lest we forget

happy memorial day! hopefully there has been a moment for you to reflect on the reason for the holiday - a reason that is represented by the poppy on mookie betts' jersey as shown on this 2021 topps gallery card

i am fortunate to not have any family members lose their lives in military service, although my grandfather was a pow during world war ii. too many families, however, have experienced the sort of loss that memorial day is designed to honor, and i made sure to take some time earlier today to acknowledge that reality. i hope you did, too. 

card shop battle!

i was out on the west coast a couple of weeks ago, and before i went i stopped at one of the card shops in the twin cities where i wound up picking up a few cards from the various bins. once i got to the west coast, i visited a couple of shops - a couple in the bay area and one further down the coast. i figured i'd share some of the cards i picked up via a card shop battle!

starting in the twin cities, i spent some time digging through the shop's nickel cards and found a few that interested me enough to take them home, including a 2022 panini donruss independence day adolis garcia card

i was disappointed to see garcia not able to play in the full world series, as he was on a tear.

here's a 2018 topps stadium club ichiro card

that fits in to my name/number on the back mini-collection.

i was surprised to find a bunch of cards from one of the 2022 topps 582 montgomery sets (set 5 to be precise)

and i spent sixty cents to bring these cards home with me. i'm not 100% sure why i did - probably just because they were different from all the other base cards in the boxes.

i moved on to the quarter and fifty cent cards which are conveniently sorted by team. somehow there was a 2022 topps now clayton kershaw card

for the taking, and i also grabbed several numbered dodger parallels. the two that surprised me the most were these two 2021 topps gallery gavin lux parallels

which are the orange and blue pattern parallels, numbered /25 and /50, respectively. they were a quarter apiece.

this shop also has a 50% off bin filled with autos and relics, and so i came away with a $1.50 auto of former dodger andre jackson

from 2022 topps stadium club.

in addition to all the singles i took, i bought a pack of 2023 topps chrome and found a base shohei ohtani card

that i may well be bringing back to the shop for a credit should he win the american league mvp.

all in all, it was a productive time spent at the local card shop!

once i got to california, i had some time to kill before getting down to the business that i was there for, so i went to a shop in san jose.  this shop had a very small box of dollar cards on a counter, and i grabbed a couple to purchase - a 2015 topps chrome corey seager perspectives insert

and a 2017 bowman walker buehler prospects yellow parallel

turns out i didn't need either.

i also bought a blaster of 2023 topps allen & ginter, and when i got the register there was a small pile of loose ginter cards. the guy said i could have them - some box breaker left them behind. i grabbed a few that interested me, like these two "only in..." minis from chicago

and kansas city

along with this ice cream sundae

dessert mini, and a new vladdy for my pc from the spotless spans insert set

the blaster wasn't too exciting, even though it did include this relic

of some guy from some thing.

i made my way down the coast, and a few days later stopped in at another card shop. this one had a couple of two-row boxes on the counter that included dollar cards. i dug through and found a few to purchase, including an infinitely better ginter relic

that joc pederson plain white swatch is from 2016 topps allen & ginter. i couldn't resist owning mitch white's crappy autograph for a buck, picking up this 2017 bowman's best best of '17 auto

brutal, but i wish him well in toronto or wherever he winds up in the future.

i probably overpaid for this yellow 2021 topps cody bellinger

and this 1994 upper deck sp bo jackson die cut

but what the heck. i was on vacation. the bo fits in to my lurker collection because rodney cline carew is in the background, even if it doesn't look that way in the scan.

of all places to find a signed 1978 topps card of the late adrian devine

i would not have picked a west coast card shop, but here we are. i am not sure if it is legit but it matches ok with some other examples i've seen. i still don't have any illusions about completing my 1978 topps autographed set, but this (and the recent long lost ttm i received) had me motivated to pick up a few more cards (future post coming).

a few more dollar cards that i settled on included a 2021 topps heritage joey votto target exclusive red border variation

a 2022 topps heritage 1973 buyback

and a 2014 topps supreme die-cut autograph of garin cecchini

i had assumed at the time of purchase that it was his brother gavin who signed, making this a nice pickup for baseball card breakdown, but alas, it is a card of the other cecchini.  still, it's the first supreme card i've seen in person and it only set me back a buck.

the last thing i took out of the dollar box was this pack of 30 cards

that is, of course, a sealed pack of the 1997 upper deck "trade" cards that were available through a wrapper redemption. eddie murray as an angel on the front, and hideki irabu

on the back. i sent away for these cards back in 1997 and busted it open to get at the todd zeile dodger card. good times.

the last purchase i made at this shop was a jumbo pack of 2023 topps series 2. not much in there other than this sticker autograph of the "other" yankee rookie, oswald peraza

at least it's the black parallel.

i actually returned to this shop a couple of days later and bought a hobby box of 2023 topps update, but i'll save that for a future post.

