it's good to know a guy

i had been occasionally checking the local card collector club's website to see when the next church show was going to be held. they are typically held once in the spring and once in the fall. however, there was just a glaring "tbd" on the site for months. running into brian at the monthly club show in august had me thinking about the church show again, and thankfully i got an email from him letting me know that the church show was happening on september 21. better yet, brian and a couple friends were setting up as a vendor.

it turns out that the reason the club website wasn't being updated is that the church show was scheduled for the same day as the monthly club show and they didn't want to publicize the competition. for me, with brian selling, it was a nobrainer to eschew the club show and head to church!

brian had told me that he was going to have two 5000 count monster dime boxes, and when i approached the table, he put the first one down. there in the second row was this card in front

i told brian that having a 1982 donruss steve garvey diamond king in front was a smart move. he said it was all about knowing his customer. of course, i couldn't leave the garv behind.

the first block of cards that i looked at included a bunch of 2024 topps aqua parallels, and i told brian that i was a sucker for those sorts of parallels, too. here's a "color match" fernando tatis jr card

to represent the stack of these that i added to my pile. there were a host of other parallel types that i took, including a 2017 topps fire brooks robinson flame parallel

there were a boatload of straight up inserts, too. here's a 2022 panini prizm vladimir guerrero jr illumination insert

i suspect that the holo version is more "illuminated" than this base insert version.

here are a couple of topps heritage inserts that caught my eye - a nolan ryan card from 2015

and an ernie banks card from 2020

there were some attractive base cards, too. this 1994 upper deck ken griffey jr card

is one of my favorite base cards of all-time so i had to grab one of the two that brian had for sale. and i am not sure that i had seen this 2014 topps stadium club roberto clemente card before

so i took it, too.

i felt that it was worth a dime to acquire this 1974 topps hank aaron card

even though it is in rough shape. as brian noted, "it's 96% intact!"

as for dodgers, there were plenty even though brian has provided me with a steady stream of cards featuring the boys in blue over the years. here's a 2017 topps gypsy queen jackie robinson short print

that i needed, and here's a 2021 topps chrome max muncy all-star game refractor insert

that was also a need. these seem to be less prevalent than the 2022 counterparts, but that may not actually be the case.

back to some cards that i didn't really need but bought nonetheless, here's a 1970 topps dodger team card

and a 1987 topps bill russell card

that i chose to take with me.

one player specific card that was new to me was this 2022 panini donruss vladimir guerrero orange holo

parallel.

i found a lot of cards for my various mini-collections, too.

double play cards like a 2002 donruss originals jeff kent 

and a couple of 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg cards

the base version is a dupe of one i already had, so it goes into my lurker collection thanks to tony gwynn showing up.

here's another one for the lurker collection - a 2016 topps stadium club manny machado card

featuring cal ripken jr.

brian was wise to have this 2012 topps gypsy queen willie mays glove stories insert in one of the boxes

because i will purchase pretty much any card showing "the catch" for my name/number on the back collection. that's where this 1992 leaf jon olerud card is headed

as is this 1998 donruss collections leaf eric davis card

and this 2019 topps stadium club mookie betts card

i have kind of shied away from adding too many tatooine cards lately, but i did choose this electric blue parallel of jazz chisholm's 2021 topps big league card

as well as this 2021 topps stadium club jose ramirez card

that photo really should have been saved for 2022 topps heritage, as it has 1973 topps written all over it. i see the first base coach's head, the first baseman's arm, the second baseman's leg, and the umpire's arm all disembodied. it's chaos!

at some point while i was digging through the boxes, brian laid out a couple of cards he had set aside for me specifically. this is a 2001 pacific private stock shawn green game gear card

and this is a 1998 topps interleague matchups mystery finest card

that hasn't been peeled. here's the back:

so, does the card front feature mike piazza, eric karros, jim edmonds, or tim salmon? i didn't peel it, but based on the comparison of the impression underneath and images online, i believe this to be jim edmonds' card.

brian also had somehow acquired duplicates of a baseball card breakdown 1975 hostess clayton kershaw custom

so he handed one over to me.

after all was said and done, i had pulled around 460 cards from the two dime boxes. after settling up, brian handed over this 2015 topps stadium club yasiel puig gold foil parallel

it is a beaut of a card.

