when a penny is worth a quarter and other tales from the card shows

it was business as usual at the june twin cities collector club card show, with yours truly arriving as the doors opened and then making the handful of regular stops at tables with bargain boxes. as usual, the boxes included dime, quarter, dollar, and two dollar boxes, with the latter two belonging to a seller who gives good discounts from those posted prices.

one card i pulled from one of the quarter boxes was this one

it's a 2005 upper deck artifacts brad penny card. i took it because i know that my mid-2000 upper deck non-flagship dodger team sets aren't necessarily complete. it wasn't until i got home that i realized it was a promo. yes, i did not notice the "ud promo" text across the front.  here's the back:

i don't know how these promos were distributed, but there are a few dodgers included. i certainly was in need of this penny card that cost a quarter.

from the dime box vendor, i took a couple of 2020 topps 206 series 1 cards. first, a gavin lux

sovereign back

and next, a gerrit cole

polar bear back

the polar bear backs were 1:18 packs

some other dime box cards included this 2023 panini donruss gavin stone purple holo parallel

a 2021 topps archives 1989 big foil elvis andrus card

for the double play collection, and a 2024 topps lawrence butler gameday drip insert

this card caught my eye for a couple of reasons. first, unlike the other gameday drip cards i've seen, this one features the subject in their baseball uniform. this makes sense to me, although i get the other side showing players in their walk-in ensembles. anyway, i also took notice of butler wearing number 4. my high school team modeled its uniforms after the late-80's athletics look, and i wore number 4 so i definitely like the look of this card!

back to the quarter box, i rescued this "gem"

that is an honest to goodness beat up 1983 topps tony gwynn rookie. here's the back:

it's not a card that i need - i have a couple of complete sets, plus the one from my dad's collection - but i figured i would remove it from the indignity of a bargain box. who knows, maybe this will be fuji's next wallet card.

i also nabbed a couple of green parallels from 2022 topps gypsy queen. one of a retiring sure-to-be hall of famer, and one that is a "color match"

these next few came from the dollar (or 7 for $5, but really even less than that) box

2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary babe ruth

2005 topps heritage moises alou sp

2010 topps warren spahn legends variation

i will always pick up a legends variation when i see it in these boxes. same goes for cards of the bambino on the 1952 topps design. heritage short prints are in the "sometimes always" category.

there were some 2026 inserts and parallels that i also purchased, including these 8 bit ballers

this pair of andrew mccutchen varieties

and a series 2 holiday parallel of juan soto

soto got a hero number in series 2

which is absolutely justified by those stats.

one more card from the dollar box - a 2026 topps heritage kris bryant black parallel

these have a print run of 50 so i was surprised to see it. there is a touch of damage to the bottom border, similar to the black border card that i pulled (and returned to topps but have not yet received my replacement) so i am guessing that's why it was in the bargain box. it was with some other color parallels from this year's heritage, including some dark grays, so it was obvious that it is a black border.

from the same seller i took this 2020 topps heritage christian yelich card

seeing these cards back-to-back here reminds me of how my mind was blown a bit when i realized that 1977 topps is just a revision of 1971 topps with capital letters for the player name, white borders, and a position pennant. small changes with the same basic design. seeing the bryant card makes it more obvious how similar the two designs are.

anyway, i picked up the yelich card because it's a mini, numbered to 100 on the back

i have been stockpiling some brewer cards in anticipation of thorzul's "trade me anything" event which was postponed from its usual timing last winter. hopefully it is a tradition that has not yet come to an end.

more topps heritage black borders from 2018

and 2019

plus another topps legend variation - this one from 2011 topps

robin roberts passed away in 2010 so i am sure he was in the minds of the topps folks who determined who would be included on these cards.

a couple more cards that i couldn't pass up - these are vintage stock parallels from 2025 topps update

i need to track down a 2026 example. these are much more interesting to me since topps started putting more thought into them in 2024.

as for more obvious cards for my collection, i found some from each of the sellers i visited.

here's a 2016 topps perspectives insert of randy johnson

for the tatooine collection, and a 2026 topps 1991 insert of vladimir guerrero

for that pc that i maintain.

as for dodgers, here's an alex freeland 1991 insert

a tommy edman sandglitter parallel

and a teoscar hernandez rainbow foil parallel

from this year's flagship.

