a simple shop to occupy my time

i was out and about in the twin cities a few weeks ago and had some time to kill before an event. it didn't make sense to head home and double back, so i took penn ave to 494 and then lyndale, not to the quarry, but to three stars sportscards.

over the years, these folks have taken their singles inventory from almost exclusively online to having a large number of monster boxes at various pricing to dig through. i used to avoid this shop and their other location in the north metro, but with this newer development, i've been visiting a couple of times a year.

i knew that they typically had some oversized stuff, and quickly found a box of it near the back of the store. with everything priced at two bucks, i didn't think twice to grab this 2009 topps allen & ginter manny ramirez n43 boxtopper

here's the back

that's a pretty decent snapshot of mlb in 2009.

more bigger dodger cards were there for the taking, like this 2017 topps heritage high numbers advertising panel featuring brandon mccarthy

with an actual ad on the back

and this 2018 topps heritage panel featuring walker buehler and alex verdugo

that is ad-less but features anthony rizzo on the back

the backs aren't exclusive to the fronts, if that makes sense, but i don't think there is a kershaw or bellinger back with the verdugo/buehler card on the front.

one more for the post, a 2020 topps heritage willie stargell 1971 topps greatest moments insert

this one is showing a little wear, but it's still pretty cool. here'st he back:

stargell was a very strong man. i recall him taking bp at dodger stadium and hitting the ball very hard.

there were some quarter boxes that were all jumbled up with all sports mixed together, so i fairly quickly started looking at a dollar box. i found a few cards to pull, such as this 2018 bowman draft jeren kendall chrome prospects sky blue refractor /402

2019 topps finest walker buehler refractor

and 2019 topps heritage high numbers aj pollock chrome purple refractor

sure, a dollar is more than these cards are worth in hand, but i'll support retail brick and mortars. plus, with shipping costs rising, i may not be able to get these cards any cheaper anywhere else.

about this time i noticed another patron walking around with a matt kemp autographed card in hand. i asked him where he found it and he pointed to some "as priced" boxes in the center of the store. i mentioned my affinity for kemp, and he noted that he, too, was a dodger fan. in a scene reminiscent of that clip of henry cavill and joey batey quickly bonding over warhammer 40000, we exchanged tcdb handles and by the next day, we were "friends". he's "wischeese", by the way.

we wound up going through some of the 3 dollar boxes at the same time, and i asked him if he was finding anything. his reply was "a lot of dollar cards" which made me laugh. he wasn't wrong, but i still found a few cards to take home for the 3 dollar price.

this 2022 topps update all-star stitches tony gonsolin relic card is the silver parallel, numbered to 50

it was probably marked down because there is some film damage on the right edge, but i'll take it!

wischeese and i agreed that this 2021 panini donruss gavin lux red relic parallel numbered to 99

was at an ok price for the wisconsin native

how about a 2023 topps update jayson heyward card?

seeing that in a 3 buck box let me know that there was more than meets the eye, and sure enough, it's the advanced stat parallel, numbered to 300

one more numbered dodger card i pulled was this 2018 topps archives tommy lasorda purple parallel

it's numbered to 175 on the back:

and it had a "friend" that i will get to later

back to the dollar boxes, here are a couple of non-dodger cards i took. a 2019 topps chrome kevin pillar purple refractor

numbered to 299

and a 2019 topps gypsy queen blake snell fortune teller insert

which is also an indigo parallel, and numbered to 250

the back there predicted a no-no from snell in 2019. they were off by five years, as he threw his first career no-hitter in 2024. matt garza is still the only ray to achieve the feat.

returning to the cards i took from the three dollar box i perused, here's the other 2018 topps archives card i alluded to above - larry doby purple parallel

i guess purple was catching my eye, because here's another purple card i bought. this is a 2020 topps rip card of ozzie albies in purple parallel form

it's numbered to 25, but it's also already ripped

whatever card was inside was long gone, unlike my first encounter with a ripped rip card in a bargain box. just a few more cards to share, here's a 2021 topps update freddie freeman all-star game insert black parallel

numbered to 299

and this is a 2023 topps stadium club orange foil parallel of dontrelle willis

that is numbered to 199

seeing the commissioner's trophy on a card is always fun.

my favorite card of the day was this 2020 topps stadium club travis demeritte autograph card

i think we all agreed back then that demeritte's topps base card was one of the best of the year, and this card features a photo from the same weekend, at least. the scoreboard behind him explains that it was taken during negro leagues weekend, and we recognize the detroit stars uniform demeritte is wearing. i also appreciate the fact that this card provides the best representation of the tigers' retired numbers hanging in the outfield at comerica park that i have seen on cardboard. this one is a keeper for sure.

i made it to my event on time, even though i spent more time in the shop than i had intended. i'll definitely be back to peruse the boxes i didn't get to this time. i'm hoping that wischeese left some dodgers behind!

