chrome priority

long gone are the days where it was possible to collect all of the cards of any given player, let alone team. and, while i've tried to finish off a dodger junk wax year (1989) there are still a few oddballs that i haven't tracked down yet - partially due to a lack of focus - and there are probably other dodger cards from that year that i don't know about.

over the last year or so, i've tried to be a bit more focused when looking back and picking up dodger cards from past years and i've had some success doing so. whether it's targeting a specific team set, insert set, parallel, or something that spans both of the latter, i've been able to fill some holes in my collection that are more meaningful to me than random cards here and there. case in point, i went out to add more topps heritage chrome parallels to my collection.

with don mattingly in the news late last year for making it to the fall classic for the first time (he was a coach for the blue jays if you didn't know), i'll start with his 2011 topps heritage chrome parallel.

mattingly was the dodger skipper when their current run of nl west dominance began but he was gone before they returned to the world series. here's the back:

i thought that numbering the chrome "base" to the year of the topps design made sense once they made that switch. unfortunately, topps hasn't maintained that element with these cards.

i should note that it's been over two years since i published this post detailing my status with these cards, but i hadn't forgotten about my appreciation of them. here are some more i added in 2025 that weren't shown in other posts

the hiroki kuroda and ross stripling cards completed my 2011 topps heritage and 2016 topps heritage high numbers chrome dodger team sets, respectively, while the aj pollock card from 2019 topps heritage high numbers was the second to join my collection from that set.

i picked up my first chrome parallel from 2002 topps heritage in the form of chan ho park

which features the "original" heritage chrome parallel numbering on the back:

limited to 553 copies, just as the 2001 cards (using the 1952 topps design) were limited to a print run of 552.

in 2003, the chrome cards (here's kazuhisa ishii's)

switched to the full year numbering to match the card design year

so /1954 for these cards. the refractors then used the 500 series numbering.

topps introduced non-numbered, retail colored refractors in 2011, although i think they skipped 2012 and 2013 before becoming a mainstay. here's a 2015 purple chrome refractor of yasmani grandal

from 2015 topps heritage high numbers.

in 2013, topps switched the numbering of base chrome parallels again. here's a 2018 topps heritage high numbers matt kemp chrome parallel

that shows the /999 numbering on the back

you'll note that topps didn't really prepare a space for the serial numbering on the back of any of these cards.

ok - speed round with some other heritage chrome pickups from last year!

2019 max muncy purple refractor

2020 high numbers mookie betts chrome /999

2021 high numbers albert pujols chrome /999

and purple refractor

2022 walker buehler chrome /999

2023 high numbers clayton kershaw chrome /999

and purple refractor

plus a 2024 high number purple refractor of "zero year" card recipient andre lipcius

in 2024, topps really changed things up. they released a limited number of chrome parallels as they typically did with the initial heritage release. these were numbered to 999 as they had been for years. then, when high numbers came out, all of the cards that had not been paralleled in the initial release were included, but numbered to 699. here's the chrome parallel of the yogi berra/roy campanella card

that i found in a pack of heritage high. note that they also moved the numbering to the front of the card. this change didn't make the numbering any easier to read, however. i suppose i should also note that topps decided to show berra's actual 1951 card here, even though they used a modified version of it back in 1975. the campy side is the same - it's a card that didn't exist until 1975.

in 2025, topps got rid of the numbering for the base chrome and base refractor cards altogether. here's freddie freeman's card

plus some sparkle refractors - dusty baker (and son)

and teoscar hernandez

these next few from 2025 heritage high numbers arrived in early 2026 - light blue sparkle refractors of alex call

and kiké hernandez (along with a regular refractor of kiké)

this next bit is more for me to make things easier as i continue to track down the dodger base chrome parallels. after 25 years of these sets, i still need a lot of them, and here's a year by year breakdown of my needs vs. haves:

2001 - need 2 (have 1)

2002 - need 4 (have 1)

2003 - need 2 (have 3)

2004 - need 1 (have 1)

2005 - need 1 (have 3)

2006 - complete (have 4)

2007 - complete (have 3)

2008 - complete (have 10)

2009 - complete (have 10)

2010 - complete (have 6)

2011 - complete (have 9)

2012 - need 1 (have 4)

2013 - need 3 (have 2)

2014 - need 5 (have 2)

2015 - need 4 (have 5)

2015 high numbers - need 4 (have 1)

2016 - need 2 (have 1)

2016 high numbers - complete (have 4)

2017 - need 2 (have 2)