finally, i had added an unopened pack of 2003 topps opening day to my pile

of course, i opened it when i got home. the mini insert was mike piazza

and the cards were your standard early 2000's variety of guys -todd helton, carlos lee, cliff floyd, and mike sweeney. the floyd card offered a nice view of the ted williams memorial that the red sox wore. i thought it appropriate that the last card in the pack was this one

a sweet minky card from a fellow twin cities card collector. thanks brian!

and, if anyone out there is looking for a pair of john candy's pants, i know a guy who knows a guy.

a good time to update the frankenset

it's been about seven years since i last updated my dodger frankenset. you may recall that i dedicated a blog to the page by page construction of this 726 card set featuring an assortment of dodger cards, and that i used the 1990 target dodger set to fill some holes when no other card would fit.  shortly after i completed the set, 2016 topps heritage high numbers was released, and ross stripling's rookie card showed up as card number 720 on the checklist, bumping mike sharperson's target card from the set.

last year, clayton kershaw's heritage card 

was held until the high numbers release, and it turned out to be card number 725

in the set.

that spot had been held by john shelby's target card since the inception of the set, and now it makes way for kershaw. as a reminder, it was never my intention to update the frankenset with newer cards, except where the target set placeholders could be replaced. 

after updating the last sheet in the set with kershaw's card, the only target cards remaining in the set are: 

572 don newcombe

659 jerry reuss

663 paul richards

well, in 2022 topps put max muncy 

at number 572 

in the flagship set. 

and way back in 2020 (when i wasn't paying much attention i guess) alex wood 

was number 663

in heritage high numbers.

and so, with those three cards now in the frankenset, and those other two pages updated, i will wait with baited breath for the high numbers checklist this year. will a dodger - kershaw, perhaps? - show up at 659? here's hoping!

have a happy halloween!

seeing double

with no vintage set to chase currently, i really haven't paid a lot of attention to older cards over the past year or so. the one card i did decide to seek out finally made it in to my hands a couple of months ago. it's a 1955 topps doubleheader jim gilliam card

that he also shares with red sox hurler ellis kinder

as you can probably gather, the card folds and unfolds, with kinder (with gilliam's lower left leg)

being the primary image. gilliam is revealed when you unfold the card. i thought it was pretty neat and liked the idea of adding another gilliam card to the collection.

there are other, less interesting ways to get more than one player on a card, too. for example, there are some modern team cards, like this 2011 topps dodgers cognac parallel

that replaces the team leaders concept from the 1980's.

more common are "combo cards", like this 2011 topps heritage chrome parallel

matt kemp and andre ethier were a dynamic duo in topps' eyes back in 2011 i guess.

topps has maintained the combo cards in heritage in recent years, adding them as an insert set to the high numbers release. here's the 2020 heritage high number combo card 

that i am most interested in.

last year, panini included "historical duals" in their absolute release. the dodgers were represented by teammates roy campanella and gil hodges

not to be outdone, topps issued an online only set called dynamic duals. i've shown one of these dusty baker/steve garvey cards before, but i've added the dual autograph card

and the blue parallel card

to my collection since then.

topps issued the set again this year, with don sutton and clayton kershaw

being featured on the "cooperstown calling" insert.

i really wish that topps would bring bunt back to the real world and issue some of their digital cards as real, tangible cards. here is one that i would love to own and be able to slide into a 9 pocket page

of course, topps does include then and now cards in heritage. the dodgers have been well represented through the years, thanks to the dominance of sandy koufax and others. here are a couple cards from 2013 topps heritage

and 2015 topps heritage

respectively.

i didn't bother to scan any league leader cards or all-star cards which have historically been used to get two guys on one card, but i did scan a few rookie cards that fit the bill.  these three cards are from 2000 pacific omega

they are short printed cards that are considered part of the team set and i just recently tracked them down.

similarly, this 2002 fleer platinum card

finished up my team set, and is also a short print.

this 2004 topps rookie card of eventual journeyman edwin jackson (and greg miller)

is numbered like the omega cards, but that's because it's the gold parallel. not because it's a "base" short print.

there was a time - around 2007 and 2008 - when i felt that topps was using combo cards as filler and really forcing the issue. some of those cards back then were pretty bad, but for the most part i like the idea of multi-player cards when there is a valid connection between the two.

of course, there are other sorts of "double" cards in my collection - those showing the double play turn at second base. here are a couple i haven't shared before:

1998 pacific invincible tripp cromer gems of the diamond

2020 topps dansby swanson gold parallel

and 2022 topps stadium club chrome fernando tatis jr

you can't tell in the scan, but that is the dodgers' will smith sliding in under tatis.

i like double play cards, too - just don't call them combo cards!