it's been a year

another trip around the sun for us and for my favorite player, steve garvey. today he celebrates his 77th birthday. that's as good a reason as any to show off a bunch of garvey cards i've added to my collection this past year - ones that i haven't posted previously, anyway.

i will kick things off with one of the few padre offerings in 2025 products

that's a 2025 leaf metal savage autograph. it's a sticker auto, but the card is die-cut and unique enough that i went for it. it's numbered to 10 as seen on the back

and i think "savage" sums up 2025 for a lot of people.

this is the oldest garvey card i picked up in 2025

it's a 1976 hostess twinkie card - recognizable by the black bar on the back

this was an upgrade for the version in my dodger collection which had very little of the black bar showing.

i snagged a couple of after market garvey autographs to help fill out my collection - 1981 donruss

1981 fleer

1986 topps glossy all-star

there are a few other cards of his that i wouldn't mind adding to this ttm/ip collection, but it is by no means a priority.

certified autos (and relics) were a big part of garvey collecting this year, of course. here's a 2009 topps sterling career chronicles auto relic quad numbered to 10

i picked it up in february. here's the back:

if only garvey's career ops were closer to his postseason ops, he would be in the hall of fame. i also understand that if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle.

here's a 2024 topps triple threads single auto jumbo relic 

i picked up in january and a 2024 topps definitive collection definitive autographed relic

that i bought in april. some of this is due to 2024 product not being released until 2025. here's the back:

that card is one of the more paniniesque cards that topps has created, and speaking of panini...

i bought this 2024 panini national treasures legend jumbo lumber signatures card

in june and this holo silver parallel

in august.

this 2024 panini impeccable illustrious ink card entered my collection in october

i wonder if the players were meant to sign the jumbo bat rather than squeeze their autograph in under their photo. anyway, here's the back of the impeccable card

"fan favorite" and "face of the franchise" is right.

here's another autograph i bought in october:

it's a 2024 topps allen & ginter x silver ink auto, numbered to 25

parallels also abound, and i bought some 2024 allen & ginter/allen & ginter x minis

as well as a trio of parallels from 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary. this is the platinum toile white & green refractor

numbered to 99

this is the platinum toile cream & gold

numbered to 50

and this is the platinum toile white & orange

numbered to 25

another numbered parallel i added to some others i already had is this 2024 panini prizm white prizm 

that is numbered to 99

my garvey purchases didn't just feed the player collection, either. i still consider my team collection separate from my garvey collection, and this 2005 topps retired signature black parallel

that i picked up in march can go in the team collection as i already had one in the garvey binders. it's numbered to 54

also in march, i bought another 2023 topps heritage mvp buyback autograph

that's numbered to 74. this is a great concept and it is sad to know that i won't be able to chase a dave parker card like this in 2027 heritage.

of course, there were actual 2025 cards that i bought this year. here are a couple that i've not shown before from the 2025 topps all-star game release. this is the all-star greats insert gold parallel

and this is the black parallel of the same insert

gold is to 50 and black is to 10. as a two-time all-star game mvp, including garvey in this release was a no-brainer, although topps has left him out of other insert sets such as the "perennial all-stars" from 2019. here's the back of this particular insert

yes, 1974 was a very good year for the garv. not to say 2025 wasn't, as i am sure the highlight of garvey's year was meeting me at the national.  with that said, i wish him an even more memorable 78th trip around the sun!

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - more mets edition!

clayton kershaw made his fourth appearance of the 2025 season tuesday night against the mets at dodger stadium. so, i am pleased to be able to post another edition of the k is for kershaw kountdown as we track his progress to the 3,000 strikeout milestone.

kershaw saw the mets in his second start of the year, but wound up only facing six batters due to an extended rain delay. this time against apu nahasapeemapetilon's favorite squadron, kershaw faced 23 batters over 4 and two-thirds innings, with his pitch count reaching 92 (a season high). he allowed five runs (three earned) on six hits, while walking three and stricking out 2. on the season, he now has 8 strikeouts, and that pair of mets he k'd raised his career strikeout total to 2,976. 

in honor of his performance, here are three cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,975 and 2,976.

2,975 - 2021 topps gold foil parallel

2,976 - 2021 topps chrome sapphire edition

i went after as many of these card parallels as i could find cheaply back in 2021. kershaw had two solid starts in the 2020 world series, let's not forget!

kershaw should have made it through five innings, but max muncy's two out error extended the frame and after two rbi hits, kershaw exited with the dodgers behind. muncy redeemed himself with a game tying 9th inning home run, and freddie freeman sent the mets walking off the field in the 10th. 

after four appearances (even though one was truncated by weather), it seems kershaw is still finding his footing. he threw only 60 strikes on wednesday, and now has walked as many people this season as he did in twice as many innings last year. his starts are turning into a bit of a slog as he battles and grinds through each at bat. hopefully, things fall into place and more batters start chasing.

here's a non-kershaw card - it's a 2023 topps heritage max muncy clubhouse collection relic card

muncy has been hitting fairly well since the end of april, likely due in part to some new specs. he is a classic dh candidate, but that's off limits for the dodgers - unless they don't have ohtani hit when he pitches.

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke has a career strikeout total of 2,979, and so kershaw is now 3 k's behind greinke and 24 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw should be back on the mound sunday in st. louis to close out the series against the cardinals. know that when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned! 

three down, nine to go

some may be aware that i have a "most wanted" list of cards as part of my want list. it's been around since the summer of 2009, and has seen a number of cards listed and removed as my collection has grown. i haven't done a great job of celebrating the arrival of these cards in the last few years, so i decided to focus a post on some of the recently obtained cards from my "nefarious 9".