2017 high numbers - need 3 (have 1)

2018 - need 7 (have 1)

2018 high numbers - complete (have 1)

2019 - need 5 (have 4) 

2019 high numbers - need 1 (have 2)

2020 - need 8 (have 4)

2020 high numbers - need 3 (have 1)

2021 - need 4 (have 1)

2021 high numbers - need 6 (have 1)

2022 - need 4 (have 1)

2022 high numbers - need 1 (have 1)

2023 - need 3 (have 1)

2023 high numbers - need 4 (have 1)

2024 - need 4 (have 1)

2024 high numbers - need 27 (have 1)

2025 - need 22 (have 6)

2025 high numbers - need 8 (have 2)

the 2026 topps heritage checklist is out, and the dodgers have 22 base chrome cards (the full set is paralleled). i've pre-ordered some product from topps and am looking forward to adding to this list! stay tuned!

my favorites of the year

as we close out another year, it's time to look back at some of the cards i've added to my "annual" collections. i've already shown the first of these cards (topps flagship #350), but this post will cover my selections for the other annual collections: topps flagship through the years, favorite dodger, favorite non-dodger, and favorite 2025 dodger and non-dodger cards that i've acquired. first up is the first card that went into these collections, and it's the card i chose to represent 2025 topps in my flagship through the years collection

gunnar henderson's card provides plenty of action and color, and it shows him breaking through the card design. the only real complaint i had about this design was the horizontal cards that were used for player base cards. team cards with the three letter abbreviation (except for the athletics) would have been fine, but to have a player's card with such a different design element or approach seemed wrong to me.

my favorite dodger in 2025 was still clayton kershaw, and i have his topps 1990 35th anniversary card

representing him in that collection for the final time.

my favorite non-dodger in 2025 was still byron buxton, whose 2025 topps chrome xfractor

makes the collection. i feel like all buxton cards should show him making an incredible catch - there are plenty of different plays to choose from! 

as for my favorite cards that i've obtained from 2025 releases, the 2024 dodgers

gave me a lot to be excited about, and that excitement carried over into the 2025 calendar with all of the card releases. that card above is from 2024 topps heritage high numbers, which makes it ineligible - not that it was in the running anyway.

back in 2021, i chose the topps heritage card celebrating the dodgers' world series victory as my favorite that year. this year's heritage card - seen here in its royal blue parallel version

is fantastic and wonderful, but my mind was made up well before heritage was released. that's because when i first saw this card...

favorite dodger card of the year: 

will smith's golden mirror variation knocked out all challengers. knowing that walker buehler wasn't going to get a dodger card in 2025 made this card featuring that moment a classic. it took me a bit to find a second one of these at a decent price to add to the annual collections binder but i made it happen. this card will never not bring a smile to my face.

as for non-dodgers, i was happy early on in 2025 to find brooks lee's flagship rookie card

it features a photo from his rookie debut which i did not attend. i went to the game the following day and had hoped that he wouldn't debut until then. i've mentioned before that he is from near where i grew up and went to the same college as ozzie smith so i had been keeping an eye on his minor league progression.

later in the year, i found tyler o'neill's card in a pack

and admired the stadium club level photography and the pitted green monster. a great card for sure. rod from padrographs also sent me this trevor larnach card 

during the season. it was the very first team color border parallel i'd ever seen in person and i really liked it - so many logos! 

one other contender is the newest card to make its entry - it's jc escarra's topps update golden mirror variation

it first caught my attention because he is wearing jackie robinson's number 42 on his chest protector. of course, these 42 cards have largely been variations (here's the back)

and i am still on the lookout for the dodgers' 2024 topps team card golden mirror with the players wearing the iconic number. i might have decided to pass on escarra's card but when i noticed the detail on his chest protector

i had to have it. in the end, it belongs in my "42" collection as a close second. in time, it might become the favorite non-dodger card i acquired this year, but right now...

favorite non-dodger card of the year:

the fact that i pulled this topps chrome brooks lee rookie image variation refractor from a pack myself made it an instant favorite. sure, lee's season wasn't up to expectations, but he's young and will hopefully break out in 2026.

this is the ninth time that a twins card (tenth if you consider charlie brown to be a twin) has sat in this position and i suppose that makes sense. i assure you, however, that this choice is about lee and a card that i pulled myself and not the team.

i am looking forward to seeing what 2026 brings in the way of cardboard. happy new year!

