a couple of times now, and have been able to complete a number of team sets.  the latest is 1996 fleer ultra, thanks to this tom candiotti card.

i ordered that card twice. the first time the seller sent the wrong card so i had to order it again.

i had sort of unofficially targeted 1990's fleer ultra sets this past year as a series that i wanted to close out, and i came fairly close with just a few cards still needed for the 1997 team set.

finally, ebay. ebay has done a lot for my collection since i first found out about it in 1999.  i recently picked up a 1970 kellogg's bill singer card

that technically didn't complete my team set because i already had one of singer's cards, but it is encased as a psa 8 specimen, and i didn't want to bust it free.  so this singer now sits with the other 1970 kellogg's dodger cards in the 1970-1974 binder where it belongs.  not sure what to do with the psa 8 singer now.

of course, i also included a couple of new-to-me steve garvey cards in my comc order - both from 2003 donruss signature series

my collecting plan for 2019 is to focus on my steve garvey collection.

i will also check out 2019 heritage as the 1970 topps set is near and dear to me (it was the first set issued before i began collecting that i went back and completed), but i will most likely not pursue a set. dodger cards and hopefully team sets will still be a major part of my collecting in 2019, and i'll probably try to finish up my dodger topps chrome team sets from 1996 on - starting with 2003.  i picked up an eric gagne from that set with my comc order

plus refractors of kaz ishii

and andy ashby.

blue borders can't be beat when it comes to refractory dodger cards!

happy new year!

in support of catfishing

i don't really fish, and i certainly don't condone the luring of anyone into a relationship by way of a fictional online personality, but i do wholly support more cards of jim 'catfish' hunter, especially when they show him dealing in dodger stadium

that card may be my favorite from 2018 topps archives.  it features a photo of hunter from game 5 of the 1977 world series (the only day world series game in which hunter pitched at dodger stadium), and the only way it could be better is if it were featured on a 1978 topps design.

hunter was one of the first non-dodger players that i started a pc of, which is weird to think about now since my first awareness of him was him pitching against the dodgers in the world series.

i found another postseason dodger stadium photo on cardboard recently - on a 2016 topps stadium club lucas duda card

hard to believe that the mets won two postseason series (including the nlds against the dodgers) just three seasons ago.

corey from kerry completes my 2016 topps stadium club team set

it's been a couple of months now since blogger con nw 2018 was held in portland.  kerry from cards on cards was one of the locals who attended, and he gave me a great box of dodger cards.  my favorite of the bunch was this 2016 topps stadium club corey seager card

it completed my team set, and it also allowed me to delete a card out of my comc cart.  thanks kerry!

why i enjoy reading baseball card blogs

i've been reading baseball card blogs for over 10 years now, and i still enjoy seeing the various postings of fellow collectors.  sometimes, i will see a post that features a card of my favorite player, like this 2005 playoff prestige steve garvey card

that fuji found at a flea market a while back.  this particular version of the card is the red parallel, numbered to 25; a parallel that i did not have in my collection.  i asked fuji if he would part with it, and he agreed to do so with a blind trade.  that is awesome.

another blog that i read regularly is nick's dime boxes which always features a bunch of random, yet connected, cards.  one card that nick showed off a while back was this 1982 red lobster cubs bump wills card

there's a good chance that the expo on the card is tim raines, with scot thompson being the cubs' left fielder. nick and i both collect cards that show the double play, and so i was inspired to go and find this card to add to my collection.  while i was at it, i added a few more turns at second base, many of which i had seen around the blogosphere but had not gotten around to acquiring yet.

here's a 2015 topps update pete kozma

and the gold parallel version

i wish the dodgers had permanent murals like the cardinals do (and maybe the white sox?).

i always like to check out posts featuring new releases as it is a great way to see a variety of cards that may fit into my collection.  a couple of months ago, jeff at 2x3 heroes showed off a few cards from 2017 topps flagship that he had added to his double play collection, including jace peterson

and tim anderson.

i went over to sportlots and did the same, and i added anderson's 2017 topps opening day card

as well as dee gordon's

a few other double play cards that i've picked up recently include this 2017 topps heritage buster posey game card

along with a pair of 2015 topps original buybacks - 1976 topps bob sheldon

and derrel thomas

and a 2016 panini donruss andrelton simmons 1982 design insert

i'm pretty sure that's kiké hernandez sliding in, which would likely make this a card that features a dp turn from july 21, 2015 (austin barnes followed a hernandez single with a 4-6-3 double play grounder).

i don't recall which blog i saw this next card on, but it was quickly added to my sportlots order

that would be a 2017 panini donruss joe morgan 1983 design card featuring a photo of morgan batting in dodger stadium.  i believe that the catcher's glove most likely belongs to steve yeager, although it could be a host of other dodger backstops as well.

in addition to inspiring me to add cards to my collection, nick recently sent some cards my way, including another dodger stadium background card - 2016 topps stadium club justin turner

plus some other turners - 2016 topps allen & ginter base

and mini

and the same for alex wood

although the wood mini 

shows how topps rotated the image for wood's base card.

last card to show from nick is this 2016 topps holiday kenley jansen card

i would not have known that these snowflake cards existed had it not been for the blogs.  i guess you have to take the good with the bad.