1986 sportflics decade greats #32 duke snider

number on list: 8

why was it a "most wanted" card?: this card doesn't complete a team set, but it's from a set that i should have already completed so i decided to prioritize it.

how long was it on the list?: this is the reason for this post. i initially didn't recall when i added duke to the list because i didn't document the card his replaced and when that occurred. however, i remembered that fuji had knocked three cards off of my list last fall, and the snider card was one of the ones i added. so, it was on the list for about 3 months, as duke rolled in to my collection in early december.

how was the card obtained? duke's card was part of a sportlots order in december of 2024.

what replaced it on the list? i am continuing to prioritze the completion of my team set, so i added 1986 sportflics decade greats #33 roy campanella

2012 panini golden age #41 jackie robinson

number on list: 3

why was it a "most wanted" card?: outside of the steve garvey card from this set that is in my garvey collection, i didn't own any dodgers. targeting jackie robinson's card was a good start.

how long was it on the list?: i don't know. it was high enough on the list that it preceded the cards from fuji so i really can't say.

how was the card obtained? i added jackie's card to a comc order that i placed in january of 2025. it arrived on march 1, 2025.

what replaced it on the list? i try to replace cards obtained with cards from the same timeframe, so i am looking to complete a dodger team set by adding 2013 topps finest #47 hyun jin ryu to the list.

2023 topps heritage #445 dustin may

number on list: 4

why was it a "most wanted" card?: this short print card completes my 2023 topps heritage dodger team set, including the high numbers release.

how long was it on the list?: i don't know, just like with jackie's card

how was the card obtained? i added may's card to a comc order that i placed in january of 2025. it arrived on march 1, 2025.

what replaced it on the list? i need one more card to complete my dodger team set of 2022 topps chrome refractors, so i added 2022 topps chrome refractor #84 albert pujols to the list

i also keep a list of nine non-dodger cards that i'd like to have, although i don't number them in any way. i did pick up one of those cards in a sportlots order in january:

1996 upper deck collector's choice #299 fernando valenzuela

the card arrived on january 17, 2025 and i replaced it on the list with 1984 topps tiffany #35 don sutton

can you help a blogger out? you will be rewarded!

worth the price of admission

i went to the semi-annual big old card show in st. paul a couple of weeks ago. this was a hotel show last fall, but has been held in the st. paul rivercentre for the last two occurrences, which is a big improvement in terms of space.

i went on the friday - it was open on thursday to vendors and vip types - and so i am sure i missed some of the larger crowds who were likely there on saturday and sunday. still, most tables were full and some patrons were in full body odor mode.

as you might imagine, most tables seemed focused on slabbed stuff, and there were more than a couple tables that were solely pokemon, but i still found some bargain boxes to dig through, which is my card show jam. i wound up with about 200 cards in total, and i didn't pay more than $2 for any of them. in fact, the average price turned out to be around 70 cents - a bit more if you factor in the cost of admission which was $15.

for that price, i was given a paper ticket, and not a qr code

that was unexpected as i didn't know paper tickets were still a thing at any venue.

as we move to the cards, i will go straight to what was worth the price of admission. this 2024 topps chrome shohei ohtani card

is presumably worth $20 due to the anticipated mvp buyback program and ohtani's status as the national league frontrunner. the dealer i bought it from had it in a 50 cent box. that same dealer had this 2024 topps trading card day ohtani

for the same price. i wound up buying some other cards from his box just to spend a little bit more for him.

another dealer had this 2024 topps chrome black ohtani

in a dollar box. here's yoshinobu yamamoto's 2024 topps chrome card

that was in the same 50 cent box as the ohtani chrome card.

some other dodger favorites that i picked up at the show include this 2023 topps heritage bill buckner 50th (really 49th) anniversary card

and a 2015 topps heritage adrian gonzalez action variation card

from a quarter box of 70s and 80s cards came this 1984 sports design products duke snider card

and the lone card that i paid $2 for was this 2020 topps corey seager photo variation

i am always going to pull albert pujols dodger cards from these bargain boxes, and some of the ones i found were these three chrome parallels/ben baller edition cards

i also found a sheldon neuse dodger card - it's a 2022 panini donruss pink fireworks parallel autograph

of a guy who played in 33 games for the dodgers in 2021. i don't think he has a non-autograph card showing him as a dodger.

i am not going to add panini sets to my dodger want lists anymore, but i did still spend a few minutes looking through a big monster box of 2024 donruss. i was mostly looking for parallels for others but did grab a jackie robinson foil parallel

plus a couple of vladimir guerrero inserts

that first one is an homage to the 1984 action all-stars oddball release. another seller had this 1999 pacific revolution tripleheader

which was a no-brainer for me to pick up for some loose change.

i did not know that 2024 topps dynamic duals was a thing, nor that it was out, but someone was selling a few singles and i grabbed a dusty baker and lou piniella mashup

i figure we will continue to see johnnie b baker show up in future card releases which is fine by me.

speaking of mash ups, here is a 2022 topps stadium chrome bo jackson card showing him shaking hands with ronald reagan

i thought that someone might want the card, but there is a scratch on it above ronnie's head, so i put this one in my lurkers collection.

my double play collection benefitted from the show with this 2023 topps chrome josh smith sepia refractor parallel

and this 2006 topps chrome felipe lopez red refractor parallel

the lopez parallel is numbered to 90, but that's not the lowest numbered card i picked up at the show. i will probably show more of those cards in a different post, but here is a sample of the variety of parallels and serial numbered cards that i added to my stacks

i was also somewhat surprised to be able to buy a fernando tatis jr rookie card for less than a buck

even if it is from a set like 2019 topps holiday.

there was so much more to my haul, but i will stop there for now. maybe there will be another post with cards from this show, but i have another show's worth of stuff to show off so who knows.