it's time to spot the difference!

with series 2 out, we are at the point in the year where i can post the annual "spot the difference" writeup comparing the topps factory team set to the flagship releases. i suppose there was a chance that i would have to wait for update again this year, but topps was not averse to getting a shohei ohtani card on to the mainstream series 2 checklist and so here we are.

first, i want to show you how the sets are packaged this year

same sort of hanger/blister packaging as always, but they (thankfully) reduced the size of the plastic blister. last year it was ridiculous. they also resumed printing the checklist on the back

which is much appreciated. however, i bought this set online and didn't really need to see the checklist to make up my mind and i haven't been in any retail settings where these are on display to peruse the checklists of other teams. still, i like that it is there.

speaking of backs, the guaranteed difference between these cards and their flagship counterparts is the numbering on the back

man, i really like the backs of clayton kershaw's flagship cards.

ok - here we go, with flagship on the left and the team set on the right!

lad-1 mookie betts

it's the same, but the factory set is easier to read when scanned (as usual) due to the lack of foil. 

lad-2 andy pages

just like last year, the team set does away with the future stars designation. otherwise, the card is the same.

lad-3 kiké hernandez

same.

lad-4 james outman

same

lad-5 yoshinobu yamamoto

no more future star, but otherwise the same.

lad-6 tommy edman

at first glance, it sure seems like they are the same. however, after last year, i know to check the positions and sure enough, edman gets a position variation on his team set card. he went from being a ss-of to a 2b.

lad-7 freddie freeman

no reason to change freeman's position, so we are back to the same.

lad-8 tyler glasnow

same.

lad-9 teoscar hernandez

here we go! i am pleased that topps changed up the photo on teoscar's card only because the photo used on flagship cost some collectors some money early on. you can't have a ssp parallel of some dodger cards showing them "dancing" (although teo is not dancing) and then use a similar photo on one of the base cards. buyer beware, of course, but not the best move by topps. that said, i like the photo on the flagship card and my only issue with it is that it would have been suitable for one of the ssp versions. at any rate, i am happy to have one photo variation in the team set.

lad-10 clayton kershaw

back to same.

lad-11 shohei ohtani

same, although i could have used ohtani's series 2 pitcher base card. in fact, here it is

i like that topps is giving him two cards so we get the different stats on the back, but there wasn't much point this year since he didn't pitch at all last season. for the record, i am not considering this any sort of variation.

lad-12 will smith

same.

lad-13 chris taylor

same.

lad-14 miguel rojas

well, i may be jumping the gun. maybe miguel rojas shows up in update, but for now, this is a bonus dodger card and i love it.

lad-15 river ryan

same.

lad-16 justin wrobleski

same.

lad-17 michael kopech

same.

for what it's worth, this checklist features an almost complete reset from last year's, with 11 new players featured. gone are walker buehler, tony gonsolin, max muncy, austin barnes, brusdar graterol, bobby miller, emmet sheehan, jonny deluca, miguel vargas, michael busch, and gavin lux. some of those were omitted for obvious reasons, and some just gave way i suppose. muncy is the biggest question mark for me; seems like he should have been included this year.

there was only one dodger in series 1 omitted from the team set (hunter feduccia), but there were 11 dodgers featured in series 2 who didn't make the cut for the team set. i've shown the cards of feduccia, along with series 2 dodgers austin barnes, max muncy, ben casparius, kirby yates, landon knack, roki sasaki, hyeseong kim, bobby miller, and blake snell previously, but here are the flagship cards for the others - michael conforto

edgardo henriquez

and joe kelly

the other dodger card i needed to complete my series 2 team set was a checklist featuring teoscar hernandez

not only does the card feature hernandez and the field for the 2024 home run derby, it featues a ton of fans. that's a lot of people on one card. i wonder why nobody told pete alonso that his pose was inconsistent with the others (as are teo's and jose ramirez's for that matter).

as for the differences between flagship and the team set, there is really just one significant change in terms of dodger cards (teoscar hernandez) plus what is as of now a bonus dodger card (rojas). not sure if two cards make the set worth it for the casual collector, but for a team collector like me, you bet it does!

i have been keeping a running list of these posts, and have now updated the list below. 2016 and 2018 are partial set posts, and there was no team set issued in 2021. otherwise, click and enjoy!