eventually i made my way back to the bay area and stopped at another shop not too far from the airport. like the first shop i visited in cali, this one had a small box of dollar cards on the counter and i bought this 2015 topps archives clayton kershaw 1990 #1 draft pick insert

along with a 2023 topps silver pack jose altuve

double play card, and a 2002 topps chrome ralph houk 1952 world series refractor parallel

you don't see those in refractor form too frequently.

i also bought a box of update from this shop, and will post about it later.

i should mention that i also bought a 2023 bowman mega box at a target somewhere in california, and netted this hao yu lee mojo auto

lee is the player that the phillies sent to detroit for michael lorenzen last season. he seems to have done ok in the arizona fall league over the past month.

i guess i should declare a winner in the card shop battle, but they all had their moments. i just wish those west coast shops would set up some dime boxes instead of focusing so intently on boxes and hits. but, as i realized while driving past the location of my childhood lcs that is now a parking lot for a mostly empty larger retail mall, such is progress.

the bell can't be unrung

the dodgers have produced 18 rookies of the year. of the first 17, only jackie robinson, jim gilliam, and jim lefebvre spent their entire mlb playing careers with the franchise, so it was pretty much inevitable that the club's most recent winner of the award, cody bellinger, would wind up playing somewhere else. in fact, it wasn't even a surprise that the dodgers did not sign him after the 2022 season, given how poorly he had fared at the plate since his 2019 mvp campaign even though he was heading in to his year 27 season. and, now that the decision was made and the dust has settled a bit, there is bound to be some second guessing as bellinger is playing well for the cubs. however, there is no going back - you can't unring that bell(inger).

i recently added a 2022 topps allen & ginter chrome gold parallel bellinger autograph card

to my collection. i picked up the card because i realized that i did not have a bellinger auto in my collection, and even though this one is on card and numbered to 50, it wasn't very expensive. that surprised me a bit given the resurgence bellinger is experiencing in 2023 with the cubs, but i am not complaining.

i assume that the dodgers struggled with the decision last offseason to sign or not sign bellinger, but even now as he is playing well, i don't disagree with the decision that they made. here's a comparison from august 21 between james outman - the guy who has, for the most part, taken over for bellinger in center field - and bellinger:

you can see how well bellinger is playing (when he plays) in 2023. in fact, at this point in the season, bellinger could have gone 0 for 4 in each of the cubs' remaining 40 games and he would have still hit what he hit for the dodgers in 2022. however, what is not shown are the salaries - $722,500 for outman in 2023 and $17,500,000 for bellinger in 2023. sure, bellinger has the better statistics (in fewer games played), but over $16,000,000 for another 1.7 war isn't worth it, especially with the dodgers once again running away in the nl west. besides, there will be a bigger payday for bellinger on the other side of this season which carries a bit of a risk.

anyway, i have some bellinger cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder for a while, so here you go:

his status as an elite player on a high profile team meant that bellinger was included in a bunch of online sets, like topps' throwback thursday line. this one is from 2020

i would say it is about time that topps included an mvp subset in flagship again.

here's a 2022 topps 582 montgomery card

from "set 2". it gives off some 1992 topps vibes to me.

this is easily one of the oddest bellinger cards i have in my collection

it's from the 2019 topps direct 360 gary vee set, and is a "wine pairings" card. i guess cannibalizing bellinger would best be paired with a german wine.

he was also included in a bunch of insert sets, like this 2020 topps warriors of the diamond card

that celebrates his 2019 mvp campaign - 9.0 war. wow.

and here's a 2020 topps gypsy queen tarot of the diamond insert

which anoints bellinger as "the star"

he also got some prime real estate on team cards, like this 2022 topps factory set gold star parallel

not the most flattering photo.

panini didn't avoid bellinger either, as evidenced by this "eyes on the prize" mosaic parallel insert form 2021 mosaic

giving some screen time to aj pollock as well

and then there are the regular old base cards, like this 2021 topps gallery card

i am guessing that we will see a boatload of bellinger cards in the near future as the cubs are likely going to return to the postseason. i'm not sure what uniform bellinger will be wearing in 2024, but we will definitely see plenty of it on cardboard.

this situation reminds me a bit of what happened with adrian beltre after the 2004 season. however, the circumstances were completely opposite. while bellinger struggled in his walk year, beltre put together a career year for the ages, leading the national league in home runs, as noted by this 2005 playoff prestige card

the dodgers decided not to resign him, and he went on to create for himself a hall of fame career while the third base turnstyle continued to spin at dodger stadium. i get it - it's tough being a gm.

as for bellinger, i am guessing that we will see a boatload of his cards in the near future as the cubs are likely going to return to the postseason. i'm not sure what uniform bellinger will be wearing in 2024, but we will definitely see plenty of it on cardboard. i will tip my cap to him, just like he is doing on this 2018 topps 1983 all-star card

and be happy for his success, as long as he still swings at those back foot breaking balls against the dodgers in the postseason.