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - giants in the ravine edition

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he took the mound against the giants on saturday night in los angeles. he struck out 5 batters to give him 132 strikeouts on the season. those 5 giants that he k'd increased his career total to 2,939.

in honor of his performance, here are 5 cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,935 through 2,939.

2,935 - 2018 topps heritage 1968 deckle edge

2,936 - 2019 topps gallery heritage

2.937 - 2019 topps national baseball card day gallery preview

2,938 - 2020 topps big league orange

2,939 - 2020 topps stadium club red foil

a fitting card for that last strikeout given its dodger stadium location.

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who struck out 5 guardians last wednesday, has a career strikeout total of 2,972. kershaw is now 33 k's behind greinke and 61 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw pitched five innings against the giants in what may have been his final regular season start at chavez ravine. once the postseason is over, it will once again be time to wait and see if he will return to pitch in 2024 and whether he will do so as a dodger. i really hope he sees the 3k milestone as one that must be reached and that he decides to do it as a dodger.

it looks like kershaw's next start will come this weekend in the series against the giants in nocal, and will obviously be his final start of the regular season. know that i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

where it is with heritage chrome

a few weeks ago, i gave a synopsis of where my dodger collection is regarding topps heritage releases. this post will do something similar with the chrome heritage offerings. some collectors don't like the idea of chrome cards in heritage releases since there were no chrome cards using flagship designs until the late 1990's. i like the chrome cards and don't see them degrading the heritage sets at all, although there are plenty of other things for collectors to nitpick about (myself included).

anyway, the inaugural heritage release in 2001 introduced us to these partial set parallels, and i just recently finally added one to my collection

2001 sets meant dodger collectors were getting a whopping serving of kevin brown, shawn green, and gary sheffield cards. those three are the dodgers who were feted with chrome cards in 2001, but i only have brown's.

in 2002, brown and green again got the chrome treatment and were joined by paul loduca, omar daal, and chan ho park. i don't have any of those cards. i did pull a cc sabathia chrome card from a pack of 2002 heritage, but i've since parted with it.

five dodgers were included in the 2003 topps heritage chrome cards, including ruddy lugo

in addition to the lugo, i have shawn green's card but am missing kaz ishii, franklin gutierrez, and loduca.

there were only two chrome dodgers in 2004 - shawn green and edwin jackson - and i only have green's card. in 2005, green was joined by ishii, jeff kent, and eric gagne. i have the green and the ishii from that set.  then, in 2006, jeff weaver

rafael furcal

and kent 

joined nomar garciaparra as chrome dodgers. this is the first team heritage chrome set that i have completed.

i have also completed the dodger 2007 heritage chrome team set. it features andre ethier

delwyn young

and jonathan broxton

broxton's card looks fantastic in refractor form

it's the only one of the three that i own and i wouldn't have it any other way.

i have also completed the team set for 2008 heritage chrome. this one includes 10 dodgers (2 of which are part of the inaugural high numbers release). in addition to ethier, kent, andy laroche, and hiroki kuroda, dodger fans were treated to cards of andruw jones

matt kemp

brad penny

takashi saito

russell martin

who i also have in refractor form

and chin-lung hu

whose refractor looks really great

there were 10 more dodgers in 2009 heritage, and i have them all. kuroda

martin

penny

orlando hudson (high numbers)

ethier

whose refractor also sits in my collection

james loney (whose refractor made this post rather than the base)

the others in the team set include clayton kershaw, kemp, manny ramirez, and randy wolf.

six dodgers showed up in 2010 heritage as chrome parallels, and once again, i've been able to complete the set. here's chad billingsley's card

he is joined by kemp, kershaw, ethier, martin, and manny.

in 2011, if i recall correctly, the chrome cards were included in heritage and chrome? is that correct? anyway, there are nine dodgers and i have six of them. i am missing don mattingly, kuroda, and billingsley, but have casey blake, loney, kershaw, etheir, the kemp/ethier combo card, and kemp's solo card. here's his chrome parallel

that also graces my collection.