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

2017
2018

2019

2020

2022

2023

2024

maybe i will see you next year with another edition of spot the difference!

the triumphant return of the mall show

i don't recall all of the details as it's been about four months, but back in february i went to a card show held in one of the many suburban twin cities malls. these locations have largely become depressing shells of their past glory, so i don't get to malls too often. the last time i was in a mall before this show, it was the mall of america in october for dinner at the twin city grill. that's good stuff and i highly recommend it if you ever venture to bloomington and the site of the twins' former ballpark.

i had been to shows at this particular mall before over the years, including recent incarnations even though the last few years have been disappointing as there seems to be more of a focus on other types of collectables (sport and non-sport) from the vendors who set up. this time, it was like the days of yore with a lot of card dealers from near and far. i recognized a couple of them and they admitted that they hadn't been to this location for a while, but they thought timing was right and they had hoped that the current status of the hobby would bring out the customers. 

one of these sellers i recognized had a nickel box of vintage-ish commons, including a bunch of miscuts. i remember buying a gloriously miscut 1977 topps davey lopes card from him several years ago. this time, i took this 1975 topps mini ken mcmullen card

that is slightly miscut and diamond cut. i will note that the mcmullen was the least miscut of the 15 miscuts i grabbed! 

the 1975 topps mini bob oliver

and 1975 topps (regular?) joe lis

are progressively worse, and then there is the star of the show - a 1980 topps larry biittner and kent tekulve mashup card

that is just ridiculous. i get vertigo just looking at that thing.

i even grabbed four football cards - three from 1973 and one from my lost love 1978 - that were fantastically miscut

the charley young card shares space with a checklist, while ed budde has the bills' dick cunningham encroaching in his neutral zone. bruce gossett's card features another kicker, or punter, actually, in bobby walden from the steelers. it's charlie harraway's card that really gets me, because that's jack younblood showing up. as a rams fan growing up, youngblood was one of my three favorite players. stud.

just before i found the seller with the miscuts, i visited a dealer who stuck to his guns and charged me $9 for 9 cards from his dollar box.

i asked him, "even austin barnes?", and he shrugged. i suggested that i should stop buying gavin lux cards and he agreed with me, but i persisted.

dollar boxes were the theme for the most part, but at least there was the opportunity to haggle, or in the case of one of the dealers the dollar (and two dollar) boxes were proactively marked as "50% off". i found some decent dodger parallels including a prism refractor

and a regular refractor

of mookie betts from the two most recent topps chrome platinum anniversary releases. i wonder if topps decided to take a break in 2024 and restart this set in 2025 with a true 70 year anniversary for the 1955 design.

these shows are a good way to pick up cards left over (i assume?) from card shop activities, like a couple of hobby rip night dodgers - yoshinobu yamamoto and shohei ohtani

this would have been one of ohtani's first dodger cards? or maybe these were series 2 rip night cards. i don't follow these sorts of things anymore.

my favorite pick up from this dealer was this 2008 upper deck yankee stadium legacy card

it's not just a roger maris 1961 season card from that expansive set, it's from his 61st home run game!

imagine the odds of pulling the card for this specific game from a pack. and then throwing the card in a $2 box and selling it for a buck.

the next seller was a guy whose tables were straining under the weight of a massive number of monster boxes with all sorts of cards jammed in them. i grabbed mostly cheap autos and relics like these four dodger autos

(that came from 2017 bowman high tek, 2017 topps finest, 2020 panini prizm, and 2023 bowman platinum, respectively), and this yankee relic from 2021 topps allen & ginter

yankee relics with a pinstripe will always make me take notice. as for luke voit, he's currently playing in mexico.

now we've made our way to cards from the first dealer i stopped at (and spent most of my time with). he had a couple of 1 and 2 dollar boxes in a corner of the second level walkway. the boxes had some good variety, and i wound up buying my very first 1965 topps embossed insert.

is that tommy davis? who knows. i had always avoided these things, even as i built the 1965 set. i may now look to track down the other dodgers now that i have a start.

2020 topps chrome dustin may refractor parallels

are sort of boring, but team collectors are slaves to the machine.

i like seeing shiny cards of players from my youth, so i picked out this 2022 panini mosaic george brett

green mosaic prizm and this 2023 panini prizm green ice prizm card

of willie stargell.

i will also happily purchase legend variation cards, such as this 2022 topps update christy mathewson

i tell you what, i would collect the heck out of a set that looked like this in its entirety. the simple 2022 flagship design works really well with tobacco card type images.

from clean and sharp to cluttered and nonsense, here are some 2024 topps parallels that i bought. this first one is the aforementioned (and recently released) austin barnes

he's got beach chairs and umbrellas behind him (reminds me of a day i spent at siesta key a couple of years ago). this series 2 holiday foil design is numbered to 50. here's the back:

jackie robinson number sighting!

i found three other, non-numbered holiday parallels, too

hot dog!

beach chairs and umbrellas, plus hot dogs? sounds like a summer cookout, and with the fourth of july in a couple of days now is the time!

happy (2021 panini donruss bo jackson) independence day (parallel)!

be safe!