no national for me, but some card show and shop experiences nonetheless!

even though i am not too far from chicago, i haven't been to a national since the 1990's when it was held in anaheim. i am ok with that, although i did look in to a proxy shopper this year. what i asked this attendee to be on the lookout for were cheap dodger inserts and parallels (assuming dime and quarter boxes still exist at the national) plus a couple of specific vintage items. i exerted no pressure, of course, so have no expectations surrounding the request. i'll just wait and see!

i saw fuji post about a bba started by matt at cards over coffee and figured i would share some cards of my own as part of the exercise. i noticed in fuji's post that he showed off some autograph cards, so i'll show one that has been in my scanned folder for a while - 2022 topps archives pedro guerrero fan favorites

topps hit the nail on the head last year by including petey in the checklist. he has an attractive autograph and truly was a fan favorite for many dodger fans back in the early and mid-1980's. here's the back of the card:

his 1985 season was monstrous.

back to the card show angle, i did attend the local monthly club show back near the end of june. one of the regular dealers who has had some tremendous bargain boxes was there again, and i spent most of my time digging through his stuff. it wasn't nearly as fun as previous shows have been, as it seemed a bit picked over as far as inserts and parallels were concerned. there were a lot of clumps of cards featuring certain stars - frank thomas, ichiro, mike piazza, ken griffey jr, vladimir guerrero, etc - and i picked up a few vladdys for my collection, including these six:

it was nice to find the 2011 topps heritage all-star short print for a quarter, and the two 2007 topps cards weren't regular old base...

...they were the red text back variations

remember that lame deal?

i kept digging and found some 2006 topps rookie of the week cards

i remember getting a couple of these in real-time from a cards/magazine shop in downtown minneapolis back in '06. the brooks robinson is the worst of the bunch since they used old man brooks on his rookie 1957 card design.

it is quite possible that i have passed over this card in dime boxes many times.

it's a 1997 fleer mike piazza goudey greats insert. i always thought these were from 1998, and so there is a good chance i thought that piazza was shown as a met here. this time, i saw the "la" on his helmet and realized his blue jersey was not that of a metropolitan at all!

i did find a bunch of cards similar to those that i was hoping for my proxy to find in chicago - dodger inserts and parallels - and here is a taste

it's sort of weird to me that a.j. pollock was featured in some insert sets, but i guess that's good?

i enjoyed finding a few walgreens yellow parallels from 2019 topps update

and i continue to think it is shameful that russell martin didn't get a true final tribute in 2020.

my favorite find from the show was picked out of one of those ichiro card "clumps"

name/number on the back photo variation from 2015 topps for a quarter? yes please!

fast forward a few weeks, and i stopped at one of the lcs in a twin cities suburb one morning to dig through their bargain boxes and maybe find a pack of 2023 topps chrome. i struck out on the latter, but found a few interesting cards while looking through card singles.

the best one, in my opinion, was this 2021 topps gallery modern artists mookie betts blue parallel

it's not too often you see teeth like that on a baseball card. it's numbered to 99 and i paid $2 for it.

most of the cards i grabbed were from the nickel boxes, including a dodger stadium card - 2019 topps chrome lorenzo cain

and a 2022 topps chrome ben baller josh donaldson

those ben baller cards from 2022 are pretty sharp, but i only found donaldson and one other twin in the box. not sure what i am going to do with it - maybe send it to brian if he's still collecting - but i couldn't leave it behind for a nickel.

the second most interesting card (well, cards, really) i picked up were some sga cards featuring various kansas city royals. this one is going in my name/number on the back collection

here's the back:

i knew the cards weren't from 2012 despite the design because of the inclusion of whit merrifield as well as the reference to the 2015 world series title there on the back. it turns out these are from 2018 and are kcp&l (kansas city power & light) police cards. decent oddball.

while i was in the store, no fewer than five individuals came in to have someone look at their cards and potentially make an offer. three were pretty much turned away, while one guy said he was just looking to see if the store was interested in what he brought in because he had a bunch more at home and was looking to reduce his collection. he noted that he started rebuilding his collection after returning from vietnam and finding that his cards had been thrown out. i inferred that he had a lot of vintage - i think what he brought in were a couple of complete sets of topps football cards from the late sixties plus one from 1970.

the other guy was quickly ushered in to the shop's back office which shares a wall with where i was digging through boxes. i could hear the shop owner explaining the current market and talking about vintage - and then he started talking about a 1952 mickey mantle. the guy had either walked in to the shop with a 1952 topps mantle or a 1952 bowman mantle, but i am assuming topps because that is the definitive "'52 mantle", right? anyway, the shop owner came out of the office a few minutes later and told the other guy working that he had just bought a '52 mantle.

and to think, i didn't have to go to the national to be in the presence of the holy grail!