calm before the next round

the dodgers passed the first test of the 2025 postseason, as did the tigers, cubs, and yankees. they did so in not quite as exciting a fashion as the 2021 club who used a chris taylor walk-off home run to advance from the wild card (game, not round, back then). here's a 2022 topps green foil parallel that celebrates that moment

interestingly enough, taylor did not get a card of his own in flagship in 2022 - just this one which is actually a checklist. he did get a relic card though

and was featured in some of the other topps sets so he wasn't totally forgotten about. no chris taylor card in update this year, at least not that i saw when i perused the checklist.

the dodgers dispatched the reds in the first round, saying hello and goodbye to old friend gavin lux in the process. here's a 2021 topps big league rainbow foil parallel of lux

that i meant to post prior to the series.

now the dodgers go on to face a somewhat familiar postseason foe - the phillies. it's a matchup straight out of my childhood (as well as 2008 and 2009), although not in the nlcs this year. there are a couple of familiar faces on the other side of the matchup that we will see - trea turner

featured there on a 2022 topps significant statistics insert. today i learned what "bolts" are. i've had this card in my collection and my scanned folder (as well as the uk edition version) for a couple of years and never bothered to look at the stat that topps deemed significant. bottom line is that turner is fast and scores runs.

walker buehler is another phillie. here are his 2022 topps chrome refractor parallel

and his 2021 topps 1986 chrome silver pack 

cards. i wonder if he will get a playoff share from the red sox, too. i'll be honest; when the red sox released him i hoped that the dodgers would bring him back.

i mentioned that the tigers are moving on, and here's a 2024 topps heritage high number card of andre lipcius

i show it because lipcius' only major league experience came with the tigers in 2023. topps was highly speculative when they included him in the checklist for 2024 heritage high numbers, and it didn't match up with the dodgers' roster decisions. these days it looks like he is in the white sox organization. 

now i figure i should show some actual dodgers who will participate in the series against the phillies. here's mookie betts on a 2020 topps of the class card

freddie freeman on a 2022 topps 582 montgomery card, 

and shohei ohtani on a 2025 topps 2024 all topps team insert

ohtani will pitch in the series, and i am looking forward to seeing him match up against kyle schwarber among others. no baseball tonight but plenty of action starting tomorrow!

a little effort goes a long way

file this one under small victories.

this is a 50th anniversary buyback from 2024 topps heritage 

that i added to my steve garvey collection shortly after the set's release date. it features the buyback foil stamp oriented as if the card were a portrait design rather than landscape. it works with the card in a binder, but it seemed lazy by topps to not take the time to stamp cards correctly. it was something that i think i first noticed in 2021.

well, here is the same card, bought back and stamped, but released with 2024 topps heritage high numbers

it looks so much better to have the stamp aligned with the card.

from what i can tell, topps maintained the "correct" stamp positioning for landscape cards in 2025 and i hope it continues into the future. it's the simple things i suppose.

i didn't have this on my bingo card

as cool as it is to see hideo nomo back on cardboard this year, it was not too surprising given the popularity and interest in japanese born players over the last few years. shohei ohtani is the best in the game, and ichiro is going into the hall of fame so there is no better time to bring nomo back on to card checklists.

one related item that did surprise me, however, was finding a new dodger card of yu darvish this year.

that card is from the 2025 topps tokyo series set, and is a "stars of japan" insert, patterned off of the "stars of mlb" inserts in this year's flagship. rest assured padre (and cub) fans - darvish is featured in other uniforms in the insert set, too (but not the rangers as far as i can tell).

here's yoshinobu yamamoto's stars of mlb card from 2025 topps series 2

no cherry blossoms!

while i don't have any other darvish or nomo cards to show, i do have some recent and semi-recent dodger additions that are relevant to the post. i found this 2025 topps flagship collection of yamamoto

at the card show last month. his 2024 topps big league

and 2024 topps heritage high numbers

cards have been languishing in the scanned folder for a bit longer than that.

hopefully roki sasaki returns to the mound in the second half of the season. here are a couple of 2025 bowman inserts of his i added to a sportlots order recently - rookie of the year favorites die-cut

and rockstar rookies

i wonder if dime box nick would include those cards in his "getting the band back together" mini collection.

finally, here's an ohtani card that i've had for a few months now - his 2024 topps archives wrecking crew insert

given his status among players today, there are plenty of japanese dodger cards to chase, but i appreciate seeing darvish and wouldn't mind some others like kaz ishii or hiroki kuroda back in dodger blue for some new cards to pick up.