other needed cards i picked up included a 2019 pedro baez rainbow foil parallel

a 2019 topps heritage kenta maeda chrome purple refractor parallel

and the same parallel, but of walker buehler from 2020 topps heritage

another buehler parallel - the aqua wave refractor from 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary

here's a 2024 panini prizm pink ice parallel of emmet sheehan

and a couple of 2025 freddie freeman cards - chrome all-etch insert

and holiday gold lights parallel

finally, from 2025 topps update i found a hyeseong kim 1990 insert

and a purple holofoil parallel of evan phillips

overall, a pretty good haul for my collection.

i will also mention that one of the sellers had quite a few of these 2019 topps cross-product inserts of the greatest players, greatest seasons, and greatest moments across the 150 years of professional baseball. 

whenever i see them i get the urge to build the sets, but then remember that some of the cards are harder to find than others. maybe if i just stick to the series 1, 2, and update inserts. we will see, but in the meantime, ruth, lou gehrig, and fighter pilot ted williams were no-brainers to pick up at the card show.

smooth sailing out of los angeles

as a team collector, i don't typically avoid dodger cards in bargain bins unless i am certain that i already own them. i do pause, however, when i find parallels of guys like dennis santana, which was the case at a show last year. i wound up bringing home these 2019 panini donruss optic and 2019 topps parallels

but i would have preferred them to be of a current dodger. 

santana seems to have found his groove in pittsburgh which makes me happy. the dodgers in recent years have been quick to jettison young talent that they have developed in exchange for other teams' talent. in santana's case, they dealt him to the rangers for a minor league pitcher who toiled in the dodgers' minor league system through last season, and is now a free agent. i get that they are dealing from a surplus, but i still appreciate the older dodger way that allows me to collect and cheer for "homegrown" players for an extended period of time, as with clayton kershaw or will smith.

other dodgers whose departures i understood but to some degree regretted include joc pederson 

that's a 2016 topps update 500 home run futures club insert. spoiler alert - joc won't get close to 500 homers, but he hit some big ones for the dodgers and i am glad he is no longer in the national league west so i can root for him a little more.

cody bellinger, seen here on a 2022 panini prizm illumination insert

and a 2022 topps 1987 insert black parallel

was another one that was tough to see move on in free agency even though his performance with the dodgers in his last years had not warranted a big contract. i hope he has a nice season for the yankees but is at home in october. i do think the game is more fun when the yankees are good, but i really want the blue jays to get another crack at a title.

i was ready to be a ryan pepiot fan, but adding a proven starter in tyler glasnow was a deal too good for the dodgers to pass up. pepiot's 2022 topps chrome update purple refractor

was the last one i needed for that dodger team set of parallels.

just a couple of weeks ago, it was announced by the rays that pepiot was headed to the il and replaced on the 40 man roster by michael grove, seen here on a 2023 topps chrome sepia parallel

grove is also injured at the moment. i was ready to be a fan of his as well, but now all i will have are random cards to find at shows.

another example of a short time dodger that had a lot of cards available for me to collect is miguel vargas. this is his 2024 topps yellow parallel

and i am sure i will be finding vargas dodger cards in bargain boxes for years to come. will i buy them? time will tell. adding tommy edman and michael kopech in the trade that sent vargas to the white sox was a great move by the dodger front office, so i hope that vargas finds his way in chicago and lives up to a bit of the hype that surrounded him in his earliest dodger days to pay back that championship level deal that is currently a bust for the sox.

gavin stone, seen here on his 2023 topps chrome update refractor

and landon knack, shown on his 2025 topps gold parallel

are still dodgers as of now. they are both on the injured list, and who knows what will happen once they are healthy. there's not a lot of room on the pitching staff at the moment, so it's possible that these two become trade bait once they prove themselves healthy. i hope not, especially knack who i like, but i get it if it is the case.

and then there are guys like dalton rushing. 

his 2025 panini donruss card is one of many that i already have of him, and who knows how long he will be a dodger? blocked by his fellow university of louisville alum will smith, who is signed to a long-term deal, and too good to be in triple-a, he's not getting a lot of playing time. so far this year he is playing very well when he does play, but is it just enough to entice another team to make an offer that fills a different dodger need later in the season?

we will have to wait and find out who will join the likes of santana in the former dodger makes good elsewhere camp, and then subsequently haunts the bargain boxes and collections of team collectors like me.