2012 heritage included five dodgers and i have three of them, including kuroda in base

and refractor format

i am missing ethier's card and the matt kemp league leader card, but i have kemp's solo card and kershaw's league leader card in chrome form.

2013 heritage only had five dodgers as well, and i own ethier and kershaw cards but need hanley ramirez', kemp, and adrian gonzalez. for 2014, hyun-jin ryu, zack greinke, and yasiel puig joined kershaw, ramirez, gonzalez, and kemp. i have kershaw and kemp

and i also have purple refractors of greinke and kemp

i don't have kemp's 2015 heritage chrome card, but i do have greinke's

i also have kershaw, dee gordon, puig, and gonzalez, but am missing ryu, ramirez, and kenley jansen. as for the high numbers, i have jimmy rollins but none of the other dodgers (yasmani grandal, trevor cahill, alex guerrero, and brett anderson).

there were only three dodgers - greinke (need it), puig (need it), and kershaw (got it) - given chrome cards in 2016 heritage, but high numbers gave us four more. scott kazmir and ross stripling are the two i am missing as i have julio urias and kenta maeda

it was more of the same in 2018, with four dodgers in the base run of heritage - kershaw (got it), maeda (got it), corey seager (need it), and urias (need it). then, in high numbers, there were four more. i need andrew toles, rob segedin, and cody bellinger, but have jansen.  

in 2019, topps returned to a greater number of dodgers included as chrome subjects as seager, maeda, bellinger, yu darvish, walker buehler, alex verdugo, puig, and kershaw were all included. kershaw's is the only card of those that i own, although i do have a couple of refractor parallels of others.  in high numbers, there was only matt kemp, and while i need his base chrome card, i do have his refractor parallel

man it was good to see him back with the dodgers in 2018.

things got sort of confusing for me in 2019 when i was putting together the checklists. i guess some of the chrome cards were only available in mega boxes, like this jansen

and this joc pederson 

while matt kemp was among those getting true "base" chrome cards. i don't have kemp's card, but i do have his refractor parallel

in all, i still need buehler, kemp, maeda, and max muncy from the base chrome checklist (i have kershaw), and i need only bellinger from the mega box checklist (i have seager in addition to the pederson and jansen cards above). high numbers included chrome cards for a.l. pollock and alex verdugo (along with russell martin in the mega boxes), but i have none of those.

twelve dodgers were included in 2020 heritage chrome (combining base and mega box exclusives). of those twelve, i only have bellinger

jansen, kershaw, and verdugo. i am still on the lookout for muncy, dustin may, gavin lux, will smith, seager, buehler, justin turner, and pederson.  i do have refractor parallels of bellinger 

and jansen

and they look pretty sharp. i would love to add the mookie betts chrome card from 2020 high numbers, along with any of the other three dodgers (edwin rios, brusdar graterol, and david price) but i have yet to do so.

in recent years, as you can tell, i've paid less attention to completing team sets of chrome, and that is true for 2021 where i only have kershaw and need the other four dodgers (muncy, betts, seager, and bellinger) plus the seven dodgers in high numbers (dj peters, victor gonzalez, price, lux, zach mckinstry, albert pujols, and buehler). 2022 is the same, where i am missing all of the chrome cards from the base heritage (buehler, urias, betts, trea turner, and bellinger) and only have kershaw from the high numbers release (missing craig kimbrel).

finally, 2023. so far, there are four dodgers to chase in chrome form - james outman, betts, freddie freeman, and buehler. i have buehler's card

and am looking forward to high numbers and what i will assume will be another kershaw card.

i mentioned that i have a number (actually all) kershaw chrome cards, including purple refractors from 2021 

and 2022

and i figured i would show the complete run of base kershaw chrome cards, starting in 2009

2010

2011

2012 (no base chrome card for kersh)

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

as i mentioned, i am looking forward to seeing kershaw's heritage card this year - might it resemble claude osteen's 1974 card? - and whomever else is in high numbers this year. 

thanks for sticking with this post - it was a lot of cards for sure!